The flipped classroom: first-time student preparatory activity patterns and their relation to course performance and self-regulation

In the flipped classroom, students engage in preparatory activities to study the course materials prior to attending teacher-guided sessions. Students’ success in the flipped classroom is directly related to their preparation and students tend to change their preparation activity over time. Few studies have investigated why students change their preparation activity. Therefore, we address this gap by first clustering university students (N = 174) enrolled in a flipped course for the first time based on their preparatory activities at three time points. We identified distinct preparatory activity patterns by computing changes in cluster membership. Next, we compared students’ preparatory activity patterns in course performance, motivation, and self-regulation. The temporal investigation of activity patterns provided important insights into how preparation (or lack thereof) at different phases relates to course performance. Intensive preparation only at the beginning of the course was related to significantly worse course performance whereas preparation only in the middle of the course was related to higher course performance. Students who performed intensively during the course had significantly higher course performance, higher intrinsic motivation at the beginning, and higher self-regulation (in particular, time management) in the middle of the course than students showing lower activity during preparation. Our findings provide important implications for future research and educational practice, particularly for students transitioning to flipped classroom learning for the first time.