One recent (within the last five years) type of learning has been gaining attention. Flipped Learning trades lectures (usually classroom-based) with homework. Learners watch videos or lectures at home and then work through problems (do their homework) in class. As a former classroom teacher, I never found homework valuable and assigned it only because it was a requirement from the Board of Education. When I learned about Flipped Learning, I thought, aha! Here it is! A way to interact with learners when they were actually learning, this allowed for questions, explanations and immediate application of knowledge.

One of the classes I developed this year, Financial Acumen: Cost Management Tool used flipped learning to share our leaders' perspectives on Healthcare as a Business with individuals.

Last week, I read this article by Shelley Wright, a high school teacher in Saskatchewan, Canada. Ms Wright feels that juggling the traditional lecture around wasn't really creating any ownership for the learner. She found the power of learning is when students take responsibility for their own learning. "New knowledge should be actively constructed", according to Shelley.

Just a few days before I found Ms Wright's article, I spoke with two med school students who were prepping for finals. They explained how they were using Problem Based Learning in their classes instead of lecture-based instruction. Students were owning their learning by devising their own plans to meet course objectives. Unfortunately, the tests were based on the older lecture-based model. Not a model for success in this case, but hopefully the tests will be updated to reflect the learning.

I'm reworking the class I developed earlier this year on Financial Acumen. I'm planning to use a problem-based learning approach to see what I can do with managers who are learning how to manage their budgets.