The impact of class attendance on student learning in a flipped classroom

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between class attendance and academic achievement in a flipped classroom that was designed to foster social learning in fixed groups. Controlling for initial mathematical skill and attitudes, we found a substantial effect of class attendance on student achievement. Increasing class attendance by one standard deviation was associated with an increase in mathematics performance of 0.28 standard deviations. Neither attitudes nor initial mathematical skill predicted class attendance. We conclude that availability of online videos does not eliminate the need for carefully designed in-class sessions in order to maximise student learning. Communicating this finding may help reduce absenteeism in the flipped classroom