I really think you have to try designing and teaching an inverted class. Maybe try a short course on a topic that you know pretty well so you can move a little faster and concentrate on the delivery and feedback cycles of the class itself. I think you’ll be amazed. Keep in mind that there are all kinds of variables that make the approach more or less attractive: size of class, median age of student, amount of material to cover, nature of the subject, etc. In general I think the model fits well to subjects like engineering, math and physical science. I can see other applications to foreign languages and the arts following directly too. What do you think? Where does it not fit?

In my humble opinion the lecture “system” has stayed well past its welcome. In fact, I am really thinking of looking into its history. It’s been around since the time of the Greeks and might very well have peaked with Socrates. In the Medieval university, what we would call a lecture was a guy standing in front of an audience who read extremely rare and expensive books to anxious listeners who might also copy them down. You can see that right up through the Victorian Era the lecture was really an important and efficient way to disseminate hard-to-find information to a interested group while providing a modest amount of interaction. But now I fear its only done because a) its expected (as you say in your note); and b) its easy (and cheap). My own cynical opinion is that it’s been kept on life support because it’s easier and cheaper for the presenter or the training department. I suspect as students change, factor a) will diminish. And meanwhile schools and universities will come under more market forces resulting from a new emphasis among “consumers” regarding “what am I getting from this experience?” Less cynically, it might just be that the inverted classroom is simply more efficient and more enjoyable, rendering ever burgeoning class outlines more manageable.