The Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach: An eight-step learning cycle for digital age pedagogy

The sudden pivot to online teaching necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic left many university instructors floundering. One group of educators ready to overcome these challenges, however, was a small but growing community that had been teaching using the Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach (SOFLA). The goal of SOFLA is to provide instructors with a template for learner-centred online instruction that allows for creativity and freedom within each structured step of a learning cycle. The approach draws from principles of flipped learning pedagogy and best practices in online learning to offer a robust framework for technology-based instruction with both synchronous and asynchronous components. This paper begins by defining flipped learning and then rethinking it in terms of the online instructional context. Following this is a description of the eight steps of SOFLA that offers details and caveats to aid implementation. Then, the authors discuss what SOFLA offers educators and their students in terms of online teaching more generally. Finally, the conclusion provides suggestions for future work on SOFLA and for online flipped learning.