The emergence of massive open online courses not only changes the ecology of higher education, but also facilitates a blending learning paradigm, also known as small private online courses (SPOCs) (Fox, 2013;  HNH Cheng, Z Liu, J Sun & S Liu, 2017). In this way, the whole content of a MOOC can be used as a complement of traditional lectures or as a replacement of these traditional lectures in a flipped classroom approach (Croix & Egerstedt, 2014).To this end, the MOOC teaching content and technology is combined with a variety of instructor-led activities to achieve an effective reversal to different teaching objectives, teaching content and learner characteristics (Watson, W. R., Kim, W., & Watson S. L. ,2016). Flipped classroom is considered to be an effective way for blended learning. As a high-quality open educational resource, SPOC is a good support for carrying out flipped classroom teaching (Wang, X. H., Wang, J. P., Wen, F. J., Wang, J., & Tao, J. Q.,2016).In 2014, many colleges and universities begin to focus on MOOC classroom applications (Zhang, J., Perris, K., Zheng, Q., & Chen, L. , 2015). First China University MOOCs called icourse (http://www.icourse163.org/) platform began to add “SPOC zone”, in order to support quality educational resources sharing between schools, which can optimize classroom teaching of teachers. From 2014, the domestic colleges and universities have conducted about SPOC teaching attempt. A total of 1600 SPOC/MOOC courses from 200 universities are on line on Chinese MOOC platform. 

SPOCs based flipped learning provides educators and learners with an innovative learning environment to stimulate and enhance the teaching and learning process. This study seeks to understand how the on-line environment is being used to complement the face-to-face experiences of students and teachers, and how the micro-lectures part of the whole blended experience of teaching and learning is contributing to the quality of student’s perceived learning effect in higher education.

The present study extends previous research into the domain of flipped learning, by exploring the relations between student and teacher perceptions of micro-lectures, approaches to teaching and learning, and perceived learning effect. This suggests that that it is crucial to teach students to learn micro-lectures effectively, that engagement is key part to getting successful outcomes and special attention must be directed to teachers who have not value the use of micro-lectures.

This study is originated from the real educational background and problems encountered in adult education, it is aimed at resolving the core issue: the perceived learning effect derived from a flipped learning experience is correlated with the subjective outcome (students’ perception of micro-lectures, teachers’ perception of micro-lectures)? Specific sub-research questions:

1. Do students in SPOCs based flipped learning invoke a higher level of Self-efficacy, Self-regulated learning and intrinsic motivation?
2. Do students in SPOCs based flipped learning show a better increase in students’ performance compared to students in traditional environment?

Our conceptual model illustrating factors potentially affecting flipped learning systems perceived learning outcomes is built on the conceptual frameworks of Piccoli, Ahmad, and Ives(Piccoli, G., Ahmad, R., & Ives, B., 2001). Piccoli et al. (2001) refer to human and design factors as antecedents of learning effectiveness. Human factors are concerned with students, while design factors characterize such variables as perceived usefulness of course content, interaction, technology, and flexibility. The conceptual framework of flipped learning proposed by Owston(2013) consists of spatial flexibility, wider and easier access to resources, and higher level of autonomy. In addition, students can benefit from participation in face to-face class which promotes and develops strong learning interaction outside of the classroom (Callopy & Arnold, 2009).

The study was conducted in the Modern Educational Technology (MET) course taught to normal college students at Shanxi xue qian normal university. The MET course is mandatory for all normal students. For the first year of 2017 the instructor decided to implement a flipped class, making use of an existing MOOC named “modern educational technology”, which had been created and launched about two years earlier in “icourse” platform. The objective of the existing MOOC is to provide general knowledge on the factors that guide the study of educational technology. The flipped class intervention took place between October 14th and November 22th, 2017. The participants in this study were 126 undergraduates from three classes taking a compulsory course titled “modern educational technology”. During the class, sessions were structured in 3 parts: The present study was conducted over a 6-week period. Two classes were taught MET course using the same teaching schedule and textbook. The two MET classes were flipped (G1, which received FL and social media tool, n=36; G2, which received FL only, n=35), Two classes were taught by same teacher and teaching schedule, textbook. In the first week of the study, students received a course introduction and the administration of the pretest. For the next 4 weeks, the procedure of each session was designed as a sequence of phrases before and during the class. The same task was repeated in week 6(i.e., posttest) to investigate the difference both within the groups and between the groups over the duration of the course. During week 6, they also took a final exam in order to obtain basic demographics.Besides, both at the start and at the end of the study, students were presented with a research instrument consisting of three sub-scales focusing on Self-efficacy, Self-regulated learning and intrinsic motivation. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for statistical analysis. Regarding to the dependent variables, the different scores between posttest and pretest were used as test measures. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to test both hypotheses. In addition, background variables were added as co-variables (gender).Post hoc analyses were carried out to look at the nature of particular between group differences in the two research conditions.

Evaluating the effectiveness of micro-lectures in flipped learning is no easy matter as technologies typically support only part of the learning processes that the students engage in. Consequently, evaluating the contribution of micro-lectures in flipped learning experiences requires research methodologies sufficiently sensitive so that they can recognize and acknowledge the relational nature of the technologies to the quality of learning. The use of micro-lectures in SPOCs has been reported to enhance learner engagement and learning effectiveness. Hence, we expect that students in SPOCs based flipped learning show a better increase in learning outcomes compared to students in traditional environment and students in SPOCs based flipped learning show a better increase in students’ engagement compared to students in traditional environment.As an extension, we also hypothesize that the SPOCs based flipped learning approach will be superior to the basic traditional environment design. Moreover, studying in SPOCs based flipped learning will invoke a higher level of Self-efficacy, Self-regulated learning and intrinsic motivation as compared to studying in a traditional environment. In conclusion, the results will point at the promising differential impact of SPOCs based flipped learning on learning performance. In addition, paper designs will be replicated during longer experimental interventions, considering with the same and other student variables.

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