Lectures Are Homework in Schools Following Khan Academy Lead

Teacher John Willis, right, works with 9th grade physics students during a lab at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology while other students debate a problem. Mr. Willis is one of several educators at the school experimenting with a "flip model" instructional approach. It requires students to watch online lessons and lectures at night so that they can spend class time going in depth with lab work, discussions, projects, and other activities.

—David Walter Banks/Luceo for Education Week

By Sarah D. Sparks

Lawrenceville, Ga.

Susan Kramer watched her packed 10th grade biology class weave through rows of desks, pretending to be proteins and picking up plastic-bead “carbohydrates” and goofy “phosphate” hats as they navigated their “cell.” As they went, they explained how the cell’s interior system works.

It’s the kind of activity her students love, but one that would normally take Dr. Kramer several classes’ worth of lectures and procedures to set up, and thus be hard to find time for. The class was able to do it this year because Dr. Kramer, who has a medical degree, and some of her colleagues here at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology have moved their lectures and lab setups online to save class time for hands-on learning and discussion.

This “flip model” of instruction has gotten national media attention lately, thanks to its promotion by Khan Academy, the high-profile nonprofit online-tutoring library created by Salman A. Khan, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who was looking for a way to help his young...