Investigating effectiveness of inverted classroom in undergraduate statistics education: A small sample HLM approach

Data collected from an educational experiment were analyzed to investigate the effectiveness of an instructional reform referred to as the inverted classroom (learning activities traditionally taking place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa) in undergraduate statistics education. Students were taught the same statistics course in the inverted classroom (135 students) and the traditional classroom (135 students) over one semester. A small sample HLM (hierarchical linear modeling) approach was used to account for the data structure of students nested within 12 sections of the course and small sample sizes at both student and section levels. The treatment effects were adjusted for individual background characteristics and high school performances. There were positive treatment effects of the inverted classroom across all three outcome measures of coursework, attendance, and final grade. After adjustment, the inverted classroom would increase scores in coursework, attendance, and final grade by 3.47, 2.14, and 1.18 percentage points respectively, representing a limited success of the inverted classroom.