Global Learn 2015 - Berlin, Germany, April 16-17, 2015 -597- A Flipped Classroom Model for Developing Universities in Developing Countries Muesser Nat Department of Management Information Systems Cyprus International University Nicosia, Northern Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey mnat@ciu.edu.tr Many 21 st century universities utilise various technologies to support face-to-face classroom teaching and promote student learning. They offer video lectures, use simulations or online discussion forums to enhance student engagement. Universities put emphasis on student interactions as active learning is playing an important role in education and in literature its been reported that students score better grades and fail less when instructors use active learning methods in the classroom. Considering the needs of students and the universities, this paper explains a flipped classroom model, which is designed for developing universities in North Cyprus to enable especially first-year students, who are normally in large and lecture- based classrooms, become more active learners. The model was designed based on the needs of the universities and the students. It aims to facilitate active learning, student engagement and instructor-student interactions. Introduction With the advancement of recent technologies acquiring knowledge has become location- and time- independent, and role of instructors and students has changed. New forms of education such as open and massive open online courses (MOOCs), flipped classroom to enhance traditional way of delivering education and mobile learning are offered in many universities (European Commission, 2013). Increased access to the Internet and growing recognition of online learning that adds value to any learning environment, made universities to consider and invest on blended learning methods. Flipped classroom is a type of blended learning that blends the best of classroom instruction with the best of online delivery and place emphasis on using time in physical classrooms for peer-to-peer collaboration and teacher-student interaction. Universities that utilise flipped classroom model find that using both the physical and online learning environments support instructors to engage students in a wide variety of ways. When such models designed and implemented effectively, students can spend their day in the university for group works and project activities while using the Internet to access readings and video-based learning materials on their own time (Johnson et al., 2013). Based on the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation report, blended learning is becoming increasingly significant, that ICTs being rapidly developing but not replacing the traditional forms of learning (Mitchell & Forer, 2010). Higher education institutions, as part of the education system, should provide suitable environment for students to increase access and level of active learning to achieve better student experiences and outcomes (Tshabalala, Ndeya-Ndereya & Merwe, 2014). Flipped classroom learning can help instructors to improve teaching, manage the class practices and generate active learning in lectures. Since this generation of students has a keen interest in using technologies in and out of the classroom, supporting active learning with internet technologies should not be a big challenge from students perspective (De George-Walker & Keeffe, 2010). The present paper, explains an approach that developing universities in North Cyprus can adopt by integrating lectures, tutorials and online learning offerings to facilitate active learning. This approach focuses on first year students who study in a class with large number of students. Universities can expand this approach to provide online offerings in future to serve distance learners and provide options to on-campus students. However, this approach is not aiming to replace face-to-face classes but greater access and flexibility. The proposed approach can be used to offer blended learning courses for first-year students, however, it supports the development of both blended and online course formats to serve other students and offer distance education. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: the next section discusses the related literature about blended learning and previous studies. The developed approach of flipped classroom is followed. The benefits and challenges are then presented, followed by the future studies and main conclusions drawn from this study.