Flipped classrooms depend on students undertaking consequential learning before class, yet the regulatory work that makes such preparation usable in the classroom is often treated as an individual responsibility rather than a pedagogical problem. This comparative qualitative multiple-case study examined how undergraduates regulated pre-class learning, how preparation became readiness for participation, and how course design shaped that process across two universities in Bangladesh. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 20 students, contextual interviews with two instructors, six classroom observations, and matched sets of pre-class and in-class course artefacts. Reflexive thematic analysis generated four interconnected themes: preparation as selective regulation under competing demands; readiness as a functional threshold rather than task completion; participation as both a consequence and a diagnostic test of preparation; and regulation as individually enacted but pedagogically organised. The analysis shows that access to materials did not automatically produce preparation, and preparation did not automatically produce participation. Students judged how much effort to invest partly from the signals embedded in task design and from what previous classroom experiences had taught them about the consequences of arriving prepared. The study argues that flipped learning redistributes regulatory responsibility but that this responsibility remains pedagogically conditioned. Effective flipping therefore requires more than transferring responsibility to students; it requires designing for responsibility.
Keywords: flipped classroom; self-regulated learning; readiness; classroom participation; higher education; Bangladesh