Purpose: This paper reflects on a semester-long psychology and organizational behaviour course in an Indonesian business school. The course applied a flipped classroom (FC) approach combined with an experiential learning (EL) project that empowered students to work closely with local communities. Design/methodology/approach: This study compares students' final scores from an FC and EL class with students from other classes who used the traditional lecture method. Focus group interviews were conducted to gain insight into the students' experience. Findings: The study results show that FC-EL students achieved higher final scores than traditional-learning students. The majority of students also reported having positive views regarding the approach, with a minority opposing the learning method. The students' projects were successfully implemented, empowered local communities and fostered reflexivity in the students. Research limitations/implications: The school has yet to implement FC and EL as course delivery methods in other courses. Therefore, the positive outcomes achieved in this study were obtained from only a single course. Originality/value: The course combined flipped classroom and experiential learning methods.