Testing the Flipped Classroom Approach in Engineering Dynamics Class

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 26.1504.1
• Main Authors: Le, Xiaobin, Guohua, Gloria, Duva, Anthony William
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 14.06.2015
• Subjects: Classrooms; Dynamics; Engineering education; Experiments; Feedback; Problem solving; Students
• DOI: 10.18260/p.24841

Tasting the flipped classroom in engineering dynamics classThe flipped classroom approach has been one of the hottest topics among faculties and even instudents for engineering education. Some like it and believe that it should be one of the bestteaching methods because it increases the interaction between faculties and students and focuseson problem solving. However not small portion of faculties and students dislike because theybelieve direct interactive lecturing can facilitate students learning more effectively.In summer 2014, in order to taste the flipped classroom approach, we chose one chapter of theEngineering dynamics and tried the flipped classroom experiment with the use of“MasteringEngineering”, which is a web-based self-check-and-grading homework platforms forEngineering Dynamics. At the end of the experiment, a class survey was run to collect students’feedback. There were some direct conversations and discussions with some students on theflipped classroom approach. This paper presents our experiment with flipped classroomapproach, including preparation, execution and findings from this trial and students’ feedback.Two of our findings are listed here. One of findings, which is a surprising one, is that studentswith higher grades in the traditional teaching approach like the flipped classroom approach.They liked to learn by their paces through the provided lecture materials and then applied it inthe classroom with the available helps from faculties. But the students with mediocre grades orlower in the traditional teaching approach don’t like the flipped classroom approach. Theycomplained that they spent too much times in trying to understand the provided lecture materials.These students wanted to learn from interactive lecturing first, tried to understand it after classwith practice at home on homework assignment and then came to ask question what they had.Another finding is that the number of students who liked the flipped classroom approach mightbe increased. Survey data shows that some students might switch their positions form “dislike”to “like” if they could have more time with the flipped class approach.