Rania Al-Hammoud
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
(Project timeline: September 2015 - April 2016)
Description
Flipped classroom model has been widely used as an effective method to change the interaction of the students and the instructor during lectures. Students learn the material in their own time, and come to class prepared to interact and solve problems with the instructor. This helps foster deep student learning and increases retention of the topics discussed. The setting of large lecture halls discourages students from participating in classroom activities and allows them to be passive during lectures. It is not easy for the instructor to differentiate between students who are prepared for class or those who are not, which defeats the objective of the flipped classroom model. By adding online mini-quizzes to the flipped classroom model, the students will be encouraged and motivated to do the work as part of the course objective before coming to class. This increases their participation in classroom activities, thus enhancing their learning experience.
Questions Investigated
Flipped classroom is used as an effective method to change the interaction of students and instructors during lectures. However, in large classes, students may tend to attend class unprepared and be passive during lectures, which defeats the purpose of flipped classrooms. Moreover, an assessment plan to gauge students’ achievement of learning outcomes of online modules needs to be devised.
In this project, individually tailored pathways were designed for students to achieve learning outcomes of the online modules. In each module, students go through an online video followed by an online quiz. Students who failed the first quiz were guided through a second pathway including a more detailed video followed by a different online quiz. Students who did not pass the second quiz were taken through a set of four sequential video/sub-question series. This series allowed students to identify their misunderstandings and resolve them. After the students completed the sub-question series, they were guided again to the main question with unlimited attempts until they got the correct answer.
Findings/Insights
In general the students found a lot of benefit in using the integrated flipped classroom with the online quizzes in the CivE 204 course. Also class participation increased in the class from 50% to 98% while solving in-class problems. Some of the positive comments captured by the students include:
- Can watch instructional videos at own pace and re-attempt questions
- Large question broken down into sub-questions helped identify errors
- Successful preparation prior to class lectures brought greater understanding about “shear stress” concepts
- Loved the quizzes, forced us to prepare for class and not be behind on material. Also got direct feedback
- Class time was utilized for further questions and have discussions with the instructor
However lots of lessons were learned from the challenges and setbacks of presenting the flipped classroom in the first trial that caused the instructor of the course to make changes to its implementation for the second time. Such changes include: adding more examples on videos, developing a word handout, and adding real-time online discussion forum.
Dissemination and Impact
The project was disseminated at the department level and at university level as follows:
- Department Level: The project was presented in the CEE department meeting in December 2015. It gauged interest from various faculty members that enquired about the implementation methods and technicalities involved.
- University Level: The project was accepted to be presented in the OND conference at the University of Waterloo on April 28, 2016.
- A presentation (PDF) adapted from the department meeting and the OND conference.
- A paper (PDF) published in the Proceedings of the 2017 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference and Exposition.
Implications
Implementing the LITE Seed grant in 2015 and learning from the experience gave me the motivation and opportunity to explore other new teaching methodologies. In addition it gave me the opportunity to apply for a grant where I can collaborate internationally with professors from a different university to devise interactive teaching methods applicable for large engineering classes.
References
Project Reference List (PDF)