Redefining Quality in Engineering Education through the Flipped Classroom Model

Abstract

The students in engineering institutes are expected to be tech-savvy and have an appetite for technology-based learning. Sadly, most of the courses in the current Indian engineering education scenario are taught using straight lectures where students are made to play a passive role while the teacher takes the center stage. The need of the hour is to get the students out of this passive mode of learning and bring them to the forefront in the teaching-learning cycle. Most often than not, teachers utilize the class time teaching technical intricacies that are crucial to solving problems which leave very little time to do anything else. Hence, the onus falls on the students to apply the learning in the class to solve problems on their own outside the classroom which is far from ideal. The flipped class is a model wherein much of the technical content is delivered outside the classroom via a virtual platform which in turn makes the classroom a congenial place for discussions, problem-solving and promoting active learning in the presence of the teacher. Through this paper, a study has been conducted to bring in this modern technology into engineering education. The objective is to analyze the power of technology in teaching courses that require significant work beyond class hours. The flipped classroom model was applied on 32 final year Post Graduate students through the Android Mobile Application Development course. A fundamental topic was chosen that forms the base to build sophisticated Android Apps. Since it was very difficult to grasp the topic at one go, the class was flipped so that the students get ample time to go through the learning resources and come well prepared for the class. To begin with, the students were given the task of going through a lecture video from one of the NPTEL courses on Modern Application Development. However, the video shared was 22 minutes long and to simplify the learning experiences of students, a 3-minute Introductory video on the course content was shot and posted on the course website so that the students could first go through it before going into the actual learning material. During the lecture hour, an active learning strategy based on In-Class Teams was leveraged to drive home learning. Practicing a disruptive tool like the flipped classroom model shifts the focus from the teacher to the students and assists in restoring the balance. By flipping the class, the students are expected to go through learning material employing self-study and then come prepared for the deliberations in the class. As students go through the gist of the course content in advance, it becomes easy for the teacher to turn into a facilitator and assist in students learning during the lecture hours. Through the assessment of student’s interaction, preferences, and performance, the results of this study show that the students learn a whole lot better when technology is harnessed as opposed to the traditional classroom lectures.

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