Abstract:The use of technology that allows students to view lectures or concept modules outside the classroom has become popular in recent years. The most straightforward and accepted definition of a flipped-classroom was given by Lage, Platt, and Treglia "Inverting the classroom means that events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom now take place outside the classroom and vice versa"1 . While many professors and instructors have taken the approach to completely flip the classroom, where the lectures are recorded and the classroom activities are practice problems and perhaps group learning, this paper presents a hybrid approach. Researchers have pointed out that students prefer in-person lectures to video lectures but also prefer interactive activity-based classes to lectures.2,3 Therefore, the authors of this paper chose to implement and assess a hybrid approach to the flipped-classroom model. Approximately 40% of the lectures were recorded affording time for in-class time problem solving and class discussions of problem solving approaches. The balance of the lecture time was allocated for a traditional lecture style. The time spent in lecture, however, was not a traditional lecture approach. The lectures were interactive where students were required to participate in the problem solving. The lecture classes were small enough, no more than 32 students per classroom, to allow for instructor-student interaction. This paper presents a detailed discussion of the course delivery -how the classroom time was allocated, how the laboratory time was allocated, and how technology was utilized. A comprehensive summative survey was voluntarily completed by the students. The results of this survey will be discussed.
Background: