U Wisconsin College of Engineering Embraces Flipped Classrooms
The University of Wisconsin's (UWISC) first cohort of students to complete a significant number of
their undergraduate courses primarily through the flipped classroom
model is preparing to graduate in the spring.
The college has
been encouraging its instructors to switch to a flipped classroom
model, where students watch recorded video lectures before class and
then use class time to put their learning into practice through
in-class activities and to interact with their instructors and their
classmates. According to a news release from the UWISC College of Engineering,
the flipped learning approach can help students develop "communication
and collaboration skills that often prove just as important as the
technical foundations of engineering."
When this year's
graduating class began their program in 2013, the departments of
Geological Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering offered
four blended-learning classes each. Since then, the number of flipped
classes has increased significantly. The college has been encouraging
its instructors to switch to the flipped classroom model, but
ultimately it's up to the instructor to decide which approach they use
since flipping "challenges both instructors and students to get out of
their academic comfort zone," stated a news release. "The course can
require considerable re-working, and donor resources are used to help
offset the initial costs for conversion such as development of online
materials like lecture videos."
The university offers several classrooms specifically designed to support active learning. The Wendt Commons WisCEL Center contains four active learning spaces that can accommodate as many as
104 students in the largest room and as few as 15 in the smallest. The
active learning spaces feature group worktables or mobile furniture, as
well as collaboration tools. In 2015, the college opened the Plexus
Collaboratory in its Engineering Hall. The room features "90
workstations allowing students to actively work on projects while
benefiting from increased interactions with peers, instructors and
teaching assistants," according to information from Plexus, a
Wisconsin-based electronics design and manufacturing services company
that contributed $200,000 to the facility.
The flipped classroom
has had a positive effect on student learning, according to Greg Moses,
an emeritus professor of engineering physics, who has collected data
from his experience flipping his classroom. "As his approach to the
flipped classroom improved, the percentage of students with higher
grades increased, indicating a greater mastery of material," he told
Wisconsin's Badger Herald.
John Booske, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), hosted a half-day workshop on blended learning at the annual
meeting of the ECE Department Heads Association this year. More than 30
ECE department heads from around the United States attended the
workshop, where they learned about flipped classrooms and enhancing
learning through blended instruction.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].