Abstract:

Aim of the research was to improve effectiveness of university education. With the use of new digital tools the learning processes in many different disciplines have been enhanced. However, the traditional class room training can hardly be replaced entirely to deliver the students a convincing course structure. This research analyzes the improved learning effectiveness due to a multiple digital and classroom training approach. Therefore, the authors have developed a sophisticated flipped classroom learning approach incorporating various digital tools ranging from different kinds of videos to a class response system combined with class room lectures. The case of the course introduction to management accounting at the University of Applied Sciences Berlin is been presented to demonstrate the usefulness of the flipped classroom concept. An empirical analysis confirms that the students’ acceptance is highest if various methods of teaching are been applied. In particular relying on digital tools only is seen as ineffective and of less value. Eventually, based on the analysis and classroom observations improvement opportunities have been derived in order to further increase the learning performance.

Used tools:
To support the learning process of the students - without lowering the high level of the course – the authors changed from a classical lecture format to a flipped classroom design. Several different tools are part of the new concept: theory videos, class room lectures, presentations, exercise videos, class response System (CRS).

Sample and data collection process: Sample of this paper are the students of the course introduction to management accounting at the HTW Berlin. The students are usually in the 3rd year of the bachelor study: business administration and engineering. The course is regularly separated into two groups of 40 students. This semester 102 students were registered in both courses. 65 students participated (64% of the sample). A questionnaire was used to collect the data two weeks before the exam. The advantage of a questionnaire strategy is that it provides standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. Because the topic of the paper is a very complex one, quantitative (4 point Likert scales) as well as qualitative data were collected to triangulate findings. The collected data were analyzed with the objective of establishing links between students learning performance and multiple digital tools combined with classroom training. Furthermore the data were analyzed by SPSS and MS Excel.

Measures:
To test the influence of the new developed digitally enhanced flipped classroom concept on the student learning performance the participants were asked regarding different topics. The used items for the quantitative analysis were influenced by the work of Thielsch and Stegemöller (2014), Rheinberg et al. (2001), Wilkesmann et al. (2012) and Grötemeier and Thielsch (2014). The quantitative clusters were represented by 3 scales: Concept and structure, Tools and Planning.

Keywords:

Digital learning, flipped classroom, structure, learning performance, class response systems, blended learning.