Abstract:

In 2014, the Electronic Engineering study programme at Aarhus University School of Engineering in Herning was threatened with closure due to a continuous decline in student intake. Consequently, the programme management decided in 2015 to completely rethink the programme. To run the innovation process, a design thinking methodology was adopted, and the result was a new pedagogical approach rather than a change of curriculum. By introducing the principles of ‘flipped classroom’ [1], ‘Just-in-Time Teaching’ [2], and ‘the STREAM learning design’ [3] concurrently with providing an online parallel version, where students could follow all teaching activities without having to go to campus, the study programme now appealed to a whole new segment of students. Through an intensive course and a number of seminars, the teaching staff was introduced to the flipped classroom concept as well as online teaching and learning combined with a technical set-up based on video conferencing and the mobile kit ‘Lab-in-a-box’.

Following an intensive marketing effort, the student intake increased dramatically from 10 in 2014 to 37 in 2015 and to 41 in 2016. The initial results show that the study programme not only recruit students from across the country and age groups (and thus provides students with the opportunity to study away from campus); with the online implementation, we have also seen an increase in learning results for both ‘on-campus’ and online students. Today, on average in all courses, 78% of the on-campus students and 57% of the online students respond that they are satisfied or highly satisfied with the learning outcomes. Previously, the percentage of satisfied students was lower.

The one-year admission course in Herning also decided to go online at the same time as the Electronic Engineering study programme. The admission course is for students with vocational training who have not completed an upper secondary school and thus do not meet the ordinary admission requirements. By transforming the admission course into online learning, the student intake doubled to 15 in 2015 and 30 in 2016. The average age of the online students is 35. Most of the students have a family and a job, and find the online opportunity a suitable way to gain a higher education. 50% of the students plan to continue their studies at the online Electronic Engineering programme and 50% want to continue their studies at another engineering programme in Herning.

The full paper presents the development process (i.e. the learning design, including the pedagogical model and rationale, and how lectures, group work and lab experiments have been facilitated online) as well as the impact on students’ learning in detail. Furthermore, the paper concludes that it is indeed possible to ‘energise’ engineering programmes that experience a decline in student intake by flipping the teaching practice to an online environment and, at the same time, improving the learning for on-campus students.

Keywords:

Flipped classroom, educational development, online learning, STEM education.