Abstract:

During the last course (2019-2020), the teachers of Technical Drawing and Computer Aided Design of the Degree in Industrial Design and Product Development Engineering of Jaume I University (Spain) created a teaching innovation group with the aim of introducing the flipped methodology in theoretical sessions to prioritize active learning. Since the methodology was applied with positive results in two subjects, they decided to introduce it in a second of Computer Aided Design (CAD II) during the course 2020-2021.

During the first four sessions of the course, theoretical classes consisted of the exposition of the contents by the teacher in a traditional lecture, although, sometimes, webpages or a 3D CAD software were used to explain some concepts. The flipped methodology was introduced in the fifth session, instead of a traditional theoretical class. In the previous week, before the flipped classroom, students were provided with a video created by the teachers for the students to prepare themselves before attending the class. After watching the video, the students were asked to answer a questionnaire about the topic (modelling surfaces) to know the degree of knowledge acquired. During face-to-face session, different real objects and questions were presented to apply the concepts from the video, and students participated actively throughout all the session in order to make clear how those real objects could be modeled with surfaces. After that, students answered a questionnaire about their opinion on the material provided before the class (time spent, perception of the knowledge acquired) as well as several questions about their experience with both methodologies ‘traditional theoretical classes’ and ‘flipped methodology’.

The results of both questionnaires showed that students achieved adequate marks according to the questionnaire about the knowledge about surfaces. On the other hand, the time used during the activity before class, the content and knowledge acquired, together with the effectiveness of the flipped methodology, were positively assessed.

Keywords:

Flipped methodology, Computer Aided Design, CAD, traditional theoretical classes.