INCORPORATING THE FLIPPED CLASSROOM METHODOLOGY INTO THE ACTIVE LEARNING PARADIGM. CASE STUDY: DESIGN OF LEARNING EXPERIENCE AT SYNTHESIS’ LEVEL

The design of Active learning experience could only achieve success when its blueprint is both well thought of and flexible enough to account for students needs and situation changes mutually. Such a design would consider all activities that are needed to achieve the learning experience stipulated from preset Bloom’s level of learning. Streamlining of the design activities, before, inside, or after the classroom will ensure the students chance to construct their comprehension according to the construction of learning theory for achieving the learning objectives. Flexibility of the design means it has the capacity to admit changes to maintain its capability to achieve the learning goals.

Flipping classroom methodology utilizes dedicating most of the classroom time towards the application level of learning under direct supervision of the instructor. The comprehension level is assumed to happen at home before class utilizing preset lecture video and on-line materials. While addressing sharply the application level, it may be not the method of choice in classroom especially when the targeted classroom’s learning experience level of leaning is merely the comprehension.

To achieve the preset learning objectives for an Active learning design, in some circumstances it is mandated that the students spend much of their time of direct contact with the instructor on application rather than comprehension level of learning. Woven the flipped classroom methodology with the learning experiences within the Active learning paradigm offers a solution for these circumstances. This paper presents a case study of this design.

This paper introduces an implementation of incorporating the flipped classroom methodology in a design of Active learning experience that aimed at the deepest level of learning; synthesis. This implementation was carried out in a college level course that introduces the engineering design process to students. The students are provided with videos and on-line materials to achieve comprehension level at home, and then were helped to achieve application and synthesis levels in classroom by the instructor. Two control groups were selected to the implementation each is 30 students strong. The results shows that, the first group, involved in the flipped classroom was able to gain higher level of synthesis than the second group which is not using the flipped classroom methodology.