Board 69: Do Adaptive Lessons for Pre-class Experience Improve Flipped Learning?

Renee M. Clark; Autar Kaw; Eleonora Emma Delgado

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topic: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30088
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30088
Download Count: 592

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Paper Authors

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Renee M. Clark University of Pittsburgh

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Renee M. Clark serves as research assistant professor focusing on assessment and evaluation within the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering and its Engineering Education Research Center (EERC), where her interests center on active and experiential learning. She has 25 years of experience as an engineer and analyst, having worked most recently for Walgreens and General Motors/Delphi Automotive in the areas of data analysis, IT, and manufacturing. She received her PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and her MS in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western while working for Delphi. She completed her postdoctoral studies in engineering education at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Autar Kaw University of South Florida

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Autar Kaw is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Florida. He is a recipient of the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. The award is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate education.

Professor Kaw received his BE Honors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) India in 1981, and his degrees of Ph.D. in 1987 and M.S. in 1984, both in Engineering Mechanics from Clemson University, SC. He joined the University of South Florida in 1987.

Professor Kaw’s main scholarly interests are in engineering education research, adaptive learning, open courseware development, bascule bridge design, fracture mechanics, composite materials, and the state and future of higher education.

Funded by National Science Foundation (2002-16), under Professor Kaw's leadership, he and his colleagues from around the nation have developed, implemented, refined and assessed online resources for an open courseware in Numerical Methods (http://nm.MathForCollege.com). This courseware annually receives 1,000,000+ page views, 2,000,000+ views of the YouTube lectures, and 90,000+ visitors to the "numerical methods guy" blog.

Professor Kaw has written more than 85 refereed technical papers and his opinion editorials have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune and Chronicle Vitae. His work has been covered/cited/quoted in many media outlets including Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, U.S. Congressional Record, Florida Senate Resolution, ASEE Prism, and Voice of America.

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Eleonora Emma Delgado University of South Florida

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Eleonora Delgado is a master's student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Florida. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Her areas of interest include vibrations and machine design.

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Abstract

In a meta-study [1] of STEM courses, use of active learning over traditional lecturing indicates an increase of 0.47SDs on examinations and concept inventories. One pedagogy that uses active learning is the flipped format where the initial exposure to the content is made outside of the classroom via videos, text, online discussion, and assessment. During class time, active learning techniques such as peer-to-peer instruction and solving of applied problems are used.

In a prior NSF grant involving a combined dataset from three engineering schools [2], the authors found that the differences in the cognitive and affective outcomes for blended and flipped formats of a course in Numerical Methods were not statistically significant [3]. The effect sizes measured via Cohen’s d also were negligible to small for these two outcomes. One of the challenges recognized by many with the flipped format is the pre-class expectations for the students. Currently for pre-class learning, in most flipped format classes, teachers assign lecture videos or reading assignments. To ensure that such assignments are done by students, they are either followed by a quiz that is taken online or at the beginning of the class period. However, this approach is the same for all students and does not address the differential needs of the students.

To improve the quality of the pre-class activities of the flipped format, under a current NSF grant [4], the second author developed adaptive platform lessons for the pre-class experience for a course in Numerical Methods. By doing so, students have a personalized path for preparation that involves multiple representations such as lecture videos, text, and simulations. The students’ learning is assessed in real time and depending on their responses, they are taken on alternate paths in the lesson.

We implemented these adaptive pre-class lessons in the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters and will report preliminary results from the Fall 2017 semester in the draft paper. The results will compare three modalities – 1) blended format 2) flipped format without adaptive lessons and 3) flipped format with adaptive lessons. The comparisons will be based on direct assessments of learning (i.e., final examination and concept inventory scores), as well as indirect assessments (i.e., student surveys and focus groups). Open-ended, qualitative data from the indirect assessments will be analyzed in a structured manner using content analysis techniques.

References [1] Freeman, S., Eddy, S., McDonough, M., Smith, M., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H. and Wenderoth, M., “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics”, PNAS 2014 111 (23) 8410-8415. [2] Not shown for blind review [3] Authors hidden for blind review, “Evaluating Blended and Flipped Instruction in Numerical Methods at Multiple Engineering Schools”, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, (accepted for publication), 2017. [4] Not shown for blind review

Citation
Format

Clark, R. M., & Kaw, A., & Delgado, E. E. (2018, June), Board 69: Do Adaptive Lessons for Pre-class Experience Improve Flipped Learning? Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30088

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In a meta-study [1] of STEM courses, use of active learning over traditional lecturing indicates an increase of 0.47SDs on examinations and concept inventories.  One pedagogy that uses active learning is the flipped format where the initial exposure to the content is made outside of the classroom via videos, text, online discussion, and assessment.  During class time, active learning techniques such as peer-to-peer instruction and solving of applied problems are used.  

In a prior NSF grant involving a combined dataset from three engineering schools [2], the authors found that the differences in the cognitive and affective outcomes for blended and flipped formats of a course in Numerical Methods were not statistically significant [3].  The effect sizes measured via Cohen’s d also were negligible to small for these two outcomes.  One of the challenges recognized by many with the flipped format is the pre-class expectations for the students.  Currently for pre-class learning, in most flipped format classes, teachers assign lecture videos or reading assignments.  To ensure that such assignments are done by students, they are either followed by a quiz that is taken online or at the beginning of the class period.  However, this approach is the same for all students and does not address the differential needs of the students.  

To improve the quality of the pre-class activities of the flipped format, under a current NSF grant [4], the second author developed adaptive platform lessons for the pre-class experience for a course in Numerical Methods.  By doing so, students have a personalized path for preparation that involves multiple representations such as lecture videos, text, and simulations. The students’ learning is assessed in real time and depending on their responses, they are taken on alternate paths in the lesson.  

We implemented these adaptive pre-class lessons in the Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 semesters and will report preliminary results from the Fall 2017 semester in the draft paper.  The results will compare three modalities – 1) blended format 2) flipped format without adaptive lessons and 3) flipped format with adaptive lessons.  The comparisons will be based on direct assessments of learning (i.e., final examination and concept inventory scores), as well as indirect assessments (i.e., student surveys and focus groups).  Open-ended, qualitative data from the indirect assessments will be analyzed in a structured manner using content analysis techniques.    

References
[1] Freeman, S., Eddy, S., McDonough, M., Smith, M., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H. and Wenderoth, M., “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics”, PNAS 2014 111 (23) 8410-8415.
[2] Not shown for blind review
[3] Authors hidden for blind review, “Evaluating Blended and Flipped Instruction in Numerical Methods at Multiple Engineering Schools”, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, (accepted for publication), 2017.
 [4] Not shown for blind review

AU  - Renee M. Clark
AU  - Autar Kaw
AU  - Eleonora Emma Delgado
CY  - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA  - 2018/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 69: Do Adaptive Lessons for Pre-class Experience Improve Flipped Learning?
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/30088
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--30088
ER  -