How Classroom Flipping Affects Coast Guard License Students in Engineering

Paul M. Kump

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Conference: 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual Conference
Publication Date: July 26, 2021
Start Date: July 26, 2021
End Date: July 19, 2022
Conference Session: Microsoft Teams, Deep Learning, and Classroom Flipping
Tagged Division: Ocean and Marine
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--37252
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/37252
Download Count: 290

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Paul M. Kump SUNY Maritime College

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Having joined SUNY Maritime College in 2012, Dr. Kump is now Associate Professor and Curriculum Leader of The Department of Electrical Engineering. His research interests are in the areas of machine learning, signal processing, and optimization. Dr. Kump has developed nuclear material detection algorithms for the U.S. government and crime prediction software for The Chicago Police Department. He has also collaborated with Mount Sinai Hospitals to develop smart commercial software for automatic error detection in patient radiation therapy treatment plans. In his spare time, Dr. Kump works to combine his research with his love of electronic music performance and production by teaching machines the craft of songwriting.

With extensive course and curriculum design experience, including Maritime College courses Signals and Systems, Machine Learning, and Programming for Engineers, Dr. Kump is continuously committed to developing an electrical engineering program that best prepares students for the ever-changing demands of industry leaders. Dr. Kump's teaching interests include alternative methods of content delivery, for example, with online education and classroom flipping. He has been recognized by Open SUNY for excellence in online teaching, serves on The Online Learning Subcommittee, and has pioneered The School of Engineering's online course offerings.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Flipped classroom is an active-learning strategy in which student activities that are traditionally completed at home are exchanged, or “flipped”, with activities traditionally completed in class. In engineering, this approach usually means class time is used for student-led problem solving and interpreting results—a situation that promotes higher levels of cognitive work in the classroom under the tutelage of the instructor and peers. The flipped classroom model was recently instituted at [REDACTED] in a junior-level engineering course with a student population of largely varying abilities and career goals, including students who seek U.S. Coast Guard licensure. The motivation for adopting the flipped classroom model was threefold: (1) The traditional classroom may be a disconnect for license students who often work in teams and spend many hours in active-learning environments like ship simulators and on a training ship. Thus, it is reasonable to suspect that the flipped classroom model may resonate well with license students who seem to thrive in these hands-on environments. (2) Prior research demonstrates the flipped classroom model benefits a wide variety of students with wide-ranging abilities, which aligns well with the course’s student body. (3) Prior to flipping, the course was showing a concerning trending decline in student performance and a wide gap between student and instructor expectations, motivating the instructor to consider alternative teaching strategies.

The objective of this paper is to estimate the effect classroom flipping has on engineering students, particularly license students, and determine the statistical significance of the observed effect. This objective is met by first retrieving the final student grades in the selected course in a timeframe that includes a pre- and post-flipping period (2016-2019), as well as the final student grades in a similar control course that was not flipped during the same time period. The data also include whether or not each student was a license student, which allows for the construction of three datasets: one of only license students, one of only non-license students (“interns”), and one of all students. Then the well-established difference-in-differences (DiD) technique is employed to each of the datasets in order to measure the effect flipping the selected course has on final course grades. Lastly, random inference is applied to calculate p-values and determine the statistical significance of the observed effect. It is found that license students see an average increase of +0.583 grade point average (on a 4-point scale), at a confidence level of 99%, which is a greater effect than what intern students see, which is a +0.474 increase on average, at a confidence level of 95%. Also included are comments and results of a poll that was completed by students in the flipped classroom meant to gauge their satisfaction in the course and what they believe the effect the flipped classroom had on them in meeting the course learning objectives.

Citation
Format

Kump, P. M. (2021, July), How Classroom Flipping Affects Coast Guard License Students in Engineering Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37252

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - ABSTRACT
Flipped classroom is an active-learning strategy in which student activities that are traditionally completed at home are exchanged, or “flipped”, with activities traditionally completed in class.  In engineering, this approach usually means class time is used for student-led problem solving and interpreting results—a situation that promotes higher levels of cognitive work in the classroom under the tutelage of the instructor and peers.  The flipped classroom model was recently instituted at [REDACTED] in a junior-level engineering course with a student population of largely varying abilities and career goals, including students who seek U.S. Coast Guard licensure.  The motivation for adopting the flipped classroom model was threefold: (1) The traditional classroom may be a disconnect for license students who often work in teams and spend many hours in active-learning environments like ship simulators and on a training ship.  Thus, it is reasonable to suspect that the flipped classroom model may resonate well with license students who seem to thrive in these hands-on environments.  (2) Prior research demonstrates the flipped classroom model benefits a wide variety of students with wide-ranging abilities, which aligns well with the course’s student body. (3) Prior to flipping, the course was showing a concerning trending decline in student performance and a wide gap between student and instructor expectations, motivating the instructor to consider alternative teaching strategies.   

The objective of this paper is to estimate the effect classroom flipping has on engineering students, particularly license students, and determine the statistical significance of the observed effect.  This objective is met by first retrieving the final student grades in the selected course in a timeframe that includes a pre- and post-flipping period (2016-2019), as well as the final student grades in a similar control course that was not flipped during the same time period.  The data also include whether or not each student was a license student, which allows for the construction of three datasets: one of only license students, one of only non-license students (“interns”), and one of all students.  Then the well-established difference-in-differences (DiD) technique is employed to each of the datasets in order to measure the effect flipping the selected course has on final course grades.  Lastly, random inference is applied to calculate p-values and determine the statistical significance of the observed effect.  It is found that license students see an average increase of +0.583 grade point average (on a 4-point scale), at a confidence level of 99%, which is a greater effect than what intern students see, which is a +0.474 increase on average, at a confidence level of 95%.  Also included are comments and results of a poll that was completed by students in the flipped classroom meant to gauge their satisfaction in the course and what they believe the effect the flipped classroom had on them in meeting the course learning objectives.
AU  - Paul M. Kump
CY  - Virtual Conference
DA  - 2021/07/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - How Classroom Flipping Affects Coast Guard License Students in Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/37252
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--37252
ER  -