View All Pages

Resources: What Students Should Know About the Flipped Classroom

Welcome to the Flipped Classroom!flipped.png

What is the Flipped Classroom?

This semester, we are going to be learning in a way that is probably different than you have experienced before.

In a traditional classroom, I give a lecture, and you take notes.  Maybe you ask a couple questions, but mostly you are just trying to keep up with all of the 'factoids' that come at you during the lecture.  Then you go home and try to do your homework, often getting frustrated because you missed some little piece of critical information, but then I am not there to help you with it. 

In the flipped classroom, I have recorded my lectures on video and posted them for you each day.  You will need to watch the video lecture before class, and take notes.  This will take you about an hour for each day's lecture.  You can also post questions to the discussion board or directly to YouTube, and I'll try to answer them for you. Then, when you come to class, we will begin the homework together.  Bring your notes and plenty of paper, and plan to work with students sitting near you.  We will plan to get most of the problems (at least the harder problems) set up during class, and then you can finish them and do the calculations at home.  Also, in class, I will bring in an interesting engineering example most days to discuss how the theory you are learning in class applies to real world engineering applications.

Here is what the flipped classroom is about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFb0rb4m8qY Links to an external site.

What do students think about the Flipped Classroom?

Here are several students talking about their experience in a flipped Introduction to Electromagnetics course at the University of Utah: CLICK HERE Links to an external site.  (Especially look at what students like Links to an external site. and how they use the videos Links to an external site.)

Want to see more?  I've posted my student course evaluations for the past several years, in their entirety.  Yes, this is a very good way to learn.  Students like it, and in my experience, they learn better too.

How can you do well in the Flipped Classroom?

The most important things to do are:

1) Watch the Videos BEFORE class.  Take notes on them, in much the same way you would have during a traditional lecture.  Repeat parts of the video if you didn't catch or understand it the first time around.  Note your questions, or post them to either YouTube (directly below the video) or the classroom discussion board.  Either way, I will see them and will try to answer your question.  You will need internet access to view or download these videos, so if you want to watch them on your mobile device on the bus on the way to school, plan accordingly and download them in advance.

2) Come to class.  Come ready to think and discuss and learn.  Bring your notes, plenty of paper, a pencil.  Plan to work with other students to start the homework problems.  You won't be finished when you leave, but you should have the most difficult problems set up and ready to continue at home.

3) Finish the homework at home.  It is best if you can clean up your notes and finish that days' homework before the next class. Rewatch parts of the videos, if needed, now that you have a little more perspective on how you will be using the material.  And then, of course ... go back to step (1) and watch the videos! 

So, what does this take?

  • Schedule TIME on your calendar for each day's video BEFORE class and each day's homework AFTER class.  Put it right on your calendar, and JUST DO IT.

So, Welcome to the Flipped Classroom!  I hope you will have as much fun learning electrical & computer engineering as I will have teaching it.