Learning threshold concepts in an undergraduate engineering flipped classroom

Abstract

Given that the current goals for tertiary education is to better prepare students to apply their disciplinary knowledge in the real world and novel situations, it is imperative that students master the necessary disciplinary threshold concepts and competencies. Building on the findings of our pilot study of a partly-flipped undergraduate electronic engineering course, a version of a fully flipped is implemented in an intensive six-week version of the course involving in-class collaborative problem solving and continuous assessment. Data collected from the 32 students enrolled in the course include student surveys, video analytics, weekly student assessments, class observations and a focus group interview. Although data collection is still underway, the emerging findings indicate that students are watching the recommended weekly videos prior to coming to class and are solving online tutorials problems much more diligently, resulting in higher levels of in-class student collaboration compared to the pilot study. The results are discussed in regard to the effects of the fully flipped class model and the continuous assessment on students’ learning of threshold concepts and competencies.