Student engagement and empowerment in a flipped engineering dynamics classroom

Abstract

The flipped classroom model is increasingly used in tertiary education. Opportunities for active learning, col-laboration and interaction with the lecturer are some of the reported benefits associated with the use of flipped ap-proaches. These opportunities improve engagement and empowerment of students. This paper presents the results of a study on student experiences in a first year engineering dynamics Sum-mer semester course that used a flipped approach. This research used focus group interviews to determine the students’ sense of empowerment and engagement in the flipped classroom. The students’ ability to control the pace of their learning and the collaborative nature of in-class active learn-ing led to empowerment and an increase in confidence about their learning. Some students’ felt that they lacked suf-ficient discipline to succeed in self-directed learning. However, reassuring students that their out-of-class learning was beneficial was found to be a potential enabler to their confidence. Student engagement was also positively af-fected by the ability to control the pace of their learning, their increased flexibility in study timing and location, and active learning during the scheduled classes. Some students noted that their self-directed learning skills combined with workload issues presented unique challenges due to the flipped approach and negatively impacted their en-gagement. The paper concludes with recommendations for practice to further facilitate students’ sense of empowerment and engagement and may be of particular interest to engineering or other threshold technical subject pedagogy.