Inverting (Flipping) Classrooms – Advantages and Challenges

The educational benefits of learner-centered instruction, including active, collaborative, and problem-based learning, are widely recognized. However, educators are often reluctant to implement learner-centered activities because they perceive doing so will reduce class content coverage. An inverted classroom is a method that can free classroom time for learner-centered activities. In an inverted classroom (IC), course content is disseminated outside the classroom through mediums such as video lectures and web-based tutorials, in addition to traditional methods such as assigned reading, assigned homework problems, interactive exercises, and power-point presentations. Students are responsible for learning basic course material outside of class time. Unlike an online class, an IC includes face-to-face time with the instructor in classroom or laboratory setting where the material learned outside of class is discussed and applied. The IC allows an educator to present course material in several different formats, and so engages the different learning styles and preferences of students. The IC format encourages students to become self-learners and help prepare them for how they will need to learn as practicing engineers. Our experience shows that the IC format can free class time for learnercentered activities without sacrificing course content. This paper describes the implementation of an IC in a senior-level Control Systems course. Two offerings of these courses with 20-25 students each have been entirely taught as inverted. This paper describes best practices in offering these courses, including suggestions for instructors on preparing video lectures and structuring the course to provide a safe environment for students to learn in this unique format. Three years of assessment data are presented in this paper, including student exam performance, and instructor and student observations and perceptions of the inverted classroom format collected through surveys and interviews. Key results from assessments are: 1) although there was some initial resistance from the students to the new format, students adjusted to the format after a few weeks – the format should be implemented for an entire term in order to obtain full benefits of this approach; 2) students showed an increased awareness of the importance of self-learning and the benefit of taking responsibility for their own learning; 3) the format frees time for students to individually or collaboratively solve more problems than in a lecture setting and opens the opportunity to implement problem-based learning without sacrificing content coverage; 4) student performance on exams and homework was not diminished through the uses of an IC; 5) aside from the initial time investment by the instructor to create on-line content, the work load on the instructors and the students was not much different than in the traditional classroom; 6) the video-lectures don’t need to be production quality, rather content-focused and succinct; 7) an IC should be offered with an adequate course structure, including a guide to the on-line content.