Experimental Hybrid Courses That Combine Online Content Delivery With Face To Face Collaborative Problem Solving

An experimental format is described in which the "lecture content" for core sophomoreand junior-level ECE courses was delivered via on-line streaming video (referred to as “virtual lecture”), and the regularly-scheduled class meeting times were used for instructor-directed, collaborative problem solving sessions (referred to as “directed problem solving”). Traditional lecture divisions of each course were offered simultaneously, to provide students an opportunity to select the course format they felt best matched their individual learning style. The on-line Index of Learning Styles (ILS) tool was used to help students decide which course format to choose. Results, including survey data and comparative performance on common exams, are presented for the initial trials conducted.