Lessons Learned in Flipping an Introductory Plastics Engineering Technology Course

In a transformative educational endeavor taking place in a department of mechanical engineering technology at a 4-year degree awarding institution, it was decided that 75% of the courses would be delivered with “active-learning instruction” by fall 2017 in order to better prepare its graduates to succeed in the “new” evolving industrial revolution, industry 4.0. A strategy adopted by the author in contributing towards this goal is demonstrated in flipping a plastics engineering technology course that was taught with the traditional classroom approach, which consisted of in-class lectures and out-of-class homework assignments. This study reports the process of flipping the course and its subsequent comparative results using the traditional classroom approach of teaching the course as a baseline. Also, the author shares some of the lessons learned in this preliminary endeavor.