Instructional Setting on Student Learning Effectiveness Using Flipped Classroom in an Engineering Laboratory

Improving Engineering Education, which plays an important role in shaping the future engineers, has always been a major concern. However, until recently more engineering educators have been involved with the implementation of various different educational and learning techniques. As part of this movement, this paper is aimed at analyzing and thereby assessing how different methods used in a flipped classroom setting will impact student-learning effectiveness. The study compares flipped classroom instruction to a traditional teaching method which is used as a reference for control study. Data gathered for the analysis is based on a non-biased uniformly distributed lab setting focused on using smart materials to determine the vibration frequency of a cantilever beam. The lab setup is a part of a Green Energy Materials & Engineering course offered in the summer 2014 semester. This class introduced students to the concepts of Green Manufacturing, Green Technologies in industries, and Fabricating advanced Green Energy devices. The framework used for gathering unbiased data, identifying a learning approach, and on quantifying the student learning is explained in detail. It is found that the instructional setting plays a significant role in flipped classroom learning effectiveness. Flipped classroom learning setup does not guarantee better learning effectiveness if not set up appropriately in a laboratory setting.