How flipping your first-year digital circuits course positively affects student perceptions and learning

Given the recent call for engineering faculty to employ more student-centered learning strategies with course objectivesthat align with real-world, application of content, the current study discusses the implementation and benefits of the flippedclassroom in a lower-level engineering course. Using the same course content, student end of course opinion surveys werecompared for a traditional lecture (n= 23) and flipped digital circuits engineering class (n= 29). In particular, three itemsfrom the student opinion survey were of interest: instructor’s teaching helped me learn, accessible to students, andorganized course well. It was predicted that student ratings would be more positive on each of the three identified end ofcourse opinion survey items for the flipped class compared to its traditional lecture counterpart. Results supported thestudy’s prediction in addition to providing supplemental findings for the future use of the flipped classroom in engineeringand other STEM courses. The multiple benefits of the flipped class pedagogical strategy are discussed with respect to futureimplementations for faculty teaching STEM courses.