Flipping the Classroom: How to Embed Inquiry and Design Projects into a Digital Engineering Lecture

Flipping the classroom allows students to learn concepts outside of the classroom and apply what they learn in the classroom, working with other students and getting immediate feedback from the instructor. Since 2008, faculty at CSULA have been flipping the freshman/sophomore introduction to digital engineering course some of the time through Collaborative Project-Based Learning (CPBL) . Approximately fifty percent of the class time is dedicated to interactive classroom activities and frequent periodic assessments. The objectives of CPBL are to go beyond the traditional lecture to: 1) foster students' skills in engineering design; 2) stimulate students' interests and increase their retention rate; and 3) improve teaching and learning efficiency by highly interactive instruction using a Tablet PC and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform. This paper will present the general framework for integrating CPBL into the classroom that can be applied to any engineering course. Furthermore, the specific digital engineering CPBL-based curriculum will be presented including a schedule with embedded in-class design projects, inquiry based exercises, interactive exercises, and periodic assessments. The authors will also share lessons learned about strategies for designing and conducting effective activities, including grading strategies and classroom management. Data on the impact of CPBL on student learning outcomes will also be presented.

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