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 objectives that align with real-world, application of content, the current study discusses the implementation and benefits of the flipped classroom in a lower-level engineering course. Using the same course content, student end of course opinion surveys were compared for a traditional lecture (n = 23) and flipped digital circuits engineering class (n = 29). In particular, three items from the student opinion survey were of interest: instructor's teaching helped me learn, accessible to students, and organized course well. It was predicted that student ratings would be more positive on each of the three identified end of course opinion survey items for the flipped class compared to its traditional lecture counterpart. Results supported the study's prediction in addition to providing supplemental findings for the future use of the flipped classroom in engineering and otherSTEMcourses. The multiple benefits of the flipped class pedagogical strategy are discussed with respect to future implementations for faculty teaching STEM courses.