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Evidence-based Best Practices for First-year Blended Learning Implementation

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

First-year Programs Division: Online Learning

Tagged Division

First-Year Programs

Page Count

10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30457

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/30457

Download Count

393

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Paper Authors

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Emily Ann Marasco University of Calgary

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Emily Marasco is a Ph.D. candidate and sessional instructor at the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on creativity in electrical and computer engineering. Ms. Marasco is also an education specialist with EZ Robot Inc. and co-hosts The Robot Program, an educational webseries for teaching robotics through technology to thousands of students, educators, and hobbyists around the globe. Ms. Marasco speaks regularly at conferences and in the community on topics from technical work to technological impact. She has won ASTech and 3-Minute Thesis awards for her work in science communication and outreach, and received the 2016 CEMF Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Graduate Award for her work relating to the promotion of women in engineering.

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Mohammad Moshirpour University of Calgary

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Dr. Mohammad Moshirpour is an instructor of Software Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineer, University of Calgary. His research interests are the area of software architecture, software requirements engineering, design, implementation and analysis of multi-agent systems, intelligent data analytics, data mining and machine learning, and Software engineering and computer science education. He is a senior member of IEEE, and is the IEEE Chair of the Computer Chapter of the Southern Alberta Section.

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Mahmood Moussavi University of Calgary

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Dr. Mahmood Moussavi is currently a faculty member of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the University of Calgary. He has over 25 years research and teaching experience in different areas of software engineering and information technology, and he has served over 12 year as Director of the Software Engineering at the above-mentioned department.

His general research interest and expertise are summarized as follows:
Software engineering education
Software design and architecture
Data mining and database management

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Laleh Behjat P.Eng. University of Calgary

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Dr Laleh Behjat is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary. Her research interests include designing computer chips, electronic design automation and developing software for computer hardware. She has won several awards for her work on the development of software tools for computer engineering. In addition, Dr Behjat has a passion for increasing the statues of women in Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Dr Behjat was the recipient of 2015 Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA) Women in Engineering Champion Award.

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Yasaman Amannejad University of Calgary

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Abstract

The objective of this evidence-based study is to synthesize best practices for developing flipped classroom material in large-scale first year courses. These best practices are extracted from three years of flipped classroom implementation experience in both technical and design engineering courses mandatory for first year students. This research will present valuable lessons and analyze differences between the suitability of different course types for the flipped educational model.

Best Practice #1: Implementation of the flipped teaching and learning approach should be associated with three phases. Starting with a pre-classroom phase, followed by an in-class active learning approach, and finally the third stage that allows students to practice a real-world application of the concepts that learned in the two previous stages.

Best Practice #2: The pre-class component of this learning approach cannot be a replacement for the in-class leaning. In other words, the pre-class component should add value, rather than replace, conventional in-class teaching. From a different angle, this also means that flipped classrooms teaching approach should not be chosen as a cost-saving or time-saving option.

Best Practice #3: Flipped classroom instructors should not rely solely on traditional performance assessment of students. One of the advantages of online teaching is the huge size of invaluable data that is collected as students access the provided online learning resources. For example, learning management systems such as Desire2Learn are often used as a platform to provide teaching and learning media. Most learning management systems provide substantial amounts of data regarding student interaction and related use behavior. Mining this data allows us to analyze students’ study habits. Although not all available data may show significant statistical correlation with students’ study behavior, a data mining approach with the support of additional data collection via questionnaire or surveys can lead to a valuable set of information for improving the curriculum or teaching methods.

This paper will present implementation and feedback findings from multiple flipped offerings of an introductory programming course and a first-year engineering design and communication course. In addition to detailing the best practices above, this study will compare and analyze the impact of flipped material in technical versus design-based courses, with data expected from the Fall 2017 first-year cohort.

Marasco, E. A., & Moshirpour, M., & Moussavi, M., & Behjat, L., & Amannejad, Y. (2018, June), Evidence-based Best Practices for First-year Blended Learning Implementation Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30457

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