PIVOTeeING: A Flipped Approach in a Postgraduate Solid State Devices Course

Abstract

Design and implementation of flipped courses is a challenge as it involves many elements. Flipped approaches, though well-suited for engineering courses, have not been implemented and reported as much as K-12. A review of the various meta-studies also points out that due to the presence of complex activities in flipped approach instructors need support for the design, implementation and evaluation of flipped classrooms. In this paper, we describe the design, implementation and evaluation of a flipped approach for a postgraduate Electrical Engineering course - Solid State Devices. The instructors and educational researchers from our institute worked in a partnership framework for the flipped approach - Problem solvIng Via instructOr mediaTed peer learING (PIVOTeeING). Since it was an exploratory cycle in the Design Based Implementation Research (DBIR) framework, various learner affect and performance parameters were explored. The results show that, for more than 65% of the time, learners were engaged with the content and more than 60% of learners attained satisfactory levels in an end-semester exam on a new concept not specifically addressed in class. The implementation was also carefully examined to present practice-based guidelines for implementation of flipped classroom in the electrical engineering domain via the participatory design framework.