A pilot flipped engineering education class utilizing the online delivery of lectures with speech-synchronized PC-screen-capture technology

摘要

"Flipped classrooms" have been tested in engineering education through the on-line delivery of lectures using speech-synchronized PC-screen-capture technology (SS-capture) to increase engineering students' enthusiasm towards studying. The SS-capture system records Screenshots as a series of still images synchronously with input from a microphone. The resultant recording is akin to a slide show and can be readily distributed and viewed on-line using a web server and browser respectively. The SS-capture system removes barriers that ordinarily inhibit average teachers in faculties of engineering, who often lack a background in educational technology, from implementing a flipped classroom. Although the SS-capture system requires students to exert more effort than in a traditional lecture-based classroom, they nevertheless gave it high praise since it allowed them to learn at their own pace. The benefits of flipped classrooms include increased learning time, proactive student participation/interaction, a subjective understanding of course content, and a substantial rise in academic performance.