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Webcasts promote in-class active participation and learning in an engineering elective course

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 42; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03043797.2016.1192110

1469-5898

Stefano Freguia,

Reflective Practices in Education

This paper describes the design and outcomes of an educational intervention undertaken to improve the quality of delivery of a fourth-year engineering elective course – Industrial Wastewater and Solid Waste Management at the University of Queensland. The objective was to increase the level of active participation of students in planned active-learning classroom activities, including whole-class discussions and small group project-type work. According to a flipped classroom model, new online material in the form of webcasts was proposed to students before class. Students reacted very positively to the webcasts: the percentage of students viewing the webcast before planned workshop sessions ranged between 80% and 92% over the five weeks of the intervention. Enhanced engagement led also to increased attendance (85–92% at workshop sessions), and remarkable active participation in class (half of observed teams were ∼80% active). Remarkably, team performance as quantified by their report marks linearly correlated with the level of active participation in class.