A Hybrid Flipped First Year Engineering Course

A hybrid flipped course has been used for two years in a first year engineering course at Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA. In the Fall 2013 semester there were 12 sections of 20 – 25 students. The course is considered a “hybrid” because the textbook and a majority of the homework exercises are delivered online. The course is considered “flipped” because students are quizzed (online) on the course ebook before material is covered in class. This allows instructors to focus on more advanced and active learning during class time. The purpose of this paper is to describe the hybrid flipped course format in detail, focusing on the ebook and online homework. The results of surveys of students and instructors are used to explore the functionality of hybrid flipped courses. Levels of satisfaction with the online aspects of the course were high amongst students and teachers. Pathfinder was somewhat successful at getting students to prepare for class, primarily by creating an atmosphere of expected preparation, which was accentuated by the fact that graded online exercises were required prior to class. While a number of active learning techniques were employed in the Fall 2013 semester, more are envisioned for future course offerings