San Jose State U. Says Replacing Live Lectures With Videos
Increased Test Scores
October
17, 2012, 2:01 pm
In an effort to raise student
performance in a difficult course, San Jose State University has turned to a
“flipped classroom” format, requiring students to watch lecture videos produced
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and using class time for
discussion. And initial data show the method is leading to higher test scores,
university officials announced this week.
The class, “Engineering Electronics
and Circuits,” has been “one of the most-hated courses in the college,” said
David W. Parent, a professor and undergraduate coordinator in the
electrical-engineering department. The course has a historically low passing
rate—40 percent of students in the class received a C or lower last
semester—and change was needed, said Khosrow Ghadiri, an adjunct professor who
teaches the flipped-classroom version.
“We were concerned about this
class,” Mr. Ghadiri said. “We wanted to revamp it in a fashion that would
enable the students to pass this course and continue with their education
because this is a gateway course required to continue in the major.”
Over the summer, four San Jose State
professors went to MIT to work with its edX team and adjust the course to the
campus’s needs. edX is a
partnership of MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, and the University of Texas
at Austin to offer massive open
online courses, or MOOC’s.
The 85 students in the flipped
course at San Jose State watched the edX lecture videos at home and attended
class twice a week to practice what they had learned and ask questions. Two
other sections of students took a traditional version of the course.
The midterm-examination scores of
students in the flipped section were higher than those in the traditional
sections, said Mr. Ghadiri. Although the midterm questions were more difficult
for the flipped students, their median score was 10 to 11 points higher.
The final reckoning of whether the
students have learned better through the flipped classroom will come in the
class’s last week. Professors plan to give the same final exam to all of the
sections. Researchers will then control the data for grade-point average and
prerequisite knowledge to “prove to ourselves and fellow faculty that we didn’t
stuff the classroom with dead ringers,” Mr. Parent said.
The university will also survey
students’ views of their experience in the alternative format before deciding
whether to develop more flipped-classroom courses. “I think, in a way, that’s
more important,” said Ping Hsu, interim dean of engineering. “If students feel
this is a better way to learn, then that says a lot, perhaps more than exam
scores.”
Some students have complained about
the fast pace of the flipped course and the demands of more-frequent quizzes,
Mr. Ghadiri said.
Adam T. Allen, a senior majoring in
industrial and systems engineering, was curious about the flipped-classroom
method but nervous about signing up for the course because his friends had had
to retake it. He likes the format but said the pace could “slow down a bit” to
align with the other sections. “We do have to learn more, but I don’t mind too
much,” he said.
“The flipped classroom receives a lot of resistance upfront,” Mr.
Parent said. “What the students didn’t say, but were effectively saying, was
that they had to learn at the rate which the classroom was going rather than
letting it slide and cramming at the last moment.”
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