2017 DLIAward Winner - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Recognizing exemplary higher education faculty-led teams and institutions for advancing student success through the adoption of digital courseware.
The 2017 Award Winners
Faculty-Led Team Recognition
The following faculty-led team was awarded $10,000 for its innovative and creative program, dedicated to accelerating the adoption of digital courseware for general education or gateway courses.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Enhancing Student Success in a Bottleneck Engineering Course Using a Flipped Classroom Pedagogy and Adaptive Learning Courseware
Presenter:
Paul Nissenson
Paul Nissenson (Ph.D. Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 2009) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He teaches courses in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and numerical methods. Paul’s main research focus is studying the impact of technology in engineering education.Throughout Paul’s six years at Cal Poly Pomona, he has experimented extensively with various technologies and pedagogies to improve student success, including the creation of numerous video tutorials, recording in-class lectures, and successfully flipping two courses. His efforts have been recognized with the College of Engineering’s Innovation in Teaching Award in 2014, Cal Poly Pomona’s Wall of COOL Award in 2014, CSU Quality Online Learning & Teaching (QOLT) program in 2015, and the Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017. Paul also taught Cal Poly Pomona’s first massive open online course in 2014 and 2015, helping over 13,000 people around the world learn Excel VBA programming. Recently he has taken a lead role in the development of ME Online, a website that shares over 400 mechanical engineering video tutorials with the general public (www.cpp.edu/meonline).
Bottom row (left to right): Faye Wachs, Priscilla Zhao, John Biddle
Institutional Overview:
Cal Poly Pomona is known for its polytechnic identity and learn-by-doing approach to education. Cal Poly Pomona’s mission, vision, and values can be found here: https://www.cpp.edu/~aboutcpp/calpolypomona-overview/mission-and-values.shtml
Mission:
We cultivate success through a diverse culture of experiential learning, discovery, and innovation.
Vision:
Cal Poly Pomona will be the model for an inclusive polytechnic university that inspires creativity and innovation, embraces local and global challenges, and transforms lives.
Values:
Cal Poly Pomona has six core values:
- Academic Excellence
- Experiential Learning
- Student Learning and Success
- Inclusive
- Community Engagement
- Social and Environmental Responsibility
Additional information about these values can be found at the website above.
Cal Poly Pomona was founded in 1938 as an extension of California State Polytechnic College in San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO). Cal Poly Pomona became part of the California State University system in 1972. Additional information about the history of Cal Poly Pomona can be found here: https://www.cpp.edu/~aboutcpp/heritage/
Project Description:
Fluid Mechanics I (ME 311) is a core course taken by junior-level Mechanical Engineering (ME) and Civil Engineering (CE) students. It builds upon earlier courses in the mechanics sequence and involves a significant math and science background. Prior to the course redesign, ME 311 (like most engineering courses) was taught in a traditional lecture manner and had many issues such as a time delay in providing feedback on assignments due to manual grading, minimal time for meaningful student-teacher interaction in the classroom, and students not engaging with the textbook. Additionally, many of our students commute to campus and have part-time jobs, limiting their ability to seek help during office hours. These issues resulted in ME 311 being bottleneck course for the ME Department. During 2007-2014, over 3300 students enrolled in ME 311, with 34% of the students receiving repeatable grades (D, F, or Withdrawal) and another 37% receiving C’s.
An interdisciplinary team that included five ME faculty and two faculty from the Department of Psychology & Sociology implemented new tools and pedagogical strategies in phases during 2015-2017 to address these issues including using a flipped classroom pedagogy, recording video tutorials and a complete lecture series, and using McGraw-Hill’s Connect platform. The creation of 45 videos tutorials was a key component of the flipped classroom approach; students watch videos before coming to class, thus freeing up class time for active learning group activities, more example problems, and more discussion. The videos are short and modular (typically 5-10 minutes), and allow students to review content at their convenience. Additionally, a complete lecture series was recorded and made available for students who prefer a lecture format. The SmartBook (interactive e-book) and Question Bank (algorithmically generated homework problems) tools in the Connect platform provide students with instant feedback and increase engagement with the textbook. This innovative approach increased the frequency of feedback and fostered a more engaging and interactive classroom environment.
Impact:
The assessment was led by the two Psychology & Sociology team members. Student academic performance was examined through the use of concept inventories, exam scores, and overall course grades, while student perceptions of the course were examined using surveys and focus groups. Failure rates were slashed by approximately two-thirds when Connect was paired with a flipped classroom pedagogy compared to traditional lecture sections without Connect. The attitudinal surveys and focus groups indicated that students highly enjoyed the flipped environment, and they reported feeling more confident and supported compared to students in traditional lecture sections.
The impact of this project extends well beyond just the sections taught during the study. The video tutorials (https://goo.gl/Jg55Rf) and complete lecture series (https://goo.gl/dBJLMy) are available to the public for free on the department’s YouTube channel and video content website ME Online (www.cpp.edu/meonline). Since January 2016, the fluid mechanics videos alone have accumulated over 600,000 views by students all over the world. It is hoped that the videos also can be used by other instructors to supplement or completely flip their courses.
Video Tutorials
Complete Lecture Series