Does a flipped classroom approach help? – Experiences from a project-based engineering course

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Many project-based courses start with theoretical background lectures. However, the application of this knowledge in the students’ projects is often limited. This paper explores the research question: Does a flipped classroom approach improve the connection between theoretical lectures and the practical project? The method consists of converting four conventional lectures into a flipped classroom approach and posing surveys to the students. Furthermore, the teachers reflect on the outcomes in comparison to previous years. The results show that the exercises after the pre-recorded flipped lectures are appreciated by the students. However, the quality of their final project reports and observations during supervision meetings do not show clear results. As the project was carried out in 2021 during the pandemic, the results might be overshadowed by the impact of the remote teaching
situation. Finally, the continued work on the flipped classroom approach led to high quality reports and improved course evaluations in 2023.