Abstract
Higher education courses with diverse group projects can be found in various subjects, like engineering, medicine, arts, education, and so on. One common problem lies in that students usually concern with their own project, while less attention is casted into experimental procedures of other groups, leaving an undesired learning outcome and intellectual resources neglected. This project aims to develop an innovative pedagogical approach: A student-directed flipped classroom is proposed, where students maximize the learning outcome by recording the experimental procedure, producing and editing their videos for teaching students from other groups. Combined with new teaching methodologies, like online peer-evaluation, forum discussion, and student self-made quizzes, this teaching and learning pedagogy enables multidimensional communications and interactions in sorts of levels including inner-group, inter group, student-instructor, inside-outside the screen. More importantly, hands-on experience of independent groups in conducting experiment or practical lab sessions would be recorded, reviewed, discussed, deliberated, and in the end, efficiently learned by other groups. The project will demonstrate its effectiveness in existing courses (UGEB1307 Energy and Green society, EEEN2020 Renewable Energy Technologies) where a “Smart Garden” is planning to be constructed based on the innovation and design of student groups via kinds of renewable energy devices and recycling facilities.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
Project objectives:
(1) A new eLearning pedagogical approach called student-directed flipped classroom is proposed and applied in teaching renewable energy technologies for the courses “Energy and Green Society” (UGEB1307) and “Renewable Energy Technologies” (EEEN2020).
(2) A Smart Garden teaching and learning platform is expected to be constructed, where kinds of teaching activities, including lab sessions of 2 courses, interest groups, and academic or non-academic visits, will be taken place.
(3) More than 24 sets of renewable energy devices and recycling facilities will be built through the proposed pedagogy with peer evaluation and peer competition.
(4) Develop 6 micro-modules for making solar cells, constructing wind turbines, building a solar-powered car, 3D printing through SolidWork, Laser cutting though Coreldraw, and building a hydro-generator.
(5) Create an interactive environment to generate multi-dimensional communications in sorts of levels including inner-group, inter-group, student-instructor, inside-outside the screen.
Activities, process and outcomes
The whole process of the project development can be generally divided into two parts: The first part focuses on the development of hardware. It includes: hardware selection, purchase; compatibility checking; hardware assembling; teaching assistant recruitment for software development; and Arduino software development. The second part is concerned with APP and micro-modules development, which involves: software development for 3D printing; and Dreamweaver software development. There are some extra activities and processes, like implementation of proposed pedagogy into courses; gathering feedback from students and visitors; final test, debugging; and refinement and publicity.
Deliverables and evaluation
The main deliverables include: 12 sets of renewable energy devices and 12 sets of recycling facilities; 1 Smart Garden teaching and exhibition platform; 6 micro-modules in developing renewable energy devices and recycling facilities; 1 mobile APP; 2 interest group training; 2 local seminars; 1 workshop; and 2 presentations at conferences.
The following evaluation methods are expected to be executed for this project:
(1) Survey on the student-directed flipped learning experience towards the end of 2 courses.
(2) Survey on the renewable energy devices and materials towards the end of 2 courses.
(3) Survey on the website for student-directed flipped classroom user-based experience towards the end of 2 courses.
(4) Survey on the renewable energy devices and website for student-directed flipped classroom user-based experience towards the end of every interest group training.
(5) Focus group interview with a small group of volunteer students of 2 courses.
(6) Weekly reflection meetings with technicians and tutors to monitor the progress and propose future developments and improvements.
(7) Presentation of the project and summarized feedbacks at seminars and conferences.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
Summary of dissemination: 5 workshops; 1 seminar; 2 presentations in 2 international conferences; 1 presentation in the Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo organized by the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR).
Impact on teaching and learning
This project attempts to solve the common problem that students only concern with their own project, while less attention is casted into experimental procedures of other groups, leaving an undesired learning outcome and intellectual resources neglected.
This project proposed the pedagogical approach, student-directed flipped classroom, that students can learn from other groups with different projects. It also enables multi-dimensional communications and interactions in sorts of levels including inner-group, inter-group, student-instructor, inside-outside campus.
This pedagogical method also provided a way to exploit the potential of crowd resourcing for students, and it has been demonstrated to be very efficient in regards to engineering hands-on training.
