This project aims to serve the national interest by improving student learning in STEM by integrating personalized pre-class experiences that adapt individually to each student’s level of knowledge. Active learning in the classroom has been proven effective for strengthening student engagement and improving student learning outcomes. The flipped classroom is one popular active learning approach. In flipped classrooms, students learn basic information from resources such as online lecture videos and automated testing. This learning takes place at each students’ own pace, prior to the regular class lecture. Then, during the lecture period, students collaborate with their peers to solve problems that apply the knowledge they learned outside of class. This project aims to improve the flipped classroom approach by integrating personalized and adaptive pre-class content into each student's learning experiences. The use of adaptive lessons aligns well with "Advancing Personalized Learning," one of the National Academy of Engineering's 21st Century Grand Challenges.
Most engineering problems are complex; they may take a long time to solve and often do not have single solutions. To develop the ability to solve such problems, most undergraduate STEM students take a course in Numerical Methods. This project involves the development of adaptive lessons for a course in Numerical Methods and the assessment of the cognitive and affective learning outcomes of students in such courses at three diverse institutions: the University of South Florida, Arizona State University, and Alabama A&M University. A significant part of the assessment effort will focus on various demographic segments, including underrepresented minority, female, and Pell Grant students, to ensure that all materials work well across diverse student populations. Students' engagement with and performance in the adaptive lessons will also be analyzed in real-time to support student success. For example, proactive interventions and resources will be created that can be implemented as soon as students show signs of struggling in the course. The project restructures the Numerical Methods course as a flipped classroom with personalized, adaptive learning. This project will also compare a flipped classroom with and without the use of adaptive lessons relative to student cognitive and affective learning outcomes, and through analytics of student learning data. Metrics used in the investigation include both qualitative and quantitative measures of multiple assessments to verify the consistency of findings. The project will deliver instructional materials that facilitate best practices for teaching STEM courses in flipped mode with adaptive learning lessons, thereby contributing to the knowledge base for advancing personalized learning. Dissemination avenues include workshops, manuscripts, open education resource portals, and social media. This project is funded by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources program, which supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
