In the fall of 2011, under funding from the School of Engineering and the MIT Council on Educational Technology, an AeroAstro team comprising professors Dave Darmofal, Raul Radovitzky, QiQi Wang, and Karen Willcox; research scientist Douglas Allaire; postdocs Laslo Diosady, Martin Hautefeuille, Aurelie Jean, and Adrian Rosolen; and PhD student Chad Lieberman launched an educational experiment in two AeroAstro Professional Area Subjects: 16.20 (Structural Mechanics) and 16.90 Exercises were designed to (Computational Methods in Aerospace Engineering). The experihelp guide self-study by proment assessed two hypotheses:
viding immediate feedback to students, and provide faculty with information to tailor class interactions around the material where students’ results showed an inconsistent or incomplete understanding.
(H1) It is possible to create a modularized semester where student learning is equal to or better than the traditional approach and in-depth experiences are made easier. (H2) A learning model emphasizing active student-instructor engagement coupled with independent student preparation can be effective for achieving subject learning objectives for students both on-campus and off-campus.
Preparation for the experiment included designing a modularized curriculum for each class, creating an online/in-class integrated learning strategy, finding simple low-cost ways to enable remote student participation, and creating a detailed evaluation plan. Both classes used the “flipped classroom” model. Ahead of class, students were required to complete self-study or “look-ahead” modules of online material, which included lecture notes, video snippets, and an online discussion forum. Then in class, the traditional lectures were replaced with active learning sessions, which involved collaborative problem-solving, programming assignments, and mini-lectures. These sessions were web broadcast (using WebEx and Adobe Connect) and recorded for later playback. In 16.90, the online material included embedded exercises — multichoice and short answer questions, as well as simple Matlab coding exercises. These embedded exercises were designed to help guide students’ self-study by providing immediate feedback (via automated grading), and to provide faculty with information to tailor class interactions around the material where students’ results showed an inconsistent or incomplete understanding of key concepts.
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AEROASTRO 2012-2013