Copyright © Curt Hill Marshalling Technology for Education Curt Hill Computer Systems and Software Engineering Valley City State University

Introduction There has been considerable interest in the notion of a flipped or inverted classroom –Requires student to be responsible for their own learning outside of class –Class time is used for what is not understood in this way Most often exercised in large lecture classes This describes an attempt to flip an unlikely class Institutional emphasis Copyright © Curt Hill

The Class CSCI 160 – Intro to Structured Programming I Taught 8:00 MWF using IVN –8 students at VCSU – have laptops –4 students at WSC – in computer lab Online resource: VCSU MEP –The textbook substitute and giver of assignments Online resource: VCSU Web Tools –Giver of daily quiz

Technology Some pieces of technology are essential –Others get in the way Technology Used –Interactive Video Network is both, but is a necessary evil –VCSU-MEP is used instead of textbook –DevC++ IDE is free software –The VCSU Web Tools –Tegrity is a recording tool Copyright © Curt Hill

Class Cycle Between classes complete VCSU MEP reading Take quiz, 5-15 minutes Discuss quiz questions, 5-25 minutes –Lengthy discussion of harder problems Demonstration or presentation – all remaining time, except next bullet –Often skipped in favor of previous Announce what needs to be done prior to next class – 5 minutes All but the first item is recorded via Tegrity – Especially helpful for remote sites Copyright © Curt Hill

Course History Traditional face to face in last millennia VCSU MEP becomes standard early 2000’s –2010 was last of these –C++Builder was IDE 2011 became IVN class –No text other than VCSU MEP –C++Builder and Visual Studio Flipped in 2013 –DevC++ Copyright © Curt Hill

VCSU Web Tools Copyright © Curt Hill Online system –Many features, but the quiz is only one used Easy to make multiple choice or survey questions Questions are released at a specified time and stay open for a limited time Each student must have a login Results may be monitored in real time

VCSU-MEP Online learning resource discussed in several papers Used with a login on a Java enabled browser Numerous interactive objects besides normal text content Records student progress Assigns projects when milestones have been accomplished Copyright © Curt Hill

Strengths The students know that there is an online quiz to start class The quiz problems that are well done are ignored The problems can be dealt with immediately This is a teachable moment –It is all about extemporaneous teaching of exactly what is needed –If students asked questions this would not be as necessary Copyright © Curt Hill

Work Copyright © Curt Hill This was much more labor intensive than previous editions All the PowerPoints existed from previous classes –Delivering them is no-brainer Generating quiz questions and more demonstrations did turn out to be real work Almost like a first offering of a class

Commentary Copyright © Curt Hill The advent of IVN for this class killed numerous in-class exercises in groups VCSU Web Tools allowed something similar to be re-introduced The level of in-class interaction is not yet to where it should be

Evolution of an Instructor Copyright © Curt Hill Slides before test Slides before test Slides before test MC quiz questions (work alone) 079 MC quiz questions (work together) 024

Test Performance Percentage right for Multiple Choice Questions Copyright © Curt Hill Test 1Test 2Test %44.83%60.00% %16.67%30.00% %35.00%58.80% %56.21%65.56%

Test Performance Copyright © Curt Hill

Performance Commentary Copyright © Curt Hill The Blue Ribbon class was 2010 –Of the seven who started, six finished, four have IT jobs today The class of 2013 is the second best of the classes and usually finishes close to that of 2010 –Does this class have the raw talent? This is a long way from educational research standards but suggests that this may be a promising approach

Nearly Last Comments Copyright © Curt Hill Should only be used for classes with which the instructor is very comfortable Never surveyed the students on their preferences –Could not continue in the follow up class –One student asked why we did not continue Will do this again

Questions? Copyright © Curt Hill