Tools and techniques for exploring engagement in a flipped classroom

Abstract

Student engagement has been linked to satisfaction, retention, and better student performance. It is considered a factor and a goal for enhancing the students experience in higher education. However, engagement is a complex construct that includes multiple aspects that is influenced by learning environment, teaching staff, and the students’ background and expectations. There are many studies investigating different learning environments and exploring various aspects of engagement like behaviour and emotion. One area that has not been sufficiently researched is the flipped classroom, which is a blended learning model publicized as an approach to improve engagement. Thus, this thesis offers an in-depth exploration of student engagement in Higher Education flipped classroom and identify indicators and measures that can be used to understand as well as improve engagement in this context. In addition, this study investigates the role of technology-enhanced reflection in improving engagement in class and introduces a new tool designed to support reflection in small group activities. The study was conducted in a third-year module on Ubiquitous Computing in the School of Computing Science. The module was a fully flipped course where students prepared before class by going through the provided material on the website. In class, students engaged in small group activities to expand on what they learned online. Data was collected from the website, class observations (forms and video), and interviews with students and the module leader. In addition, a web app called Group Tagging was developed as a tool to support reflection using video tagging was tested to investigate whether this type of reflection can improve student engagement in class. Across the two case studies conducted as a part of this research on a flipped classroom, I identified a range of measures and methods that can be used to increase students’ engagement. The study showed that engagement in the flipped classroom could change depending on the structure of the course, clear communications with the students, the teaching staff’s continued engagement and giving the students an incentive and motivation to keep doing the work required. The findings also showed that video supported-reflection helped the students stay on task and participate more in class. It also worked as an incentive for them to be better prepared before coming to class.