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Pavements course: Is the flipped classroom model effective in all cases? A case study in a developing country

Abstract:

The flipped classroom model is one of the active learning techniques which has depicted good results worldwide when applied to university education, especially in developing countries. This technique has been employed in several areas of knowledge; however, its application within a Pavements course has not been reported yet. So, this article aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom technique applied to this subject. Two research questions related to the influence of the flipped model on both, students' final grades and their opinion about its effectiveness were carried out. The experiment was applied to four groups: two groups took the course with the traditional method while the other two attended the flipped classroom model. Students from group A-B had to attend a face-to-face lecture, while learners from group C-D had to watch a pre-recorded lecture before class attendance. As result, students in the traditional model got better average final grades than those of the flipped one; however, students, in general, were more satisfied with the flipped model. The flipped model promoted self-learning and proactivity from students to look for what is unknown to them, which is a quite valuable skill in the field of Civil Engineering.