Lecture flipping for control engineers

Anthony Rossiter

Overview

1. What is lecture flipping?

2. Control resources to enable lecture flipping.

3. Student evaluation.

4. Questions

LECTURE FLIPPING

The problem with lectures• For learning to take place, students

must be active and emotionally involved.

Many lectures encourage student passivity.• Lectures were required in years

before photocopiers, affordable books, computers, etc as an efficient mechanism for transmitting information.

Nowadays, lectures are a notoriously poor way of doing so efficiently, accurately and

reliably.

Factors which enable learning• Engaging resources (more senses), for

example include audio, video, games, quizzes, authentic scenarios, etc.

• Encourage student activity.• Encourage emotional response (for

example argue with your peers).• Repetition – can be accessed as often as

required and whenever wanted.• Can be paced to suit each individual.

Lecture flipping• Students are given suitable resources to

engage with and learn the core material, facts, theorems, concepts and so forth IN THEIR OWN TIME (but before lecture)!

• Lecture time is used to promote deeper engagement with the material. A common tool is supported group based problem solving as this enables students to learn from each other and deepen their own understanding by justifying their stance.

Caviat

• The most successful lecture flipping examples in the literature tend to be based on relatively small class sizes.

• Lectures are based in rooms where:– Students can sit in groups around tables.– Staff can easily circulate to guide and assist.– Relationships can be built, students

recognised individually, etc.– Students feel some peer pressure to prepare

adequately and contribute.

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT LEARNING OF CONTROL

Control resources initiative• IFAC does have plans to create a control

resources repository to benefit the world wide community.

• Control education would be part of this.• In the interim, the author has produced a

number of open access resources which clearly have a Sheffield authorship so:– Sheffield students will trust them.– They are mutually consistent, systematic and

standalone.

Resources available• Currently there are 6 main chapters but as the

resources are hosted on the web, the shape, length and number of chapters is dynamic.

• Current content was initially focussed around the authors lecture responsibilities although does extend beyond that.

INTRODUCTION TO MODELLING SIMPLE PHYSICAL

SYSTEMS

INTRODUCTION TO FEEDBACK

INTRODUCTION TO SYSTEM RESPONSES AND LAPLACE PREDICTIVE CONTROL

CLASSICAL CONTROL ANALYSIS AND

DESIGN

Each chapter has a

number of sections.

A neat table of contents (with

links) is available on a website.

Each section has links to videos on youtube and brief

descriptions of the content.

Source

powerpoint/MATLA

B also available.

ALSO ON UNIVERSITY ITUNESU

SITE

EVALUATION

As the resources are on Youtube, many international users have found and accessed them and left complimentary comments.

• its just great how carefully u thought of making these videos... many teachers just does not ffeel the need to go through the basics.. but u always introduce some fundamentals, basics before explaining any concept... i know u put a lot of thought process before making those videos what the student needs and accordingly u modified ur course materials and teaching process...amazing jobs.. hats of to u ...

International users

great explenations. I'm a student from germany... and you safed me! Thank you very much for your

videos

THANK YOU!!  In just a few minutes you cleared up a lot of confusion from hours of classtime and

studying. This is by far the best explanation on gain and phase shift that I have ever seen. Thanks again

HI DR, ROSSITER. I'M AN ITALIAN STUDENT AND I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR

WORK. YOUR CLASSES ARE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST I FOUND ON INTERNET AND WAY, WAY

BETTER THAN WHAT I SAW FROM MY TEACHERS.

thank you so much for your videos, I understand bode plots so much better now, greetings from

Belgium !

Staff perception• The authors class sizes are 200-250 so are held in

normal tiered lecture theatres.• Lectures were a lot more interactive and dynamic.

Students appeared much more engaged. Group activities seemed effective.

• It is important to plan the lecture slot and student activities carefully and to build in flexibility to respond to what arises.

• With large classes you cannot keep everyone happy! Very diverse and opposing views.

A SUBSTANTIAL MINORITY COULD NOT COPE WITH THE REQUIREMENT TO PREPARE IN

ADVANCE.

Student participation

I have looked at the preparation videos:

A: Many times,

B: a few times,

C: once,

D: no.

Notably participation

by year 1 students was significantly lower!

Student preparation

I have struggled with the discipline of

preparing

for lecture activities by doing the suitable

viewing in advance:

strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, no

comment.

Notably 65% of year 1 students struggled

with this discipline, so a higher proportion!

Suitability for learning

Are the online videos suitable for preparation

activities for lectures? strongly agree, agree,

neutral, disagree, no comment.

It is notable that a higher

proportion of year 1 students disagreed here.

Student discipline

The requirement to view videos in advance

of

lectures has enabled or forced me to take

more control of my learning and time

management: strongly agree, agree, neutral,

disagree, no comment.

In this case

65% of year 1 students did not agree!

Interactive lectures

I like having lecture time focussed on

discussion,

case studies and problem solving:

strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, no

comment.

20% of year

1 students disagreed which is higher and

30% wanted purely didactic lectures!

I like the fact I can pause, rewind and revisit topics as much as I need which

is not possible in an actual lecture.

A. Strongly agree

B. Agree

C. Neutral

D. Disagree

E. I have not tried to use them yet.

A. B. C. D. E.

51%

30%

6%8%5%

Indicative quotes1. The video notes provided by lecturer really helps in understanding the

concept and how to answer questions regarding the concept but it has it's cons. In lecture students didn't learnt much if they did not watch the video notes and came to lecture feeling lost because lecturer was not really teaching but more to asking questions regarding the concept covered in video which he presumed student finished watching.

2. Dr Rossiter's videos are very useful for learning everything we need.

3. The youtube videos were very helpful.

4. Videos too long, spend many hours watching them then don't have enough time for doing practice questions.

5. Although it provided a lot of resourses, the lecture was running based on the assumption that students watched the vidoes beforehand which means at times we were in more pressure to study on the module when there were other modules to study as well.

Summary• Clear divide between students who appreciated the

approach and those who wanted ‘spoon-feeding’ lectures.

• Likely that need to reduce amount of preparation (independent learning) required by year 1 students who coped much less well than year 2.

• Most students very positive about the resources themselves but many were not able to benefit from the flipped lecture due to lack of discipline in their preparation.

• The use of a tiered lecture theatre is a serious impediment to more effective group work/learning.

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