A Course to Promote Informed Selection of an Engineering Major using a Partially Flipped Classroom Model

Abstract

A 1 credit hour First-Year Engineering Course which provides background to students on the engineering disciplinary options available to them was redesigned to help inform the selection of their engineering major for future study. Initially, course administration was a large lecture class but was transformed into a smaller classes that were partially flipped (for the first half of the semester, the content was presented in videos posted on-line relating to engineering disciplines) that allowed students to attend sessions that were of greatest interest to them. Both versions of the course were assessed through surveys. Additional surveys were administered to the faculty and professionals involved with the redesigned course. Finally, all students enrolled in the redesigned course were interviewed to discuss their progress in selecting an engineering major. Collectively, the baseline data and data from the redesigned course offer insight into effective elements for selection of an engineering major.