Flipping Laboratory Sessions: An Experience in Computer Science

Abstract

This paper reports our experience in flipping a second- year undergraduate course on software architecture and integration, taught in the second course of a Software Engineering degree. We compare the application of the flipped-classroom methodology with a traditional methodology. Our study encompasses two academic courses, in the years 2017 and 2018, and involves a total number of 434 students and 6 lecturers, placing this among the largest studies on flipped-classroom to date. The paper also reports on the production of the videos used with the flipped-classroom methodology, recorded by the lecturers in informal settings, and provides several lessons learned in this regard. The results of the study, backed by a solid statistical analysis of the data, demonstrate the suitability of the flipped-classroom methodology for laboratory sessions in the subject course. Among other results, our analysis concluded that students had on average 24 more minutes per session to solve in-class exercises with the flipped-classroom methodology; more than 70% of the students considered that the quantity, duration and didactic content of the videos were (very) appropriate; and 9 out of every 10 students would prefer this methodology in the laboratory sessions of future courses rather than a traditional face-to-face approach.