Preclass learning, an obstacle in the success of a flipped classroom, is addressed via placing lessons on an online adaptive platform. The lessons combine the power of video lectures, textbook content, simulations, and assessments while using personalized paths for each student. This article describes the development of the adaptive lessons for a course in Numerical Methods, and the interpretation of the analytic data collected via the adaptive lesson platform and student focus groups over a two‐semester period with 146 students. Analytical data includes student metrics, such as the lesson scores and the time spent and lesson metrics, such as the percentage of students who completed the lesson and the percentage of possible adaptive paths used by students. The focus groups were conducted for two different demographic groups—students who are “white males” (comprise the majority of students in public engineering schools in the USA) and “other than white males”—to compare their perspectives on adaptive learning. Students in the focus group of the “other than white male” pupils demonstrated more favorable and positive perspectives towards the adaptive learning compared with the “white males”, although both groups identified benefits with the adaptive platform. Final examination scores were found to be correlated with the raw score of the adaptive lessons.

He is a recipient of the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year Award (doctoral and research universities) from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching. Professor Kaw's main scholarly interests are in engineering education research, adaptive, blended and flipped learning, open courseware development, and the state and future of higher education. Funded by National Science Foundation, under Professor Kaw's leadership, he and his colleagues from around the nation have developed, implemented, refined, and assessed online resources for an open courseware in Numerical Methods. This courseware annually receives 1,000,000+ page views, 2,000,000+ views of the YouTube lectures, and 90,000+ visitors to the "numerical methods guy" blog. He has written more than 100 refereed technical papers and his opinion editorials have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune and Chronicle Vitae. His work has been covered/cited/quoted in many media outlets including

Professor Kaw's main scholarly interests are in engineering education research, adaptive learning, open courseware development, bascule bridge design, fracture mechanics, composite materials, and the state and future of higher education. Funded by National Science Foundation (2002-16), under Professor Kaw's leadership, he and his colleagues from around the nation have developed, implemented, refined and assessed online resources for an open courseware in Numerical Methods (http://nm.MathForCollege.com). This courseware annually receives 1,000,000+ page views, 2,000,000+ views of the YouTube lectures, and 90,000+ visitors to the "numerical methods guy" blog. Professor Kaw has written more than 85 refereed technical papers and his opinion editorials have appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune and Chronicle Vitae. His work has been covered/cited/quoted in many media outlets including Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, U.S. Congressional Record, Florida Senate Resolution, ASEE Prism, and Voice of America.