The Impact of the Classroom Environment on the Transition From the Traditional Model to the Flipped Classroom in a Unit Operation Course

Abstract

The learning objectives of the Unit Operation course are to learn, understand and apply the operational and design principles of various separation units. For each unit, students must learn the process principles, how to apply mass and energy balances and how to use solving procedures in various contexts to design units, based on given parameters and operating objectives. 
 The main challenges for the students are to develop the general design skills and the necessary knowledge of the theory principles, with a deep understanding of the various concepts and procedures specific to each unit. The traditional format of the course leads students to solve problems mostly during their study time, while the help of the teacher is not direct. A flipped classroom approach would allow students to revise, explore and acquire significant part of the knowledge online or on their own rather than during the lectures and then to benefit from more efficient design problem-solving sessions. It, however, requires adaptation and engagement from both the students and the instructors for a successful learning experience.
 In this course, the transformation is gradually implemented with the use of active learning classrooms and the development of a blended learning format of the course, to obtain an entirely flipped classroom. The access to active learning classrooms is one of the tools that could impact the quality of the flipped classroom organization, but also change the student’s experience, and was the studied. Having the suitable space, tools and seating organization to easily work in team and share their work with the entire group efficiently could help them to be engaged and to develop these new skills. The assessment of the student’s experience during the unit operations course in the active learning classroom showed that it promotes collaboration and it was appreciated by the majority of students, with a clear preference for this classroom over a traditional one for the various learning activities. It could then help reducing some obstacles to engage students in cooperative learning.