2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering education involves researching and establishing effective instructional strategies in higher education with an aim to improve student learning outcomes. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced many students to transition to online learning rather than traditional in-person learning. Online learning has been implemented before COVID-19; however, it has become very widespread recently and this presents a whole new realm of instructional methods. Students learn in many different ways and recognizing a model where students are set up to succeed is crucial. Investigating the effects of instructional methods on student performance and student satisfaction in online learning can be instrumental in identifying the most ideal model for students. In this research, two different instructional methods in an online setup, traditional and flipped, were compared and evaluated. Student performance and course evaluations from an introductory materials science and engineering course at a Southeastern university in the United States were analyzed. Preliminary results suggested the overall exam averages of the traditional and flipped setup were not significantly different. Further analysis was performed on the exams to identify the challenging topics to come up with an improved way to deliver the course content. In addition, student satisfaction was quantified using the course evaluation data.