A preliminary study on the utilization and effectiveness of a flipped classroom in Thailand

This paper described the preliminary study on the effectiveness of flipped classroom teaching for an engineering course, the Mechanics of Materials which demanded strong theoretical knowledge. Students who took this compulsory course studied in several engineering programs and completed different pre-requisite courses. For this course, there were five sections, of which two were flipped; students freely chose the section. The preliminary results showed that the performances from the flipped classroom sections were at least as good as the sections with traditional teachings. For students of whom the course was not vital for the study progress, the ratio of withdrawal in the flipped section was less than half those of the traditional sections. For course management, the coordinated flipped classroom provided a better in-built system that reduced course drift and allow flexible teaching schedule for lecturers. The key component for course improvement was better communication to students about the learning philosophy and intentions.