Updating Engineering Teaching Through Active Learning: Applying Flipped Classroom in Undergraduate Education

The paper addresses a relatively novel approach of education for engineering students. The traditional teaching approach of engineering has been used for a long time, and its main characteristics and aspects basically have not changed in the last decades. Roughly speaking, the students absorb the knowledge transmitted by the professors in a passive manner, essentially memorizing it. However, the world and the students have changed in a way that new teaching approaches are necessary. The approach that knowledge follows in a one-way direction can be changed, and the teaching-learning process can be more attractive and perhaps ludic. It is known that experiences are very useful to constructing the knowledge and it can be done through active learning. Active learning has many advantages, the main ones are related to the way the knowledge is constructed autonomously, the development of social and professional skills, and the motivation of the students, an important point nowadays. Finally, the present computing technologies and tools facilitate the application of active learning, helping the professors to adopt that approach. The paper also presents some real-life examples of how to apply active learning strategies in a traditional engineering course. The proof of concept has provided feedback to improve the next edition of the course and the results were satisfactory and promising. It is not only an educational research study, but a practical reflection that may inspire approaches to developing junior engineers in both academic and industrial contexts.