Student Engagement and Satisfaction in a Flipped Classroom

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the flipped classroom approach as a teaching method on student satisfaction, engagement, and content knowledge within an adult medical surgical nursing course. In the flipped classroom teaching and learning focus on student involvement through active engagement. This model approached learning experiences, as “the teacher is the provider of knowledge.” However over the past few years this type of passive pedagogy has been replaced with a new standard of student-centered learning in which the student is actively engaged in higher-learning tasks and taking change of their own learning Even though this has become a popular strategy for many educators and a substantial amount of research exists that supports the pedagogical foundations for a student-centered, active-learning approach. Quantitative research outcomes related to students in the flipped classroom is very limited. In addition, Student satisfaction and engagement is sparse in the research literature. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine if there was a significant difference in satisfaction, engagement, and content knowledge when comparing traditional lecture and flipped classroom methods. This study involved 48 undergraduate students from two flipped classrooms consisting of a unit in cardiac content. Students in the flipped classroom were asked to study classroom material prior to class, allowing more class time to be used for active learning activities such as active group discussion and problem solving with technology. This study revealed a significant difference between student engagement scores in the flipped classroom than those in the traditional classroom. Students described feeling more engaged and satisfied with meaningful activities in the flipped classroom setting opposed to the traditional classroom. A significant difference was found in the means for the unit exam. Knowledge gains along with engagement mean scores and students’ positive responses support the use of the flipped classroom method to increase satisfaction and engagement. Students cited peer-to-peer and student-faculty relationship as essential and meaningful to an engaging and satisfying experience within the flipped classroom setting.