Flipping Electricity and Magnetism with Online Homework

At Cal Poly Pomona, introductory physics classes are taught through 3-unit lectures and 1-unit lab. There is no recitation section to allow students for more practice with the instructor. Such lack of practice adversely affects student learning in all introductory classes including PHY 133, which is a calculus-based course on introductory electricity and magnetism. Flipped classroom approach has potential to remedy the situation. By moving most of the lecturing to online vewing of materials along with questions answered ahead of the lecture, the instructor can plan the class time for many other activities, such as more in-depth conceptual questions, comprehensive lecture demos, and problem solving. One other aspect of the project is that most of the assessments are done online. Homework is done online at smartphysics.com, and 4 midterms are given on Blackboard. I believe that frequent assessments ensure more regular study of the material to improve student learning.