Full Flip, Half Flip and No Flip:Evaluation of Flipping an Introductory Programming Course

While some research has suggested that video lectures are just as effective as in-person lectures to convey basic information to students, not everyone agrees that the flipped classroom model is an effective way of educating students. This research explores traditional, semi-flipped and fully-flipped classroom models by comparing three sections of an Introduction to Programming (Java) course that were taught at the same institution in Spring 2015 by three different instructors using three different paradigms. The data and observations collected suggests that incorporating in-class activities improves student satisfaction but a semi-flipped classroom, including in-class activities, some outsideclass lecture videos, and some in-class lectures, may generally provide the best overall experience for the students. However, while students may be more satisfied and get more programming practice in a flipped paradigm, overall student performance did not appear to be greatly impacted.