Signal Processing - July 2017 - 160

FIGURE 1. One of the active learning classrooms at Rutgers University; facilities such as this are often
recommended in education circles for use in project-based learning, flipped learning, etc. (Photo
courtesy of Rutgers Digital Classroom Services.)

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160

engaging modes of instruction and
research has shown it to be highly
effective in overcoming limitations
of the lecture format [22]. Projectbased learning, however, has its own
set of challenges when it comes to its
adoption for engineering education. It
is not straightforward to design a
project-based learning curriculum for
the majority of core engineering
courses. Further, project-based learning requires specialized active learning classrooms (see Figure 1), which
are typically in short supply on most
university campuses. Finally, the
human resource overhead (in terms of
man-hours and student-faculty ratio)
associated with project-based learning
deters cash-strapped academic departments with large student enrollment
from fully embracing it as a scalable
alternative to traditional lecturing.
Online courses, in general, and massive open online courses (MOOCs),
in particular, are often put forth as
scalable alternatives to the lecture
format [23], [24]. The single biggest
advantage of online courses is that
video archiving of instructor's presentations enables students to digest
new material at their own pace by
pausing, rewinding, and fast-forwarding parts of videos. Strictly speaking,

■

however, online courses (MOOCs or
otherwise) are pedagogically nearidentical twins of lecture-based
courses. Similar to the lecture format,
they revolve around the passive transfer of knowledge from the instructor
to students and implicitly assume the
behavioral and learning equivalence
of students. In fact, if anything, the
lack of face-to-face interactions with
the instructor only make it more challenging for some students to achieve
the learning objectives of online courses. And the astronomical drop-out
rates of MOOCs [25], [26] seem to
confirm this impression that online
courses are pedagogically challenging for all but the most resolute
of students.
Flipped classrooms (see "Anatomy of
a Flipped Classroom"), popularized in
K-12 education by the advent of Khan
Academy [27], appear to strike somewhat of a balance between the highoverhead of project-based learning
and the overly passive nature of online
courses in engineering education.
Similar to online courses, a flipped
classroom makes use of video-based
instructions that allow students the
flexibility of revisiting key concepts at
later stages in the course. Similar to
project-based learning, a flipped classIEEE SIGNAL PROCESSING MAGAZINE

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July 2017

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room uses class time for activities that
not only help students recognize deficiencies in their understanding of
course material but also enable the
instructor to take real-time remedial
steps that can address these deficiencies. It is no surprise then that flipped
classrooms have been adopted by a
number of engineering instructors
in recent years [28]-[33]. Notwith standing these adoptions, the conventional wisdom among engineering
instructors has been that a flipped
classroom-similar to project-based
learning-is not scalable to core
engineering courses that enroll hundreds of students. There are two main
reasons for this perception. First, it is
a common belief that flipped offerings also require active learning
classrooms. Second, positive learning
outcomes in flipped classrooms are
often linked to low student-faculty
ratios. The fact that flipped classrooms in engineering education
have mostly been adopted for small
(sometimes elective) classes seems to
strengthen this perception. Among
the documented flipped classrooms
in electrical engineering, [29], [30],
and [31] had 30, 115, and 40 students, respectively.

Flipping digital signal processing
at Rutgers University
Background and motivation
ECE 346: Digital Signal Processing is a
required course at Rutgers for students
majoring in electrical engineering. It is
offered every year in the spring semester,
with an average final enrollment of more
than 100 students in the last five years.
Traditionally, more than two-thirds of the
students enrolling in this course are
juniors who took ECE 345: Linear Systems and Signals in the immediately preceding semester, while the rest are
seniors who did not or could not enroll
earlier in the signal processing course for
various personal or academic reasons. I
have been teaching this course since
spring 2012, with my first offering very
much in the mold of traditional lecture
and chalkboard format. This first offering
would be considered a success by most



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signal Processing - July 2017

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Signal Processing - July 2017 - Cover3
Signal Processing - July 2017 - Cover4
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