Design of Experiment Course Computer-Aided Landscape Design Based on Flipped Classroom

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a traditional lecture-based curriculum versus a modified flipped classroom curriculum of computer-aided landscape design delivered to the second-year undergraduate students. Students in both courses were provided the same notes and recorded lectures. Students in the modified flipped classroom were distributed the teaching case so that they can produce the effect diagram according to their own ideas before class and then attend class, discussing and trying to solve problems they met. In the traditional curriculum, the students were only asked to prepare a new lesson while the case was not distributed. Within a comparable group of graduate students, participants in the flipped class scored significantly higher (P<0.05) on the computer-aided landscape design by an average of >3 percentage points. The scores of learning attitude and learning motivation of the test group is significantly higher than that of controlled group (P<0.05). According to our experience and surveys on students, we propose that the teaching cases made by the students before class are critical motivating factors which are likely to help student study. Independently taken together, our findings suggest that the flipped classroom model is a highly effective means which improves the undergraduates' skills of making effect charts. (c) 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.