Students, professor reflect on “flipped classroom” approach for computer science classes

Students in Computer and Information Science classes have reacted positively to the increasing adoption of the Structured, Active, In-class Learning Initiative, also known as the “flipped classroom” approach. 

The SAIL method uses class time that is typically used for instructor lecturing to emphasize active engagement and student participation. To prepare students before coming to class, SAIL instructors often ask students to learn the content by themselves beforehand. 

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Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation describes SAIL as a way to provide “structured, in-class activities that encourage students to learn through the direct application of course ideas and material —often the most difficult part of learning — with guidance from their instructors, as well as help from peers.”  

Multiple CIS classes have recently embraced this approach, including CIS 1100: Introduction to Computer Programming (Python).

CIS 1100 professor Harry Smith said that he had a number of concerns before adopting the new approach this semester for the first time, one of which was ensuring that the required videos that students watch before class are “worthwhile” so that the class is “respectful of student time.”

“We wanted to avoid the feeling that by having to do all of these extra things, it would mean that there were more opportunities for people to lose points in a way,” Smith said. “I want it to be obvious that doing this work is there to help you understand things better, have more opportunities to show what you know or check in about what you maybe don’t know and that in fact it’s actually quite low stakes.”

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Smith said that despite these concerns, he decided to move forward with the approach to address several shortcomings he had noted after teaching the course for a number of semesters.

“We have these assignments that are challenging, open-ended programming assignments, and it was really difficult for us to cover material during lecture that was commensurate with the complexity and the difficulty that we were asking people on the homework,” Smith said. “We wanted to ask people to do a little bit more before class so that during class, we could do a little bit more so that after class the workload is friendlier or more manageable.”

Director of Faculty Programming and Pedagogy for CETLI Catherine Turner works with instructors to help implement SAIL techniques in their classroom. She said that she believes that the technique is enormously beneficial for student learning and much more inclusive.

“The research into it has just been incontrovertible. Most people who use this method find students just do much better but they also find that on the faculty side, many faculty really enjoy teaching a SAIL class because they get to interact more with their students,” Turner said. “They can see when students get confused and where they may need to provide additional information.”

College first-year Sunya Afrasiabi, who is taking CIS 1100 this semester, said that she believes SAIL is better than traditional lectures because it forces students to have material to look at beforehand and “work at [their] own pace.”

Afrasiabi added that there is a “forced collaboration” between students as a result of having more time to work on problems in class.

“I would say that we’re interacting with each other more often than if it were just a big one hour and a half lecture where we’re just listening to the professor speak,” Afrasiabi said. 

College sophomore Yun Zheng took his only SAIL course when he enrolled in CIS 1600: Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science last semester. Out of the four computer science classes he has taken, Zheng said that he found the SAIL structure of CIS 1600 to be the most beneficial.

“In traditional learning classrooms, you really have to pay close attention, but you don’t know when to pay close attention — so sometimes the professor will say something important and you can’t copy down the notes fast enough,” Zheng said. “I prefer to watch at my own pace and in two-times speed during the easy parts but also be able to go back to what a professor says in videos.”

Penn has been largely supportive of SAIL, launching several initiatives to support the approach including the SAIL Seminar, SAIL course development grants, and SAIL Teacher Assistant Training. SAIL has also expanded into humanities departments, such as political science and history, in previous years. 

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