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Flipping a Course on Computer Architecture

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ICT Education (SACLA 2016)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 642))

Abstract

This paper reports on an experiment with a flipped classroom for a Computer Architecture course. In a flipped classroom, students access content out of the classroom and then engage in a discussion in-class, rather than the other way around. This seemed like an ideal strategy for a course that can easily focus on the minutiae of architectural details and computer history. The results showed that students liked the interactive and practical aspects of the course but were particularly negative about pre-lecture readings. These results suggest that students need to learn how to learn in different ways, and move away from the exclusive strategy of in-classroom, content-centric lectures.

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References

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa (Grant numbers: 85470 and 88209) and University of Cape Town. The author acknowledges that opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are that of the author, and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Hussein Suleman

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  1. Hussein Suleman
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Correspondence to Hussein Suleman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Stefan Gruner

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Suleman, H. (2016). Flipping a Course on Computer Architecture. In: Gruner, S. (eds) ICT Education. SACLA 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 642. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47680-3_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47680-3_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47679-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47680-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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