ENG.

2116-090
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

To: Whom it may concern

Subject: Request for all CCI (College of Computing and Informatics) courses to be Flipped Classrooms

PROBLEM
This proposal is asking to make all courses in the College of Computing and
Informatics a flipped classroom; meaning that instead of standard lectures, then practice
assignments at home, student are instead required to have already studied the material, and
come to class to do an exercise activity with the teacher. This is an extremely important, and
very easy to implement project because past studies have shown that students in the CCI
department are not getting enough practice and time with professors to work on assignments.
The ongoing problem of students not being engaged in lectures, and not even being
able to learn or keep up with the traditional classroom is not a new one. Past studies have
greatly shown that students spending hours doing homework at home alone is not effective if
they were not able to understand what they were being taught in class.
Students and teachers alike are wasting valuable and costly time in the classrooms
listening to lectures that could be done at home, and online. My request for these classrooms
are to be lab based only is relevant because with each year that passes by more students are
graduating with not enough skills to go into the real world, and especially not enough practice
in tech related activities such as (Programming, Software Testing, Database design, etc)

Goal:

12/2/2015

OBJECTIVES

Eng. 2116-090

Students are able to get comfortable with topics in the IT field, and be able to learn how
to be logical over their academic life in college.
The solution to this problem can be achieved by these features:
1) Eliminate stand at the front lectures, instead teachers work side by side with students.
2) Every class must have an activity that is solvable during the required time of 75 minutes.
3) Every class must have a teacher assistant present to assist with any problems that may
arise during the activity.
4) Students are required to take a quiz and watch videos at home before they come to class
to work on the activity.
5) All students must bring laptop to class if the classroom is not a lab, if they do not have
one then the CCI department must loan one for that class period.
6) All tables must have working outlets.

SOLUTION
What I plan to implement will be that students are able to do assignments, and practice
algorithms inside the classroom with their peers, and the professor. They will no longer be just
the spectator to topics that are impossible to just to, but finally have the opportunity to practice
over and over again with exercises that will increase in difficulty over the course of the semester
so that by the end they are able to confident about their skill set in that IT field.
For me to prove that this proposal is feasible, and the best option for classrooms in CCI, it
would best to list out possible hesitations of why this would not work.
Argument 1
Web material may be time consuming to produce and find on certain topics.
Solution
Technological advancement is only becoming greater, and as of now there are many
online tools to help with recording lectures, or creating an online web resources that are free

Argument 2
Without a standard lecture to prescribe class format, control of instruction is no longer in
hands of instructor.

Eng. 2116-090

Solution
Students have many different learning styles, so for some the typical lecture by one
teacher could be effective, and all they would need, but the reality is that learning the same topic
from many different sources are extremely helpful to the other students who need more
examples of a topic, or an explanation in a different way.
Instructors can also assign reading material and simple questions for students to do at
home to get credit for that way the students have even more incentive to read and really try to
understand the material before their activity on it.

CHART SCHEDULE
Task

Start Date

Duration

End Date

1. Proposal Approval 11-Nov

1wk

1-Dec

2. Add outlets in
classrooms on
weekends when
there are no
classes.

1-Dec

1wk

7-Dec

3. Buy and label the

best estimated
number of
laptops for
students in need
to borrow

1-Dec

1wk

7-Dec

4. Meet with all

teachers to plan
out exercises that
will be done in
class.

8-Dec

2wk

15-Dec

5. Meet with all

teachers to
discuss best

8-Dec

3wk

26-Dec

Eng. 2116-090
material/tutorials
to put on Moodle
webpage
6. Hire teacher
assistants to be
put in every CCI
course.

1-Jan

1wk

8-Jan

7. Send out memo

to all students
stating the
objectives of this
new
implementation
into classrooms

1-Jan

1 wks.

8-Jan

8. Send out survey

at end of
semester to get
feedback on new
implementation.

15-April

2wk

12-May

Total Time: 12 weeks

QUALIFICATIONS
My qualifications to propose this project as well as to assist are because I am a 4th year
student at UNC Charlotte, and have experienced many difficulties in grasping my computer
science courses. I have gotten feedback from many students about the inefficient lectures,
and their approval on this project.
Also because I have always been looking for help, and better ways of being taught a
subject as well as practicing online., I can be of assistance in helping to find the most helpful
material on the Moodle web page that will help students become familiar with the topic
before they get a chance to sit down in class to practice it.

Eng. 2116-090

ESTIMATE
*Estimates of costs accounting for labor and material

Item

$Price

1. Outlets (4 per
desk)
2. Laptops
3. Teacher lunch for
project meetings
4. Teacher
Assistants per
class time +
tutoring times
5. Survey Paper
(ream of 500
sheets)

Total

Quantity

$Total

0.50

650

325.00

80.00

250

20,000.00

10.00

50

500.00

9.00

40

360.00

25.00

50.00

124.5
124.50

992

My sincere appreciation for your time,

P.S. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at: BetterTechLearning@uncc.edu.br

$21,235.00