Making mathematics meaningful for freshmen students: investigating students’ preferences of pre-class videos

Engaging students in university mathematics classes can be a challenge for professors. One pedagogical technique is the use of pre-class videos in a flipped classroom. The students are exposed to the concepts and theories before attending class so that class time can be devoted to interacting with the content to better understand it. Most of the research into the flipped classroom shows that the students generally like the idea and feel they benefit from the approach; but to date, there is no conclusive research showing that students’ improve their grades. This research is a precursor to a larger study on the flipped classroom in university mathematics classes and investigates the types of videos undergraduate students prefer to help guide the development of a pre-class videos library. Eight-one students in three university mathematics classes in a private university in the United Arab Emirates were involved in the study. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s41039-015-0026-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.