You have nothing to lose: Worry-free flipping for PSE

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic forced all PSE instructors to move their teaching completely online, this has largely not changed most teaching practice, which has retained face-to-face lecturing as the main activity during contact between lecturers and students. This paper presents the case for shifting teaching to active learning by students, most effectively accomplished using the flipped classroom. With the advantages of adopting the flipping approach clear, one is left with two issues to resolve, both of which are the focus of the contributions of this paper: (a) how to effectively produce the necessary supporting materials (recorded lectures, online quizzes, and class activities), and (b) how to continuously foster engagement by the students. These contributions are supported by examples from the authors’ extensive experience of successful applications of active learning approaches relying on the flipped classroom in process design and process control courses.