A Qualitative Study about Enriching Programming and Algorithm Teaching with Flipped Classroom Approach

This study aims to detect the students’ views about enriching programming and algorithm teaching with flipped classroom approach. The study was conducted with freshman students in Karadeniz Technical University, Faculty of Technology; Software Engineering Department in fall semester of 2015-2016 academic year. Qualitative research method was used in this study. Semi-structured interview form, which was developed by the researchers, was used as data collecting tool. The study was carried out with the participation of 94 students in the scope of Introduction to Programing and Algorithm course during 14 weeks and this course was designed and carried out in accordance with flipped classroom approach. At the end of the semester, interviews were held with 32 voluntary students among the students taking the course. The data analyzed through content analysis. According to the results of the study, majority of the students expressed positive views about the flipped classroom approach. With regard to the findings of the study, it can be said that flipped classroom approach can be used effectively in programming and coding based courses.


Introduction
Studies on education focus on rather student centered education environment than teacher centered education environments in accordance with the current modern education understanding.In this regard, use of information communication technologies in education in different ways becomes prominent.Educational use of such tools as blog, wiki, online learning environments and social networks has become widespread thanks to the developing technology (Mazman & Usluel, 2011).These technologies have changed not only in form and content of the communication but also habits and understanding regarding the learning.Thanks to different technologies, creation of learning environments in which students take the central position and take responsibility for their learning has become possible (Andrews, Leonard, Colgrove, & Kalinowski, 2011;Bergmann & Sams, 2012;Davies, Dean, & Ball, 2013).
One of the approaches to studies on student centered teaching is Flipped Classroom Approach (FCA).FCA can be typically described as doing the work in class which should be done at home, and doing the work at home which should be done in class and studying the course material before the course time (Bergmann & Sams, 2012;Moravec, Williams, Aguilar-Roca, & O'Dowd, 2010;Sever, 2014;Turan & Göktaş, 2015).FCA takes the constructivist approach as a basis in education, and videos and materials about the course are studied by the students before the course time.Tasks, projects and practices are carried out in class environment following this process.Here, the aim is to make students to come the class as prepared to learn life (Bristol, 2014;Demiralay & Karataş, 2014;Doğan, 2015).Fundamental philosophy of this approach is that such activities as understanding, comprehending and thinking about the subject are realized by the students before the course time.FCA can be thought as turning information transmission in crowded class environments into individual learning and pave the way for individual learning (Filiz & Kurt, 2015).One of the most important aspects of the FCA is that giving information to students about the course in limited course hours and carrying out some of the processes such as understanding these information and making practice which take long time outside of the class (Doğan, 2015;Kong, 2014).Thanks to this, the environment, source and time required for internalizing the subject and knowledge the students have to learn are provided to them (Davies et al., 2013).Enrichment and diversification of learning environments through the technology has an important role in the creation and spread of FCA.Especially the development of internet technologies makes it easy to include the information communication tools such as blog, wiki, social networks into the teaching and education process (Doğan, 2015;Friedman & Friedman, 2013;Jacot, Noren, & Berge, 2014).In this regard, Facebook, one of the social network websites, has been used effectively in many studies with this purpose for realizing FCA.(Doğan, 2015;Turan & Göktaş, 2015).
Examples for implementation of FCA can be found in the literature.This approach has been applied in various disciplines from educational studies to nursing and medical science (Arnold-Garza, 2014;Doğan, 2015;Hawks, 2014).There are studies which examine the views of students about this method in terms of the courses in which this approach is used.Majority of the views found out in such studies are positive, while there are also negative views though in a limited number about the FCA.Positive views about FCA can be listed as students' taking active role and responsibility during the learning process (Arnold-Garza, 2014;Başal, 2012;Gannod, Burge, & Helmick, 2008;Hwang, Lai, & Wang, 2015;Mason, Shuman, & Cook, 2013;Musib, 2014), making it easy to learn and providing a better learning (Doğan, 2015;Findlay-Thompson & Mombourquette, 2014;Mok, 2014;Zappe, Leicht, Messner, Litzinger, & Lee, 2009;Turan & Göktaş, 2015), and more communication (Doğan, 2015), developing positive attitude toward the course, increasing motivation (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015;Butt, 2014;Gaughan, 2014;Davis et al. 2013;Kong, 2014;Sever, 2014), and decreasing the level of anxiety (Marlowe, 2012).It is also possible to come across with the studies which emphasize the negative aspects of the FCA despite the positive views about this approach.That the students come to the course unprepared (Bristol, 2014), and lack of communication (Doğan, 2015) can be mentioned as the negative aspects of this approach.
While the studies in this field became widespread in the middle of 2000s abroad, such studies gained speed in recent years in our country (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015;Chen, Wang, Kinskuh, & Chen, 2014;Filiz & Kurt, 2015;Turan & Göktaş, 2015).It can be said that the studies expand from primary school level to high school level (Filiz & Kurt, 2015;Turan & Göktaş, 2015).It is seen that the studies at higher education level are conducted in various fields, such as language teaching, accounting training, nursing education and also with various study groups such as candidate teachers in different branches of education faculty.Additionally, rarity of the studies conducted with candidate engineers draw attention.However, it is difficult to come across studies in this field conducted with the students in engineering departments.Mason et al. (2013) emphasized that the goal of the engineering education is to raise individuals who can solve problems, have strong technical knowledge, are responsible for their own learning and the FCA can contribute to engineering education.The fact that engineering departments concentrate more on application, and the abundance of project based applications show that such applications can be carried out with these learner groups.Furthermore, the scarcity of the studies conducted in this field make this study important and necessary.In this regard, it is necessary to determine the potentiality of the use of FCA in engineering education and assess the views of the students about this approach in order to utilize it.In this sense, this study deals with the views of the freshman software engineering students regarding the use of this approach in introduction to programming and algorithm course.Main research question of the study is that "what are the views of the students about the use of FCA in programming and algorithm learning?"

Research Design
The study has been conducted as a specific case study.Specific case study aims to make a deep analysis on a subject (Büyüköztürk, Çakmak, Akgün, Karadeniz, & Demirel, 2009).Qualitative research method has been used in this study in order to analyze the views of the students with a deeper view.

Participants
The study group of the research consists of 94 freshman students (19 female, 75 male) from Karadeniz Technical University, Of Faculty of Technology, Software Engineering Department.The study was conducted in fall semester of 2015-2016 academic year.At the end of the study, interviews were conducted with 32 students (8 female, 24 male) who volunteered to participate.

Instrument
Semi-structured interview form created by the researchers was used as data collecting tool in this study.While creating the interview form, it was deliberately planned that the questions were not elaborated in order not to lead the students through a specific direction.In other words, by asking such general questions, a basis was provided for students to express their opinions about the implementation from a broader framework without being dependent on questions.The interview form was examined by two experts working in the same university, one of whom studies on assessment and evaluation and the other studies Turkish Language.After the examination of the interview form by two experts, some modifications were made on the questions and the interview form was put into its final form.At the end of the semester, interviews were conducted with students individually.The interview form was distributed to the students and students were asked to express their opinions in a written form.The interview questions are as follows: • What do you think about carrying out the Introduction to Programming and Algorithm course through the Facebook with this method?a) What are the positive aspects of it according to you? b) What are the negative aspects of it according to you?
• Do you want such applications for other courses?
• Do you have any other opinion/suggestion(s) about this matter?

Procedure
The main objective of the Introduction to Programming and Algorithm Course is to help students to gain fundamental programming skill and teach them algorithm design.It is aimed in this course to teach C# programming language in Visual Studio environment of Microsoft.The content of the course consists of fundamental algorithm concepts, flow diagrams and programing constituents (variables, control phrases, loops, series, matrixes, functions, sequence algorithms, search algorithms and exemplary practices about them).Before starting the activity, a Facebook group where all the materials about the course would be shared was set up and all the students taking the course became a member of it.In addition, fundamental information about the method to be utilized during the course was given to the students at the first week of the course.
The students taking the course were informed that the course would be taught according to the FCA and Facebook would be used for the share of course sources and materials and discussions about FCA, how to apply it in the course, and the roles of the students and instructor were introduced to the students.Furthermore, students were also informed that their opinions would be taken in terms of assessing the course taught in accordance with FCA in order to generate a kind of awareness among the students.Afterwards, necessary sources such as video, material, web site about the subjects to be taught during the next course were weekly shared through the Facebook group after course time in each week.
The instructor was not the only person who shared the sources; the students were also advised to share materials about the subject of the related course.Materials shared by the students were examined and approved by the instructor, and then they were included in the group.Besides, exercises, practices and small projects were also sent through the Facebook group and thanks to this, students came to the course in an informed manner about the subject and tasks.Furthermore, the students had the opportunity to study on the practice, project and the task to be dealt with during the course time and these activities were realized during the course time.Computer laboratory at school was used for the course which lasts 4 hours in a week.The students reviewed the information about the course in laboratory and tried to carry out the practice/project to be performed in that course.This process continued during one semester.At the end of the semester, interviews were conducted with the voluntary students who took the course.The screen shot of the posts of two students and the post of the instructor of the course are given in Figure 1 and 2. Names and profile pictures of the instructor and the students were given unrevealingly.
Source sharing of the instructor about the functions is presented in Figure 1.This post consists of web sites and videos in which there are function descriptions, and types in C# programming language and concepts, and model applications regarding the describing and calling function, returning value from a function.The students examined the concepts about the subject and studied on them in accordance with FCA in addition to these sources.During the course time, concepts were rapidly discussed and coding practices were realized on computer as the second stage of FCA.These activities were carried out as programming activities to put into practice the concepts that students study on.For example, one of the products resulting at the end of this study is the creation and coding of the function by taking two whole numbers as the exponent and power and calculating the result and return it to the main program.Figure 2 shows the source sharing of two students about C# programming basics and switch-case.The sharing was examined by the instructor and broadcasted on Facebook group.The first post includes the general videos about C# programming language and the second post is a about conditional phrases.The first source can be thought as a source used for general goals, but the second source is directly related with the subject of the course.The students obtained information about multiple control structure (for the programming language if-else-if structure) with the second source.Exemplary coding activity regarding this subject was carried out during course time.One of the implementations carried out during this course is the coding activity calculating an input grade between 0-100 turns into which letter grade within the predefined intervals with switch-case structure.

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The study was carried on for 14 weeks in the scope of Introduction to programming and Algorithm Course.In summary, materials appropriate for the subject of the week were presented systematically to the students before the course time and thanks to this students came to the course with comprehensive knowledge about the subject.Coding practices were carried out directly during the course.Course plan followed during the semester, subjects dealt with weekly and activities prepared regarding these subjects including coding practices are shown on Table 1.

Data Analysis
Students were coded as Std1, Std2, … , Std32.Qualitative data obtained as a result of the interviews were subjected to content analysis.Content analysis is a kind of research method through which classification and comparison operations are made on the texts to obtain some results from the qualitative data (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007).The texts taken from the students in a written form were coded categorically.Themes were obtained from these coding.Some factors were taken into consideration in order to increase the validity and reliability of the research.In order to provide reliability, the students were allowed to fill the form whenever they want and they were not limited in terms of the time while filling the form and they were also allowed to change their opinions in case that they see it necessary.Students ID information were not placed on the form.During the content analysis process, interview forms were read and analyzed by two researchers separately.Both researchers made coding and obtained themes according to the answers given to the interview questions.Then, the results of these two analyses were compared and final themes were decided.It can be said that there is a consensus at high level in terms of the results of analysis of two researchers.Finally, opinions of the students were given without adding them any comments.Qualitative data obtained from the students were analyzed systematically through these operations; opinions taken from the answers of the students were grouped under two themes as positive and negative.These main themes and related sub themes and also frequency information about them are presented.

Results
In this chapter, the results are presented with the content analysis of the answers that were given by the students for the interview form.Themes obtained as a result of the analysis are presented on tables with direct allocations.Some allocations are given under more than one theme, because they include more than one theme on their body.Themes resulting from the analysis are presented under two main themes as positive and negative views.

Positive Views
Table 2 presents the frequency information and subthemes under which positive opinions of students about the environment created on Facebook in accordance with FCA for the programming and algorithm learning were collected.
According to Table 2, it is observed that students' positive opinions about this application are collected under ten subthemes.The frequencies of these sub themes vary between 24 and 1. Positive views are expressed as with 24 repetitions coming to course preparedly and with 1 repetition making the student active.

Negative Views
Frequency information and themes under which students' negative views about this environment are given in Table 3.

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As Table 3 displays, students' negative views about this application are grouped under 3 subthemes which can be regarded as more limited in comparison to the positive views.The frequencies of these subthemes vary between 4 and 2, which is also less than that of positive views.Negative views are expressed as with 4 repetitions timid personality and not achieving self-learning and with 2 repetitions the obligation for preparation.

Discussion, Conclusion & Implementation
This study presents the students' views about enrichment of algorithm and programming learning through Facebook group created in accordance with FCA.In other words, reflections from the utilization of FCA in Introduction to Programming and Algorithm Course are explored.According to the results of the study, FCA can be effectively used in programing and algorithm learning.It can be said that positive views are more than the negative views about the effect of this approach on programming learning, according to the findings obtained from the study.While the positive views are categorized under ten subthemes, the negative views are grouped under three different subthemes.This finding supports that FCA can be used as an important tool in programing and algorithm learning.
With regards to the positive views found out in the study, it is possible to say that FCA provides enrichment to the students in terms of many different aspects and makes important contributions to their learning.When the themes representing the positive cases are analyzed, it is seen that this situation comes out with different aspects such as coming to course prepared, increasing the cooperation and interaction outside of the class, making understanding easy and encouraging to do research.There are also studies in the literature concluding the same results (Davis et al., 2013;Doğan, 2015;Findlay-Thompson & Mombourquette, 2014;Musib, 2014;Turan & Göktaş, 2015).The study reaches that when the students come to the course by structuring their foreknowledge about the subject regarding coding and algorithm, this influences their learning positively.
The results of the study are in parallel with the results of many studies in the literature, and also this study presents important findings about the programing and algorithm course in which FCA is utilized.The students' views reveal important information about the suitability of the FCA for the coding and programing weight courses.The students stated that they had the opportunity to make more practices during the course time thanks to this approach and this kind of practices can be used in specifically coding weight courses and all the practice oriented courses in general.It is thought that students' coming to the course prepared for the subjects of the course and makes more practices during the course time become influential on this view.It is very important to make time for practice for the comprehension of the coding and programming weight courses.In this regard, problems arise from giving both theoretical and practical information during the course in terms of the planning of the course hours.With the use of FCA, this problem can be overcome and the opportunity can be created for making time for practice during the course time.
According to the results obtained from the study, there are negative views about FCA even in limited number even though students' views are mostly positive about the use of FCA approach in programming and algorithm learning.In terms of the negative views, the first factor that attracts the attention is that students with timid personalities cannot adapt to this environment.It is thought that this situation arises from the characters of the students participated in the study.And this finding is not directly related with FCA as a negative aspect but it is thought as an indicator for the timid personality of the students in terms of using the communication and cooperation opportunities provided them with FCA through Facebook.This result of the study corresponds with the negative view in the study of Doğan (2015).Doğan (2015) shows the hesitation of the students who cannot express themselves effectively, and domination of some students as negative aspects of FCA.Such individuals should be encouraged and motivated to participate in the courses in which FCA is utilized.Another negative aspect is the views of the students who cannot achieve self-learning.Actually this situation is thought to arise from the habits brought by traditional teaching.Students who have this view state that they learn the subject by listening to it in the class environment and cannot learn the subject on their own, and this situation affects their learning negatively.It is also thought that the fact that students do not or cannot take the responsibility of their own learning becomes effective in the rise of such views.In order to eliminate this negative situation, assignments can be given to students in order to make them aware of their responsibility in learning.Additionally, students' learning habit can be changed by including such practices in traditional teaching process more frequently and applying it in different courses.In this way, students can be provided with opportunities in order to adapt themselves to this approach and internalize that taking one's own responsibility for learning, which is the key this approach.And the last negative view is that coming to the course unprepared causes difficulties in understanding the subject of the course.In another words, it is found out that not reviewing the materials presented before the course time poses an obstacle for the use of FCA.There is a similarity between this situation and the result in the study of Bristol (2004).When the negative views are assessed as a whole it can be seen that these problems do not arise from the structural features of the FCA but rather from individual characteristics and study habits of the students.By taking this factor into consideration, it can be said that some kind of habits rising from traditional teaching are still influential on the integration of FCA into real class environments.In order to overcome this problem, to motivate the students and to use such environments more commonly can be effective.
When the results of the study are dealt with as a whole, it is seen that students mostly have positive opinions about the use of FCA in programming and algorithm learning, but there are also few negative views about it.These negative views show that integration of such applications into the real class environment causes some difficulties.Negative views about these environments should be carefully taken into consideration and removed in order to maintain such practices better.In other words, this process can be made better by taking into consideration the negative views rather than the positive views.In addition, it can be said that the use of FCA in different courses will have contributions specifically for programming and algorithm learning and for engineering education in general.Mason et al. (2013) regard the rising of individuals who can achieve self-learning as the most important goals of engineering education.In this regard, FCA can be used as an effective tool.
The fact that this study was carried out with students in limited number in the scope of introduction to programming and algorithm course and it deals with only the views of the students can be regarded as the limitations of this study.As the FCA includes important differences from the traditional teaching, various studies can be conducted with different study groups and by applying different research designs specifically in programing teaching and in engineering education in general.The effects of FCA on students' academic success and study habits can be analyzed in these studies.It will be possible to apply the FCA in higher education and diversify the student centered studies by conducting such studies.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Screenshot of a post about functions sent by the instructor.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Screenshot of posts send by two students.

Table 1 .
Lists of Weekly Subjects and Activities.

Table 2 .
Information about Positive Aspects of FCA according to Students.…It was good for my preparation for the course that the sources about the courses were given before the course time… Std7: …We know which subject will be taught before we come to the course and we learn something before the course, we don't learn only during the course time, which is we actually learn before the course, this is beneficial for us... Std10: …It helps me become familiar with the subjects taught during the course to study the materials before the course… Cooperation/communi cation outside of the class 16 Std2: …We can help each other about the subject, it increases the communication between us, and almost everybody communicate with each other... Std9: …An interaction is created among us… Std14: … This environment increased our communication… Std16: We had the opportunity for the beneficial sharing among us… Making understanding easy 5 Std5: …It became easier for me to understand the course because I have an opinion about the subject before the course... Std8: …The sources and examples are shared, we carry out the lecturing part of the course before and more time is left for the practice...
Std9: …Thanks to this, I think I have more comprehensive knowledge about the subject... Std30: …It was good for me to understand the subject and to make information Exchange with my friend with whom I am at the same level in terms of knowledge... Suitability for the coding weight courses 5 Std15: …I think its utilization in coding weight courses will be beneficial… Std32: …Including such practices in professional courses is beneficial for the motivation for research and learning, for this reason it should be used in Professional courses more frequently... Std29: …Time is saved in this way, more time is left for the examples and practices... Making student active 1 Std9: …It helped us to be active…

Table 3 .
Information about Negative Aspects of FCA according to Students.
Std13: …I have difficulty during the course time, when I do not know the subject before and when I come to the course without studying before...