IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308 _______________________________________________________________________________________ Volume: 03 Issue: 11 | Nov-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 462 ACTIVE LEARNING TECHNIQUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Anitha H M 1 , Anusha N Rao 2 1 Department of Information Science and Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India 2 Department of Information Science and Engineering, BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, India Abstract The current developments in technology and ideas have given entirely new dimensions to the field of research and education. New delivery methods are proposed which is an added feature to the engineering education. Particularly, more importance is given to new teaching practices such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is vital to adopt the new ICT methods which lead to emergence of novel structure and mode of education. The flipped classroom, think pair share and peer instruction are the latest pedagogical methods which gives students to learn the course. This involves students to watch video lectures outside the classroom and solve the problems at home. Students are engaged in group discussions in the classroom. These are the active learning methods where in student is involved diversely to learn the course. This paper gives a comprehensive study of past and present researches which is going on with flipped class room, thinks pair share activity and peer instruction. Keywords—Flipped classroom; Think pair share; Peer instruction; Active learning. --------------------------------------------------------------------***------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. INTRODUCTION Traditional teaching methods are been practiced from many generations where in student sit silently and grasp the contents delivered by the teacher in the classroom [1]. All the students are delivered with same content, material at the same time. Active teaching starts before the teacher enters the classroom. Teacher should set the learning objectives and devise methods to achieve these objectives before delivering the topic to the students. Traditional methods focused mostly on rote learning and memorization should be neglected in favour of students and implement new approaches like flipped classroom and think pair share activity to improve active learning. Some of the Traditional delivery methods are  Black Board and chalk piece: Use of black board teaching to effectively convey the students with topic.  Power point presentations: It gives the pictorial view of the content more clearly.  Laboratory instruction: Gives the students with hands on knowledge of the topic.  Industrial visits: Enriches the students with the actual application of theoretical concepts learnt in the classroom. There are advantages and disadvantages of traditional teaching methods which are listed below. Advantages of traditional methods  Teacher gives contents to the students which are not exposed to them before.  In laboratory based methods students are exposed to real time examples demonstrated by the teacher.  Content is delivered to many students at the same time. Disadvantages of traditional methods  Facilitates passive learning for the students.  Only one way communication and it takes lot of effort by the teacher to involve the students. The introduction of latest technologies led to the active learning of students in engineering education. Flipped class room, think pair share and peer instruction are the new methods that give more active learning for students. 2. LITERATURE SURVEY Dimitrios, et.al [1], gave the idea that despite traditional teaching methods, growth in technology has motivated the teachers and students to adapt new teaching methods to improve the student learning and perfection. Traditional learning is more teacher centric whereas the new ICT methods are student oriented. The new teaching methods used may differ in terms of the level of influence on learning. Bishop et.al [2], provides insight about the current research about the flipped classroom. It includes evaluation of activities which are conducted inside and outside the class. Flipped classroom gives unique combination of learning concepts like active learning; problem based learning and mini projects. Slone et.al [6], used simple online tools which provides platform for application of think pair share activities. A set of psychological students were given with clinical case study. They were asked to record their particular diagnosis on the Google doc. Each group shared their results about their activity in the class. Teachers reviewed the findings of the students. This online tool adaptation for TPS activity offers in-depth knowledge of the course and provides them chance to discuss in pairs and share their results to the whole class.