BACKGROUND
“Computer-aided landscape design” is one of the main courses of landscape architecture whose purpose is to make the students master the basic theory and the method of using the Photoshop software and foster the students’ basic ability of the drawings in landscape design by using the Photoshop software. However, the traditional teaching methods often limit the students’ imagination and it is difficult for students to achieve the goal of teaching. First, the students are eager to start to operate so that they easily reject the relatively boring theory. In this case, the brains of students are just knowledge containers, lacking thoughts of communication
and comprehension. Second, it is difficult to trigger the application of theoretical knowledge in the experiment course. On the one hand, in the experimental class teachers often pay attention to mastering the operational level of skills and put more emphasis on knowledge mastering in theoretical teaching. Effective convergence lacks between them. On the other hand, the interval is too long between theory and experiment lesson so that the theoretical knowledge learning has not been timely consolidated and the experimental experience after the experimental class are unable to be exchanged freely. It is very difficult to make practice and theory produce the effect of interaction. Therefore, we decided to carry out the flipped classroom reform in the course of computer-aided landscape design so that students have more time to master the theory and learn to use by taking advantage of the flipped classroom.
The members participating in the curriculum reform are:121 students from four classes in the class of 2013. The students majoring in landscape architecture have a good basis of using computers. Multi-classroom teaching platforms have been established since 2013. Therefore, students can use the main function of the teaching platform skillfully. Before the start of the course all the students have learned relevant courses like “garden design,” “landscape planning,” “design principle,” and “CAD” etc., so they have some basic knowledge and skills. In such a premise, we believe that the reform of the flipped classroom teaching can be realized.