Abstract

Applied optics is one of the core courses for undergraduates that major in optical engineering and related fields. The course of applied optics leads to various successor courses, such as optical design, laser optics, and fiber optics, etc. It is difficult to cover all the main fields of modern optics. As an attempt, we tried to introduce the flipped classroom teaching model to improve the students’ general understanding on applied optics. The course is divided into three parts: basic theory, experiments, and flipped classroom. The basic theory contains the concepts in coaxial spherical systems, prisms, apertures and aberrations, while the experiments provides deepened understandings on the basic theory. After that, the flipped classroom is introduced, including several different topics, such as telescopes, microscopes, cameras, infrared systems, projectors, fibers, etc., which refer to different fields of applied optics. The students are asked to organize contents around interested topics and give brief talks. During the last few years, several interesting topics, such as light field camera, super-resolution imaging, and 3D movie, are reviewed by students. It is found that by this teaching model, the students can get general impression of modern optics and pay more attention on their favorite topics.

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