## 7 Research Study
### Participants and Settings  
In the experiment, 42 participants were involved. The first group of students (\(N=21\)) learned about the topic of biometric acquisition through the traditional lecture based approach, while the second group participated in a flipped classroom setting (\(N=21\)), which presumed the use of our laboratory and accompanying tools. The students were assigned to the learning experience groups randomly. It should be noted that, with regard to the features relevant for our experiment such as previous experience and level of specific knowledge, all of the participants were equivalent. To evaluate whether there was a difference between the two groups, an entry-test in the form of a multiple choice test was given to members of both groups. The test questions were about basic biometric concepts, metrics, and algorithms, so as to see whether the students were already familiar with some of the biometric concepts. The concept of the experiment was that the one group of students learned the lesson of biometric acquisition in the flipped classroom laboratory. After they completed the course the level of their motivation was evaluated by a questionnaire measuring their subjective perception of being engaged during the learning process. The second group learned the same material traditionally through lectures delivered by professors. After they were \"treated\" with the conventional learning methodology, their engagement and learning outcomes were evaluated in the same way as with the first group. The learning material includes topics such as: biometric sensor characteristics, the biometric acquisition process, storage of biometric data, feature extraction and matching algorithms, acquisition impact on system precision, and system performance visualization techniques. The level of students' engagement is tested by a questionnaire regarding students' learning motivation, which was based on another one we previously used for similar purposes in different learning contexts [40]. The questionnaire has 12 items and utilizes [PERSON]'s scale with seven degrees of freedom. Researches using ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) model [31] and [PERSON] himself often use categories with yes or no, or at least four degrees of confirmation (agreements). We believe that our respondents would have problem to give categorical answers to a concrete questions because they have to consider different factors when deciding if some learning experience is more or less satisfying, arousing, etc. It is said that when people make fine decisions, potential information gain increases as the number of scale points increases [41]. The judgment about the motivational experience is more the question of the gradually different experience than the \"black and white\" situation. On the other hand, researches using [PERSON]'s scale often use five or seven point scale. As methodological literature says, there is no standard for the number of points on rating scales [41]. We managed to make a relatively equidistant and stable continuum, covering different shades of experience. [PERSON] [42], in some other context, found that there is not much difference in results when using five or seven point rating scales in marketing researches, which was not the case with a ten point scale, so we believe that the seven point scale is the limit for the number of points here. We decided to use seven levels because it gives more choice to respondents and diminishes the effect of the middle points in the scale [43]. The questionnaire is provided in the Appendix A, Table A1. Various aspects of motivation, are covered by our questions, according to [PERSON]'s model of classifying indicators [44], which is a widely used motivational model in various educational settings [31]. Attention means provoking curiosity in students and it is covered by questions: 1, 5, and 6. Relevance is connected with a sense of purpose in regard to the topics (questions 2, 3, and 4).