Abstract: The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused a profound change in the teaching pedagogies and assessment strategies in engineering curricula worldwide. Concerning this, the article examines the role of animation-enhanced concept-in-context maps as a learning resource for the introductory materials science course in an online flipped format. The research was conducted on second-year mechanical engineering undergraduates. The methodology used two-group quasi-experimental design where the experimental group received animated concept-in-context maps as a learning resource, in contrast to the control group, which obtained static concept-in-context maps. The student's understanding of the topic was evaluated from their performance in pre-quiz and post-quiz scores. The preliminary results of the pilot study turned out to be in favor of animation-assisted mapping; further research is in process, and in-depth experimentation has been planned. Graphic abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Materials Research Society.