Background and justification of the project
The influence in society of digital resources such as computer games, videos and mobile phones is growing without limitation. This digital development has found its way to the education of students. At the same time students must perform within a given time frame and are stimulated to increase the efficiency of their study. For many students this results in more stress and less time for creative thinking. In our unit Structural Design we noticed that, as a consequence of the above developments more students focus on calculation and modeling and have a lack of feeling for material and design. Our purpose is to fill this gap by giving Structural Design students the opportunity to develop their:
- creativity,
- design skills and
- material feeling.
Classic physical experiments with materials and techniques are time consuming, not always successful and expensive. On request of students we want to start with blended learning because this is more efficient and gives a better fit with the way students are used to get information. In this way they can also prepare themselves better for the few physical experiments we want to do anyway. The introduction lectures and technical instruction videos will be made available as screen casts so that students can revisit this information and prepare effectively for the exam. It also gives the lecturer the opportunity to become more interactive during the lecture sessions, concentrating less on knowledge transfer and more on knowledge exchange.
For us lecturers this is the first time we will start with a blended learning approach.
This year we want to:
- collect and select technical instruction videos on Internet.
- combine and complete the selected information in to comprehensive screen casts.
- make screen cast videos of given lectures.
Objectives and expected outcomes of the project
The objective is to appoint two TAs to assist with the making of the screen casts and the short explanatory films based on technical instruction videos on internet. The TAs will reduce the workload of the lecturers involved so that they can focus on the content of the course and preparation of the videos. The TAs will also help with the technical aspects of the films and screen casts.
Blended learning will make the ideal of in time learning a reality, giving students the possibility to access the necessary information at the moment when they feel the need for it and allowing them to review the information at their own pace. For tutors it will generate some precious time so that they can devote more time to knowledge exchange instead of knowledge delivery.
We expect that this new approach will not only significantly improve the design skills and knowledge of the behavior of materials but also reduce the pressure students experience in trying to complete this course.
Project design and management
The project will last from June 2019 to December 2019. One TA will help during the preparation of the film and screencasts and the other will help with the implementation of the blended learning tools and the evaluation. The project will be under supervision of the two applicants. Teacher support and quality assurance will be involved during the preparation, execution and evaluation, to advise and assist regarding the quality of this project. Indicators of success are:
- use of film/screencasts (amount)
- quality film/screencast (student appreciation)
- quality of results (passing rate / average grade)
- decreasing work load
Dissemination and sustainability of the project
The relevance of the information filmed will hold for at least 5 years as these are very elementary aspects of this course. Results and experiences will be presented, discussed and evaluated during several educational meetings in our unit Structural Design.
Results and learnings
This project is currently still ongoing
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
