Speaker
Description
In this contribution, we present a blended learning concept designed to maximize the benefits students can gain from their teachers. The approach combines individual study with collaborative learning experiences and tutoring.
Students engage with content independently through a digital learning platform featuring videos and exercises while sitting together with their peers in a classroom.
This setup fosters discussions among students about their current challenges and provides opportunities for direct and individual tutoring from teachers. To realize this concept, we designed and implemented an innovative digital exercise type tailored to the specific needs of engineering mechanics education using the newest HTML5 technologies.
We created a digital course covering the content of the traditional frontal presentations as short videos. In between the series of videos, small exercises, which require no pen and paper, allow students to apply and rethink the concepts presented in the videos, fostering active engagement and enabling self-assessment.
While developing this course, we identified significant limitations in existing learning platforms. Many platforms disrupt the learning flow by requiring users to open each video and exercise separately. Additionally, exercise formats are often very limited. Multiple-choice questions, e.g., are insufficient for fostering the critical competencies required in mechanics: We want students to think about the system, solve the problem, and then formulate this solution as vector-matrix equations. Other options would have been STACK or programming interfaces. As mechanical equations consist of symbols with often many indices, an equation typed in such linear text input is not well-readable. Therefore, we developed a custom digital exercise type tailored to engineering mechanics. In our exercise type, students use drag-and-drop to assemble vector-matrix equations with predefined symbols and operators. The equations are evaluated on a server using SymPy, a computer algebra system, providing immediate feedback to students similarly to the way STACK works.
Our teaching concept combines digital learning with on-site support to maximize value. During in-person sessions, teachers use the time they gained from digitization for personalized tutoring. Students study the content individually but are invited to do that in a shared physical environment. Those who encounter difficulties can seek help from peers or the teachers, making individual discussions with the teacher possible even in larger courses. This approach also addresses the diversity of incoming student knowledge by allowing individuals to begin with introductory or review materials as needed, ensuring a personalized learning experience.
