• Programme: Bachelor of Science in de Engineering
• Standard learning track: BA1
• Course unit(s): E066012 - Materials Technology
• Average number of students: +/- 400
• Involved lecturer(s): Kim.Verbeken@ugent.be, Inge.Bellemans@ugent.be
• Academic year of (first) implementation: 2022-2023

Description

The seminars in this course unit, consisting of guided exercises, initially followed a standard flow. At the start, students were presented with a series of exercises and given time to try to solve them on their own, with individual help from the assistants present. At the end of the tutorial, the solution was brought to the board. However, the assistants involved experienced that every year the same questions returned and decided to do something about it.

Based on their experiences over the years, the assistants identified the core concepts with which the students had the most difficulty. Initially, they selected five topics from this list around which a knowledge clip (a PowerPoint presentation with voice-over that typically lasted about five minutes) was recorded and an online learning path with interactive applications in H5P was developed. The applications steadily evolved from relatively simple questions around basic concepts to more complex cases. After evaluation of this pilot project, other topics could be added if necessary.

The focused and condensed knowledge clips were offered to students without any obligation so that they could level up their knowledge on the core concepts from the course between the lecture and work lectures. This allowed students to reach the appropriate level to start the exercise class properly and make further progress throughout the seminar. Alternatively, the learning paths could also be used to refresh some key concepts leading up to an NPGE.

As a result of the learning paths, the teaching assistants noticed that the questions they received during the seminars were much more about the actual assignments, where previously they were often asked to explain certain basic concepts all over again. Given this success, these learning paths will also be used in AY23-24 in the ‘Applied Materials Science’ course for students in Engineering Technology - Electromechanics (3rd bachelor) and Engineering Technology - Chemistry (1st master, together a hundred students).

Tips

• Tip 1: If you ask colleagues from an other research group to formulate a few questions after showing them a knowledge clip, this sometimes results in original ideas that you, as an involved lecturer or supervisor, would not have come up with.
• Tip 2: The H5P tool offers an option 'I am confused' through which students can send comments or substantive questions.
• Tip 3: The H5P software looks simple but nonetheless requires some training. On the other hand, it also makes a lot possible. For example, you can prevent students from clicking through to the next question within a compound exercise and thus discovering part of the answer to an earlier question.

Recording

The recording of the presentation on H5P given at the revisionday of the "Virtual Science Labs" project can be found here.