Tailor-made guidance, individual feedback and group work by flipping the classroom

Project introduction and background information

We made four e-learning modules for our BSc International Land and Water Management (first block), that are partly based on preceding courses, but placed in the context of the present course. For each of the modules knowledge clips and exercises were developed, designed to familiarize the students with (i) the subject, and (ii) the case study area in Tanzania that will be used in Block 2. Each student had to work on these modules individually. 

Both blocks, were redesigned based on the principles of ‘flipping the classroom’. The students had to use Feedback Fruits: in Block 1 when they encountered difficulties when they were doing the modules and in Block 2 to browse for case-related information. FeedBack Fruit helped them to prepare themselves for both plenary (supervised) and parallel (unsupervised) feedback session with teaching staff, tailored to both individually specialized team members and interdisciplinary design teams.

Objective and expected outcomes

Introducing the “flipping the classroom” approach to enhance tailor-made guidance, individual feedback and group work.

Results and learnings

This course is given in the 5^th period of the 2^nd year of the BSc Programme International Land and Water Management (BIL) and builds on knowledge and skills students have learned in preceding courses. The course consists of two blocks.

In block 1, students refresh their knowledge and skills acquired in preceding courses, but new subjects are also introduced. The challenge is that the levels on the assumed (BIL) knowledge vary per student and that the number of contact hours per student is decreasing. Therefore we cannot adequately guide students to acquire the lacking knowledge, using traditional methods. For this block, our aim was to improve timely and tailor-made individual guidance and feedback.

In Block 2, students work together in design teams to develop demand-driven interventions for a case study area in Tanzania. For this block, our aims were (i) to create an active learning community to encourage students to reflect on each other’s proposed designs for the case study area, and (ii) to improve timely and tailor-made guidance and feedback for the design teams.

The evaluation of the course shows that the students were satisfied with the course (score 4.2) and, more important, positively challenged by the course (score 4.6).

In their individual responses, students indicated that they liked the structure of the course, found the ‘flipping the classroom approach’ with the knowledge clips and exercises very helpful, but experiences a high workload. They found it rather difficult to plan their own work. Feedback session with the specialized team members were found very useful, but they found it hard to work with FeedBack Fruits for the interdisciplinary design teams.

Recommendations

•  Consult similar project(s) that have already been done and discuss the lessons learned.
• Take your time to prepare a good script.
• Make use of a professional camera-crew.
• Discuss the pro- and contras with the FeedBack Fruit Ambassadors.

Practical outcomes

Please have a look at the downloads on the right.