Students very satisfied with the new form of instruction

Since the beginning of the year, Ole Eggers Bjælde has taught according to the principle of blended learning. The students are very satisfied with the initiative, in part because of an increased benefit from the teaching.

[Translate to English:] Specialkonsulent på Center for Scienceuddannelse og underviser på Institut for Fysik og Astronomi, Ole Eggers Bjælde, underviser efter princippet blended learning. Blended learning er traditionel undervisning i et auditorium kombineret med online-undervisning som gennemgang af dele af pensum, løsninger af opgaver eller diskussioner på nettet. Tilhængere af blended learning mener, at de studerende får større udbytte af undervisningen, fordi den er mere fleksibel. Eksempelvis kan de studerende se en video lige så mange gange, de har behov for det, for at forstå et komplekst emne. Foto: Lars Kruse

“..responsibility for own learning."

Consultant at the Centre for Science Education and lecturer at the Department of Physics, Ole Eggers Bjælde, savours the sentence, and it looks as if he’d like to spit it out again.

He places his coffee cup back on the table in what is, at least according to the sign on the door of the common room in the centre, the "staff room", and continues:

"I’ve never really given much credence to that phrase." 

Motivate and qualify staff 

As a consultant he must help to motivate and qualify the teaching staff to develop their teaching within the natural sciences. Which is also one of the reasons why he has started to use online activities to supplement the traditional lectures in his own teaching in astrophysics. As well as his role as consultant, he is also a lecturer at the Department of Physics. 

The students’ own responsibility?

But we have to go back to Bjælde’s initial reaction to the phrase "responsibility for own learning," when he is asked if it is indeed the students’ own responsibility to extract sufficient benefit from the teaching at a university.

"As members of the teaching staff we have responsibility for organising the teaching in such a way that we give the students the best possible prerequisites for learning as much as possible from our teaching. And that does not necessarily mean a lecturer speaking for 45 uninterrupted minutes in a lecture theatre. The students' learning outcomes decline with that form of teaching and they will probably just see it as 45 long minutes," he says.

He continues:

"The students learn most between the lectures when they work actively with the material I have therefore emphasised the online activities in Blackboard, because they are what actually gives them the prerequisites for working constructively with the material on their own."

Online activities account for 25 per cent

Ole Eggers Bjælde makes it clear to the students how the various elements in the overall teaching count in relation to their assessment. He has organised his course so that the online activities account for 25 per cent of the final exam grade, while the remaining 75 per cent comes from a three-hour written exam.

A little unusually, he has structured the course so that the regular evaluations of the course are also included in the grade. This means he also receives responses from students who would not usually spend time filling out evaluations.

Students get better grades

In the evaluations the students have indicated that they spend a lot of time on the online activities and their efforts have been manifested in better grades compared with the students from previous classes, who only received traditional teaching of the subject.

At least as interesting is the feedback from the students. They stated that they have gained a much greater academic understanding due to the more flexible form of instruction, which allows them to work in a way that makes most sense for each of them individually in relation to understanding the material.


Facts

  • Eight-five per cent of the students are either very satisfied or satisfied with their learning outcomes
  • Fifteen per cent of the students are not supporters of this form of instruction and have indicated that they have a high degree of preference for ordinary lectures.

Statistics from evaluation of the Astrophysics course organised according to the principle of blended learning.

 

Quote:
"I think the online activities have really helped my understanding of the syllabus. The lectures have been good, but for me the learning outcome has definitely been greatest in the online activities. I think the online activities are a good way to include everyone, but on the other hand, they take up a lot of time when we also have to read 2-3 chapters each week. So it does not reduce preparation time, but you learn more."

Quote by a student in the evaluation of the Astrophysics course organised according to the principle of blended learning.


What is blended learning?

Blended learning is traditional teaching such as lectures in a lecture theatre combined with online teaching, such as a review of parts of the syllabus, assignments or online discussions.

Supporters of blended learning believe that the students benefit more from the teaching because it is more flexible, so the students can e.g. see a video as many times as they need to be able to understand a complex topic. 


Facts

The table shows a comparison between one of lecturer Ole Eggers Bjælde’s classes which was taught without the use of online activities in 2013, and a class which was taught with online activities as a part of the teaching last year.

Statistics from evaluation of the Astrophysics course organised according to the principle of blended learning.


Facts
Astrophysics is a compulsory course for approximately one hundred first year students at the Department of Physics. Ole Eggers Bjælde’s teaching is based on the principle of blended learning.

 

He has cut down his lectures from four to three hours a week after beginning to teach in a new way.

Each week the course consists of:

  • Three hours of lectures including discussions and instruction
  • Three hours of theoretical exercises
  • Five online activities


Example from the first week of 2015 of the activities in Blackboard (BB)

Teacher Ole Eggers Bjælde’s contribution

Student benefit

Video (13:00 min.)

The students receive an introduction to the functions they will be making most use of in BB. And to the actual course in astrophysics.

Elaborated notes

The students receive elaborated points from the lecture

Assignment

Mainly aimed at giving the students hands-on experience with the functions in BB that are presented in the introduction video

Video

Review of an academic topic

Test

Questions (multiple choice) which the students must answer on the basis of what they have seen in the video. And read in the rest of the syllabus

Feedback

The students provide feedback on what they found to be easiest and most difficult. Furthermore, they must assess their own efforts.

Ole Eggers Bjælde uses the students' feedback to plan his upcoming lectures in the auditorium.

The Centre for Science Education (CSE) has a video production studio which can be freely used by anyone at ST.

Facts

Power to 1,000 students
The mathematics course Calculus 1 and 2 is with approx. 1,000 students ST's largest course. This year all lectures have been replaced by online instruction in the form of video, online exercises and feedback in Blackboard and AULA. One result has been better exam results.

Sixty-four per cent of the students have indicated that they prefer the online form, that the materials are frequently used in connection with exam preparation and that they were significantly more satisfied with the learning outcome.

Source: Team Leader Mikkel Godsk from the Centre for Science Education