Abstract
The chemistry foundation year at the University of East Anglia is a diverse cohort with a wide range of prior educational experience and confidence levels. A flexible learning program combining extensive online materials intended for asynchronous study and face to face peer instruction is provided. Study is divided into weekly topics. Students are directed to take a short introductory quiz at the beginning of the week, feedback on which allows them to tailor the extent of asynchronous learning to their own needs. All students attend a highly interactive synchronous teaching session which utilises active learning to develop their conceptual understanding. The week concludes with a reflective formative test. Measures of student activity on the online platform and audience response technology in the lecture theatre provide a quantitative picture of engagement with tailored blended learning, while semi-structured interviews provide qualitative insight into the student perception.
Highlights
The expression blended learning has come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic.[1]
The chemistry foundation year at the University of East Anglia is a diverse cohort with a wide range of prior educational experience and confidence levels
We propose that the effort invested across the chemistry education community during the pandemic could be repurposed to deliver tailored blended learning in the post-Covid era
Summary
The expression blended learning has come to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic.[1] Blended learning implies flexing a range of pedagogies across a course, choosing the most appropriate approach for the learning objective at hand.[2] In the depths of a pandemic, that choice is curtailed, and more teaching is forced online, even when that might not have been the preferred means of delivery. We describe a scalable blended delivery approach, developed before the pandemic. Foundation year chemistry students’ self-direct aspects of their learning, tailoring it to their individual needs. We propose that the effort invested across the chemistry education community during the pandemic could be repurposed to deliver tailored blended learning in the post-Covid era
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