Abstract
In this paper, an innovative pedagogical approach relying on flipped classroom and offered in a hybrid learning environment combining on-site and off-site attendees is proposed. The set-up is furthermore tested on two short courses offered at Chalmers University of Technology and analyzed using student course evaluation questionnaires. Several elements constitute the backbone of the courses. Such elements are either offered in an asynchronous fashion or in a synchronous fashion. The asynchronous elements are made of textbooks specifically written for the respective courses, pre-recorded short webcasts explaining the key concepts of the textbooks and on-line quizzes giving formative feedback to the students. Such elements should thus be studied by the students before attending the synchronous sessions. Because of the preparatory work made by the students, the synchronous sessions can focus on much more active forms of learning under the teacher’s supervision. The success of the pedagogical approach entirely depends on the contents of the synchronous sessions, which need to be carefully planned and designed so that they promote student learning. Although the hybrid learning environment gives rise to some additional challenges from a teacher’s perspective, it also gives much more flexibility in attracting students from remote locations, without compromising the learning experience.
Highlights
With overall declining student enrolments in nuclear engineering programs in Europe, being able to maintain highly specialized courses alive has become a challenge
As a possible remedy to such a situation, efforts have been pursued at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden to offer short courses in hybrid learning environments
This paper reports on two short courses arranged in this hybrid format: a course titled “Fundamentals of reactor kinetics and theory of small space-time dependent fluctuations in nuclear reactors” offered as part of the European Horizon 2020 CORTEX project (CORe monitoring Techniques and EXperimental validation and demonstration) [1], and a course titled “Deterministic modelling of nuclear systems”
Summary
With overall declining student enrolments in nuclear engineering programs in Europe, being able to maintain highly specialized courses alive has become a challenge. As a possible remedy to such a situation, efforts have been pursued at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden to offer short courses in hybrid learning environments. Such environments make it possible to combine on-site and off-site attendees while preserving full interaction possibilities between both audiences and between each audience and the teacher. Both courses are given as “flipped” classes, i.e. the actual lectures are delivered asynchronously as short recorded lectures or webcasts. The paper thereafter concludes on the applicability of the proposed course set-up and makes some recommendations
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