Creative hybrid education: this is how Biology does it

Despite the lifted corona measures, lecturers still might use hybrid teaching methods due to quarantine and absence because of illness. Fortunately, there is a growing number of creative approaches to provide hybrid education. Ton Peeters, education director of Biology, and Thomas Wind of Science Educate-IT offer some tips.

Turn on the chat and work with student moderators

A great advantage of a physical lecture is the interaction: you get questions and can answer them right away. How do you maintain the same interaction in hybrid education? Ton: “When you stream your lecture via Teams, turn on the chat function and assign a student – or use a student assistant – who will monitor the chat and read out the questions asked. That way, you bring the two worlds together.”

Organise a Q&A via Teams

Do you prefer to record your lectures? But do you also want to make sure that everyone – both at home and on location – can ask questions? Then you can organise a Q&A session in Teams. This way, students who were not there can still ask questions about the lecture. And a nice bonus: students who attended the lecture but still want to ask something or need an explanation, can simply join in.

Combine knowledge clips and (recorded) lectures (blended learning)

Since the introduction of the coronavirus, lecturers from the Biology department have been combining knowledge clips and recorded lectures with physical work lectures. Ton explains: “By making the course material available remotely, students can study the material at their own pace and write down their questions. This has the advantage that students can go through everything again before the tests, but also that students come to the university with specific questions. During a work lecture, we mainly focus on the social aspect and the connection with fellow students. In addition, we dive deeper into the material and make the priorities clear, so that students have an idea of what they need to learn and what may be asked on the test.”

Buddy for students at home

To prevent the students at home from losing contact with their fellow students and the campus, Ton recommends working with a buddy for students who (have) to stay at home: “I let the students arrange this themselves, because a buddy works best if it is someone the students already know, for example someone from the group of friends. The buddy functions as the contact point for the student who stays at home and can pass on assignments or important discussions in working lectures, or video call them during lunch to check how things are going.”

Tips from Thomas:

1. Split students into online and offline groups to improve interaction.
2. Let students paticipate by letting them work on something. This way, you don’t have to prepare too much hybrid education.
3. Repeat questions so that everyone can understand it.
4. Make use of existing tools such as Wooclap and FeedbackFruits.

Click below for more informaten and more useful links!

Marijn van Ellen