The summer break is a great opportunity to learn new things whether they be in the class room or outside where it is sunny and better. I personally chose the former and sadder option of taking courses during the summer to lighten my course load for the fall. Further, having underestimated the time commitment required for summer school I attempted an online course in Python. This got me thinking about new forms of learning and the ones available at UBC.
I encountered Flexible Learning for the first time in the second year of my engineering degree. After almost 16 years of “rigid learning” I had found my rhythm, so this new way of teaching and learning came as quite a surprise! I decided to attempt to understand how these courses were different and what I could do to do better at them.
Flexible learning is a very broad concept, as I have come to realize, and is practiced in a lot of different ways. Look through our blog archive to read some other blog posts pertaining to Flexible Learning at UBC, you can also find more information here.
I recently learnt that one of my classmates is working on designing and implementing a flexible learning course or more formally a flipped classroom, and took the first opportunity I could to question him. So here follow excerpts from my talk with a flexible learning support worker:
Q. What is different in a flexible learning course?
A. There is a lot more focus on learning and understanding the concepts than just passing the course. There is a lot more active testing, through quizzes and in-class clicker questions, to give students an incentive to understand the concept being taught rather than just memorize it later. At the same time, there is a lot more support available to the student — you can learn at a pace you set, pause your lecture, and watch it again. Video lectures make this possible and are also structured to introduce and solve problems on the content.
Q. What changes do students need to make to be better prepared for these courses?
A. The most important thing is to keep on top of the course material and readings. Without the usual structure to lectures, it is really easy to let the course pass you by. Most flexible learning courses feature a lot of quizzes and tests to make sure that students do their part to keep up with the course. Concepts are the building blocks of a flexible learning course; these courses build on past concepts and introduce new concepts. It is important to understand what knowledge is a pre-requisite for the course you are taking. Video lectures introduce concepts and show solutions to problems, so make sure to take notes, bring questions to class and more importantly stay awake!
Q. Do/have instructors changed their style of teaching/lecturing to accommodate flexible learning in courses?
A. Video lectures provide students with a lot of freedom to learn at their own pace. However, they have not replaced classroom interaction. Students are able to ask the professor questions on what they learnt through the video and this gives the instructor the freedom to explain concepts that are challenging at a relaxed pace, as the class can learn easier concepts from the video. This makes the classroom environment one of discussion, where the students and the instructors can discuss ideas that were not clear in the video and this discussion can evolve based on student feedback.
Q. What do you think had driven the change from conventional lectures to the lectures flexible learning promises?
A. Some courses require more than just talking and verbal instruction from the instructor. In courses that involve computer coding, mathematical proofs, problem solving, etc., students need to understand a concept, struggle with it, ask questions about it, and then apply it to problems. In conventional lectures, a concept is presented in one lecture and by the time a student has the chance to practice problems or apply the concept the class has moved to a different concept and the instructor has to back track to answer questions. In a flexible learning course, discussion on a concept takes place after students have watched a video lecture and done problems on the concept. Practicing problems and understanding the concept is important — we all have calculators so the resources to do computations are easily available, but the main takeaway from these courses is the concept behind the computation or code.
My sincere thanks to Paul Pereira, Flexible Learning Support Worker and classmate, for taking the time to answer my questions. Having understood the rationale behind the change in teaching and what I need to change in how I learn, I dread my next flexible learning course a little less!
