Course design and learning activities

The learning activities that are possible depend on several factors

• the degree of flexibility that your course should offer
• the number of students
• the organizational conditions
• the learning environments you have access to.

Regardless of the type of teaching you want to do, there is always a need for structure and order, the planning of learning environments and learning activities, and opportunities for networking and community.

Structure and order

The need for structure can apply to everything from the order of teaching elements to information in a study guide.

A student should be able to find out for themselves:

• times
• links
• materials
• assignments
• etc.

It also needs to be clear who to ask if something is unclear.

Often this is solved with existing systems such as timetables and learning management systems, and by meeting with students in connection with teaching. However, if you do not meet regularly, it is particularly important that instructions and information are clear.

When working with flexible teaching formats that often involve more complex logistics, technology and multiple learning environments, structure is also particularly important for you as a teacher.

In your pedagogical planning, you need to create an overview also of logistical needs: booking extra group rooms, rigging technology, practicing how to handle technology for both you and your students, running schedule incl. time for unforeseen events. And don't forget to start up the hybrid session well in advance to ensure that everything works as it should without taking away from teaching time.

Before the start of the session, you will also need to plan a conversation with your students about the etiquette of hybrid teaching, e.g. when the microphone can be on and not, how to speak, when the camera needs to be on or not and the general code of conduct.

Learning environments

The place where learning takes place has a major impact on learning itself. But it also influences motivation, inspiration, the sense of being welcome and safe. It can also contribute to creativity and provide opportunities for interaction, production and presentation.

Whether the learning environment consists of a physical room, a virtual one or some kind of combination, such as a learning center that is also online, the layout gives you an idea of what is expected to happen and how active the student is expected to be.

• A large lecture hall with fixed chairs in rows and a podium at the front gives you a sense of a longer lecture with little to no interaction. The student takes a rather passive role.
• A room with groups of tables and chairs (active learning classroom) suggests collaboration and interaction. The student takes an active role.
• A hybrid room with groups of tables and chairs and adjacent group rooms or rooms within the room evokes expectations of collaboration and interaction across room boundaries. The student takes an active role.
• A room with flexible furniture gives expectations of active learning using, for example, case methodology or team-based learning. The student takes an active role.

The "room" you have access to needs to provide the right conditions and tools for what is supposed to happen there. Therefore, when booking rooms, you need to inform both about the number of students and about pedagogical and technical needs. The degree of flexibility will affect the type of hybrid room you need. One possibility is also to use flexible classrooms that can be used for a variety of scenarios and that can be easily adapted to your pedagogical needs.

Quality in teaching materials

To facilitate learning, not only the quality of sound and light is important. To make learning materials accessible, they also need to be of a high quality. For example, if you want to digitally post copied materials, it is important to use OCR reading. You can also use an app to convert paper-based data into digital form. Otherwise, it is not possible for the student to continue working with the material.

Also consider using digital whiteboards that can be easily shared online. An alternative is an analog whiteboard with a camera for online students to see what you write.

To show experiments or single artifacts, a document camera can work nicely.

Learning activities

As a teacher, when designing learning activities, you need to create an entity that works for both on-campus and online students, based on the pedagogical goals. It rarely works well to use 'old' on-campus arrangements and 'hang on' to online students. Neither does it work to rely on pure remote learning and "hang on" to on-campus students.

The pedagogical objectives you have for a learning activity may need to be achieved in different ways depending on where the students are. Different 'rooms' provide different opportunities to achieve the same thing through their different functionalities. Equality of learning opportunity is important.

Think, also, about the form of activity you choose. For example, do activities have to be text-based or could other forms be beneficial: audio, visual, moving image, practical tasks, role play, gamification, podcast, digital whiteboard, students as co-creators of course content, etc.

Below we highlight some examples of how you can work when using flexible formats.