Lecturers

How can university teaching really succeed? How can we design courses so that students learn as much as possible in the long term? Here I give a few practical suggestions. I look at the topic only from the perspective of a technical degree programme with the classic elements of lecture (90 minutes), small-group exercise (45 minutes) and lab course.

What helps with long-term learning?

Our teaching should include the following points:

1. Active learning by the students instead of passive listening

2. Repetition of previous content

3. Students explaining content to each other

4. Practical application

So we need teaching that demands these points or at least makes them possible.

Reversed / flipped classroom

Let the students learn the theoretical content at home. At home, everyone works at their own pace. The knowledge can be revised at any time later. For this, you provide the content.

Many colleagues provide videos. Often this is a filmed lecture. My problem with this is the passive listening. If we provide videos, then only short videos on a single topic. In my opinion, texts with pictures are better suited, because working through the texts is an achievement of the student, who does not just let it wash over them. A good combination of both media is ideal, also because of the different learning types.

Using external content is difficult because its scope and level rarely happen to fit. Providing the content is, of course, a lot of work. That is simply our share of good teaching. The biggest advantage of the concept is: the valuable face-to-face sessions are freed up for other forms of learning.

The students' preparation time may be about as long as the lecture itself. Check your module handbook. We use the self-study time already during the semester, not only in the exam period. It lowers failure rates when students prepare for the exam during the semester.

Lecture

In the lecture, the content is only discussed, no longer "read out". You allow questions on the topic and perhaps demonstrate an experiment. The students solve problems during the lecture. This leads to questions, and the students experience directly whether they can apply the knowledge to problems. You can respond to the questions about the problems, which are usually of interest to everyone present. Answering questions also works very well in large groups.

The first exercise always revisits a topic from a previous unit in the context of the new material. For example, a voltage divider is used to calculate the output voltage of a real source that is loaded with a resistor. The further exercises have different levels of difficulty:

1. Recalling knowledge and calculating with given formulas

2. Calculating with several formulas that have to be substituted into each other, or e.g. with more complex geometry

3. Interpreting and assessing results: has the goal been achieved?

4. Synthesis and modification: creating or modifying solutions yourself

Ideally, the exercises are designed so that they can only be solved with understanding. Pure reproduction is nice too, but should be rather rare. Do not give the impression from the outset that this is enough to get by in your course.

A lecture session consists of about 45 minutes of explanation / demonstration of experiments and 45 minutes of solving problems. This way, the exercises as exam preparation are already in the bag.

Small-group exercise

Because problems are solved during lecture time, the small-group sessions become free. This is the most valuable time, which until now was wasted on exam preparation. After all, we specifically do not want students to learn the way they do in problem-solving classes: memorising schemes that are reproduced in the exam.

Instead, we can go to the lab with the students. The group size allows this. The 45 minutes are usually enough for one or two small experiments. The content of the exercises is experienced in practice in the lab. If calculations are needed beforehand, they are prepared in the problems in the lecture.

Here again, the goal is not to retrace but to solve problems. Allow more than one solution path. It should be possible to solve the problem following a prepared path. You can prepare this default solution path in the theory part and in the exercises. Motivate the good students to find their own solutions.

Lab course

The lab course can stay as it was. Thanks to the small-group exercises, you simply have much more time for the lab course. So its scope can roughly be doubled.

Vision of a good exam

Students learn what is examined. Applying knowledge in practice leads to the best possible learning success. That is why we should examine in the lab. Taking part in lab experiments thus becomes exam preparation. This increases the students' motivation in the lab. We then no longer need entry tests, because anyone who does not make optimal use of the lab time will have problems in the exam.

The workstations are separated from each other so that copying is made more difficult. Mobile partitions can be used as screens. The tasks set are similar to those in the practical lab exercises or in the lab course. There may be a PC at the workstation if, for example, Matlab is needed for a solution. In embedded systems, we can combine Arduinos with electronic circuits on a breadboard.

The exams take place in small groups one after the other. This requires more supervision than an exam held for everyone at the same time. We can be supported by lab assistants. Of course, this only works for a maximum of 4–5 small groups in succession. Two consecutive small groups always get the same tasks. Two variants with different numerical values make sense to make copying more difficult.

To arrive at the solutions, the students first have to calculate and then solve practical tasks. The solution is recorded in writing. Only the written solutions are assessed. Measurement results from the experiments are recorded in writing for this purpose – as in a report. According to initial assessments, the procedure is permissible under examination law. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to test it.

Taxonomy levels

If we want students to learn to solve problems, we should also trust and expect them to do so. Problem solving is not something you suddenly master in the third semester after being incapable of it in the first two. Students can already do this before. And those who cannot do it before usually cannot do it later either. In my opinion, the development of students during their studies does not go hand in hand with the taxonomy levels.

That is why I would like to ask you to dare to ignore the guideline of avoiding higher taxonomy levels in introductory lectures. You will do the good students a great favour, because they will finally be challenged. The weak students will quickly see how work and learning must be done in order to succeed. In this way, we prevent pure memorisation with little understanding from the outset.

I am aware that we will lose many first-year students this way. That is bitter, but unavoidable over the course of the whole degree anyway. The earlier this happens, the better. I will not let the weakest 30–40% of a year group dictate my teaching concept. It is aimed at the approx. 60–70% of high-performing students who will successfully complete their studies and who will later really work with this knowledge.