Does giving students feedback on their concept maps through an on-screen avatar or a humanoid robot make a difference?

Active or engaged learning is often seen as a way to improve students’ performance concerning STEM topics. When following such a form of self-directed learning, students often need to receive feedback on their progress. Giving real-time feedback on an individual basis is usually beyond the teacher’s capacity; in digital learning environments,...

The impact of COVID-19 Epidemic on Teaching and Learning

Recently articles in Newspapers, University News Bulletins and Scientific Literature report about negative aspects of the wellbeing of students caused by COVID-19 epidemic. Half of the students have mental problems and don't participate in the teaching learning process anymore. In the Netherlands, Universities are surveyed by questionnaires,...

Inquiry based learning as didactic model in distant learning

Recent years many universities are involved in development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Unfortunately an appropriate didactic model for cooperated network learning is lacking. In this paper we introduce inquiry based learning as didactic model. Students are assumed to ask themselves questions interacting with a learning text. The...

Pre-University calculus MOOC with inquiry based learning as didactic model

It proves that many starting students at Technical Universities don’t have the required mathematical knowledge and abilities. This is caused by educational gaps at secondary schools, disinterest of students and a process of forgetting over time. At TUDelft a MOOC has been developed to train new students in mathematical calculus during the summer...