All first-year students at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) are required to take mathematics courses, but their motivation to participate in these courses is generally lower than their motivation for courses that belong to their main field of study. These lower levels of commitment often lead to lower results and weaker understanding of mathematical concepts, which in turn affect the rest of their studies. Two years ago, TU Delft introduced blended learning in the first-year interfaculty mathematics courses, in order to improve results, make more efficient use of teaching staff, facilitate the transfer of maths knowledge to other subjects and better connect with today’s students. In this paper we provide an insight into the project, based on student and educator interviews, observations and surveys. Furthermore, we examine the impact of the flipped classroom model used in the project. Our findings suggest that the model could be a promising way of enhancing students’ learning performance. The main results show that students have a more active learning experience, compared to the traditional setup of these courses, leading to more engagement and interaction. Furthermore, the project structure of the flipped maths courses, provides opportunities for more scalable education. Based on our findings we provide recommendations, not just for this project but also for other course teams who are setting up similar projects in order to help them develop a model that best serves their education. @en

Design education usually takes place in a studio setting, in which visual and spatial artefacts are produced, shared, improved, presented and commented. This specific setting comes with qualitative properties that allow for situated learning with object-oriented focus and interaction, combined with a rich collegial context in which ideas can flourish and certain values and ethics are cherished. Using our education platform for online learning, we noticed the lack of support for typical creative and social design studio aspects, while factual classroom education was well supported. This paper describes how we attempt to translate the qualities of the studio education setting into an online environment for design education. Our approach is not to build a Virtual Design Studio (VDS) from the bottom up, but instead, to build on top of our universities' online education platform of choice. The paper commences with a short description of design education in a studio setting. Then a number of basic principles of design studio education is applied to the development of two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In the last section we discuss the different setups and compare the online aspects with on campus design studio education.@en

Peer reviewing is an approach often used in digital (higher) education as it represents a possibility to provide feedback to large student groups. However, especially in digital learning contexts, students feel being disconnected from the anonymous group of learners, leading to low-quality feedback. When feedback is open, and counterparts are known, this knowledge can lead to biases when commenting on each other’s work. We developed a game-based learning environment called ‘The Great Library’ that we used to analyse the effect of avatars as game element to limit the effects of both fully anonymous and fully open feedback. Students and teachers using the new game-based learning environment were asked to provide feedback on their experiences with the learning environment and the use of avatars. The responses were compared to the same course provided without game elements. The qualitative data analysis reveals that the introduction of avatars still lacks acceptance on the side of the students, yet that they feel a sense of community in the GBL. Open and direct feedback is still used and appreciated by the students. The anonymity of the peer reviews resulting from the use of the avatars represents a challenge for the student-teacher interaction. The environment and set-up of the course in a whole still needs some adjustment in order to fully support the learning process of the students. @en

Peer review is increasingly used in higher education, also at Delft University of Technology. Unfortunately, the potential of student-student feedback often appears to be undervalued, making it less effective. The quality of the reviews is not as good and they are less constructive than expected. Moreover, not all students take giving and or receiving feedback serious. Since 2005 the peer review process in the course Preparation Master Thesis has been continuously developing with the aim to increase the contribution of constructive feedback to the learning process. In the course students learn the essential academic skills to write a research proposal. More than 1200 students have participated so far. Our objective is to support students in developing a suitable and feasible research design. For intermediary feedback on drafts and formative assessment, peer review (PR) is an essential element of this course. In the first years of the course the PR procedure was similar as well known in academic and other professional circles: students received collegial informal peer review of their ideas in class, and a more formal written peer review of the full draft of the deliverable. From 2012 the course was also offered fully online. Without class meetings, and far less student-teacher interaction the peer review procedure became more critical for the students’ learning experience, since informal interaction was hardly arranged. Continuous evaluation led to adaptation of the peer review process in the course. In this paper we reflect on the improvements that we have made over the years: - to consider feedback seriously: rebut and asses the reviews - to learn how to give constructive feedback: introduce a repeated review process, evaluating the reviews and assessing the rebuttal - to structure feedback: using an assessment form, later a rubric - to reduce peer pressure: using an anonymous review - to improve trust, confidence and comfort: experiments with peer groups Based on the most recent lessons learned we will discuss our latest project integrating the peer review process in a game-based learning environment. Based on the data and experience from the previous course runs we assume that game incentives will improve learning results as students are encouraged to engage in the interactive peer review process and further their professional behaviour giving constructive feedback. We aim to make this into an adaptable learning format for any programme that wishes to adopt a similar approach to increase the learning experience and effect of peer review. @en

Being able to share visual course assignments and provide and receive personal feedback is essential in most studio design courses of Delft University of Technology. With the rapid growth of online and blended education teachers are confronted with the challenge of maintaining the same quality for this aspect of their teaching as in traditional face-to-face design courses. Looking for interactive ways to train creative skills in their courses, teachers found that the available WEB 2.0 tools were unsatisfactory. We mapped the requirements and found that Sketchdrive, a platform for sharing visuals, seemed to meet many of these requirements. We developed a course design integrating the visual platform Sketchdrive and collaborated with Sketchdrive to improve the platform. This resulted in a pilot project, including 3 MOOCs and 2 campus courses. This paper elaborates on the pilot project. We show how the visual platform is integrated into course designs. Next, we compare student and teacher experiences based on the results of surveys and interviews. Furthermore, we discuss differences in the blended campus courses and the online courses. In conclusion, we consider what still needs to be improved for better aligning the visual platform to our course designs. Finally, based on lessons learnt, we provide recommendations for integrating visual platforms in the course design of higher education studio design courses. @en

The Great Library is a game-based learning (GBL) environment that was developed by Delft University of Technology staff together with OrbitGames developers as part of a project to improve the peer review process in a MSc course on research design. This project was granted by SURF, a Dutch government funded organization for education and research.@en