English Thesis Writing for the Arts

Overview

We are improving the blended learning version of LCA-1022 that was created as a result of previous pilots. Last year, the course, which runs parallel to the Master’s thesis seminar for New Media and focuses on thesis writing in English, was transformed from a traditional course into a blended learning course. The contact sessions were halved, and online quizzes, videos and exercises were created to replace these sessions. A flipped classroom approach was employed, such that in class students concentrate on practising the skills acquired through the online tasks.

We piloted the new format in the spring of the 2018-2019 academic year, collecting extensive feedback from the students. We are now focusing on improving the course based on that feedback. As a consequence, we are trying to improve the user-friendliness of the online tasks by simplifying the pages and making the exercises easier to find. We are also performing a thorough workload calculation for the course, as it appears to be rather on the heavy side. After that is complete, we will decide whether certain tasks need to be cut. Furthermore, after we had completely changed the format of the contact sessions, we noticed that it was difficult to get through all the material in class. Thus, after the workload calculation is complete, we will be producing more videos and online exercises.

The collection and evaluation of student feedback is on-going and will be used to further adjust the course where needed.

Goal:

• Contact teaching is more workshop-based and student focused, and thus more effective, as some of the materials/lectures/activities are moved online and organized according to principles of flipped classroom
• Reduced contact hours will decrease schedule clashes and increase individual teacher feedback
• Students will be able to select online materials and activities tailored to their own writing needs
• Selected traditional teacher-fronted activities are transformed into more student-centered online activities and mini-lectures
• Deep learning will be encouraged by the course becoming more student-centred, flexible and tailored to individual needs