Instructor Insights: Facilitating a Blended Learning Experience

TL;DR

MITx Physics courses now utilize an online platform with flipped classroom elements, allowing students to complete online reading and interactive exercises before attending in-person sessions.

Transcript

PHILIP PEARCE: Yes, so I think that the real difference between when you guys first ran the course, which I think was in 2015, and now when I run the course, is that Jen has helped to develop this online MITx platform. Now it's really a flipped classroom course. So it has this blended learning aspect to it where the students complete online reading... Read More

Key Insights

• 🏃 The MITx Physics course incorporates a flipped classroom approach with online reading and interactive exercises before in-person sessions.
• 🧑‍🎓 The online platform includes sketch response tools and immediate feedback, enhancing student engagement and learning.
• 😫 Grading encompasses online lectures, problem sets, and exams, with immediate response and feedback benefiting student understanding.
• 🧑‍🎓 Students' completion of online reading is incentivized through grade allocation and easily monitored through feedback data.
• 👻 The online platform allows for a focus on complex examples in class, with simpler examples and immediate feedback completed online.
• 🎵 The structure of online notes, without a physical textbook, provides interactive questions that assess reading comprehension.
• 🧑‍🎓 The integration of Mathlets, interactive visualizations, into the online course material enhances student comprehension and interaction.

Questions & Answers

Q: How does the MITx Physics course ensure students complete the online reading?

The online reading includes questions that students must attempt, with a small percentage of their grade dependent on answering these questions correctly. Feedback data helps track completion, and it is relatively easy to verify if students have completed the reading.

Q: What is the structure of the online notes in the MITx Physics course?

The online notes are hosted on the MITx residential platform, eliminating the need for a physical textbook. Questions are interspersed within the text, requiring students to have completed the reading to answer them.

Q: How does the online platform benefit student learning?

The platform includes sketch response tools, providing students with automatic feedback on diagram drawings. It also allows for immediate feedback on simple examples, saving class time for more challenging problems. The online environment maximizes utility and time spent with instructors.

Q: How is grading done in the MITx Physics course?

Grading in the course includes online lectures with graded questions, problem sets with more involved questions submitted weekly, and a midterm and final exam. Immediate response and feedback provided by the online platform benefit student understanding.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The MITx Physics course has evolved to incorporate blended learning, with online reading completed before in-person classroom hours.

• Online reading includes interactive questions that students must attempt to receive a grade incentive and ensure completion.

• The online platform allows for sketch response tools, immediate feedback on simple examples, and the ability to focus on more complex examples in class.