Design of Education

Coordination of a module

Module coordination

Lesson pLAN

If you have to teach, we recommend filling in a lesson plan form. At the UTQ, you get a nice format for this, which you could use. However, this is a very extensive form and not everyone finds it useful or pleasant. The point is not necessarily to fill in a lesson plan form, but to prepare yourself well. The lesson plan form can help you not to forget anything.

Some tips that might help you:

Try to keep the same structure every lesson in which you bring out all the elements of a lesson (as taught at the UTQ). This is pleasant for yourself and recognisable for the students.
First write down briefly what your lesson is going to look like, make an outline. Only then start working on your presentation. IN this way you can keep an overview.
-Try to do something else every 15 minutes in the session, this way you take the students' attention span into account. So alternate the different activities: lecturing, working on an assignment, discussion, quiz etc.

Lecture types

Lectures
A lecture is a presentation to a large group of students with the aim of teaching them something. A lecture is teacher-driven but the teacher does explicitly ask for input from all students. This input can be obtained through various activities.
- (digital) quizzes
- small assignments
- discussions etc.
Tutorials
A tutorial is a session in which a group of students works on assignments. The teachers mentions what the students should do ans is there to support the students while they work.
Capita Selecta
It is a series of meetings on a selection of topics, fitting a particular theme.
Lab session
During a lab session, students work on experiments. They may do this independently or under the guidance of a teacher. For a lab session to run smoothly, it is advisable to have a clear picture of the steps to be taken, this can be done by letting the students figure this out (and check it) themselves or by providing them with these.
This can be done by letting the students figure out the steps on their own (check the steps in advance to avoid dangerous situations) or by providing them with them.
Large groups
If you want to know more about teaching large groups have a look at this document.
Company visits
Company visits are fun and can be very educational.
Planning a company visit will take some time to organise. Think about the goal(s) of the visit. What do you want the students to learn? It may be to experience what it is like to work in a company, or it may be to achieve a more specific aim, such as learning about new technologies.
During the company visit the students will see and hear a lot of interesting things, so to keep them focused (and not overwhelmed by all the information) give the students an assignment/task.
Workshops
Workshops are sessions where the students are active and the teacher has a more supervisory role. The session can have a more practical or a more theoretical aim, as long as the students work on an assignment/task in a group or individually.
The teacher can explain the assignment/task, give individual/group feedback, organise an evaluation, but the main task is to supervise, motivate and encourage the students while they are actively involved in the learning process.
Some may say that during a workshop 80% of the students is 80% of the time working on an assignment/task

Teaching large groups

If you have to teach a class with few students, let's say up to 10 students, you can give those individual students a lot of personal attention, it will be easier to check if they are attending class and students will ask you questions more easily than if they are in a large group. But how do you teach very large groups what is important then?

We don't really have a set definition in the Netherlands about what constitutes a large, normal and a small group. But just to give you an idea.

Small groups: fewer than 15 students
Normal groups: 20-30 students
Large groups: 30-300 students

Personal attention in large groups

Personal attention is important in education. By this we mean that you know the students' names, for example, remember what you like or find difficult. If you know all these things you can help them better or even customise your education even more to the group. You can't remember all those things if you have over 100 students in the class. But you can still make the students feel that you do know them a bit. Here are some tips:

Refer in to things done/said in the previous lesson by the students. For example: During the previous lesson, there ate a group of students who were working very hard on the assignments.
Ask closed questions to the group about the lesson or homework. Then have the students raise their hands. For example: Who liked the assignment? Who spent more than an hour on this assignment?
Have a chat with the students during the break.

Involve students

Engaging students in your lesson can work well in a large group, but it is different from a small group. By having students participate in the group, you get information about what they find difficult or easy. But importantly, if a student is involved in the lesson (and not with social media, a game oid) then the student can learn better. Some tips for engaging students in large groups:

Ask closed questions about the material and let students answer by raising their hand.
Create an online quiz for example in Wooclap, in this you can also ask other type of questions.
Have students work on an assignment in a small group and ask them to send/or show you the answers.

How to get students to ask questions

Many teachers mention lesson after lesson: 'Please, feel free to ask me questions during class'. This if very nice of them. But.... hardly any student does asks questions in a large group. What the reason is? This may differ from student to student, some of them are shy, some of them don't pay atteion, some of them thing they can find the answer in the study material etc.

But we all know that is important that students ask questions to you (even if your lecture was cristal clear!). Here are some tips:

Ask the students to create test questions and the answer sheet themself. In this case they really have to think about the answer.
Ask students which topics they found difficult and which easy, and let them discuss this with each other. Let them formulate together what they find difficult.
Ask the students to hand in (via Canvas, Wooclap etc.) questions which are anonymously and discuss the answers in class.

Canvas

The central Canvas Support team has some general information about the system. Frequently used: Canvas guest account request form. Every faculty has a separate Canvas mailbox for administrative Canvas questions and problems. For e-learning specific advice within Canvas, please contact the e-learning specialists listed above.

Mailboxes per faculty

See utwente.nl/canvas for general information on our Learning Management System.

Last edit: 9 April 2025