Topis and short description

PolyBooks

PolyBooks are a new and modern possibility of writing lecture notes which include in particular the option to integrate interactive contents, videos, exercises etc. One of the advantages is that all the relevant course material can be united into one single document.

Further information about PolyBook can be found here .

Laura

In particular, for engineering students the presented maths semms rather theoretical and abstract.

In order to facilitate understanding and deepen the knowledge visualizations are a good supplement to lecture notes, they make maths become lively.

Such visualizations range from (animated) graphis to interactive applets where e.g. the affects of parameter can be observed in real time be manipulationg them via a button.

Further information about interactive tools and applets can be found also in the present blog.

In particular in the context of didactical methods as e.g. flipped classroom but also to brithen traditional teaching techniques documents for self-study by the students are very useful.

Such documents range from various video formats to interactive PDF-documents (pop-ups, links within the document, added audio comments etc.) to adaptive multiple-choice-exercises.

The interested reader is referred to Laura’s blog (mainly about videos and PDFs with embedded audio or video content) and this chapter of the present blog (a collection of several possible implementations of interactivities).

moodle is one the many possible platforms for lecture pages.

moodle pages offer  many ready for use contents as interactive multiple-choice questions (with direct feedback and hints), discussion platforms etc.

Moreover, the moodle environment is needed for online exams.

The metaphor pages provide an alternative to the aforementioned moodle pages.

The set-up is manly html-based and the leading idea it that using these pages we build an archive containung the most important information concerning prsent and past lectures.

A more detailled presentation about this and possible alternatives can be found at this page

Especially for programming exercises a suitable platfom where students can solve their exercises, hand in their solutions and get feedback is a huge advantage – just to mention one form of interactive exercises.

At ETH there exist already various implementations and good expertise.

Interested?  Learn more! (in particular sections 5.4 and 5.5)

Laura

As a matter of fact, not all the students come to ETH with the same background educatotion.

In order to give them the possibility of closing possible gaps since a couple of years there is the so-called »Brückenkurs» service.

The service consists on one hand in a selfassessment and on the other hand in videos, notes and exercise for the self-study.

More details can be found here.

In almost every lecture of the first year, multiple choice questions are an important port of the exercise material and part of the final exam.

Various implementations (with and without feedback mechanism, nemesis versus Moodle etc.), a summarised discussion of the didactical value of such questions and further reading suggestions can be found here .

and

Laura

In particular during the corona virus pandemic the question of good practice in online teaching get a high attention.

Of course, also in an online setting every lecturer has his/her own style, principles and preferences. Nevertheless, in this chapter we collected some possible implementation of online teaching together with practical hints and indications of pros and cons.