Blended Learning: Just in Time

By Maxime Denis , McGill University

At a Glance

Discipline

STEM
Biochemistry

Instructional Level

University

Course

BIOC 311

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

Individual
Whole Class

Type of Tasks

Discussing
Reading
Taking a quiz & test

Technical Details

Useful Technologies

Polling device

Class size

Very Large (>250)

Time

Brief segment of class period (< 20 mins)

Instructional Purpose

Preparation & knowledge activation

Overview

This activity benefits students as it exposes them to literature in their field of study while also preparing them for the following lecture. The aim is to prepare students for the following class lecture material and to give the instructor a more comprehensive view of their grasp on the material in a large class.

This activity uses Just in Time Teaching, with several different topics in the course. In this activity, students are given an article to read that relates to the topic that will be covered in the following lecture. They have a short multiple choice quiz related to their reading. At the beginning of the lecture period, the teacher polls the students to see if they have any questions or comments about what they have read.

Instructional Objectives

This activity ensures that students are prepared for the material before class
This activity shows the students the actual work being done on the topics they hear about in class

Workflow & Materials

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Contributor's Notes

Benefits

Students are able to prepare for the lecture material so that they can better absorb the information once they get to class
The instructor is better able to tailor the lecture in order to stress areas the students found most interesting and most difficult
Students begin to read articles in their field, which teaches them to read scientific papers in preparation for their future in the field

Applied Strategies

Just in Time Teaching (JiTT)

Feedback based instruction

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Published: 25/09/2021

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