Reform of active pedagogy in the age of Covid

Abstract

With the dramatic emergence of the Covid-19 Virus, teachers in schools and universities have been challenged to move from face-to-face to distance learning. This required an update on the materials and the workflow to adapt the teaching approach to the online context and ensure the learning quality. In this work, we will present the adopted approach in a particular course which is procedural programming, a course given for the first-year engineering students of our engineering school. We use two pedagogical approaches for teaching this course: the flipped classroom and the problem-based learning (PBL). The challenge was how to assure team working and provide the same coaching quality; facilitating, problem solving, group management and so on using the same teaching load. Major changes have been made to the current approach, including scripting sessions and teams’ coaching. A pedagogical scenario has been developed to enable coaching via video conferences while keeping the active aspect. Students work on their problem situation through collaborative tools and in the virtual presence of their coach. An e-learning platform has been adopted to allow asynchronous interactions. Our reform also affected the length of sessions, assessment and the types of teaching materials used to substitute physical presence in a classroom and the use of a blackboard.