<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> In this article, I describe my experience of preparing and delivering a brand new computing undergraduate course in a new university and in doing so, share how the special institutional push of the active learning pedagogy of the university changed the way I prepared and delivered the course, and ended up transforming my own view of teaching. I was faced with an unusual cohort of students who were already familiar with active learning styles in classes, were proactive, vocal, and argumentative, were not afraid of making mistakes and of challenging the authorities, were extremely articulate expressing themselves and who had worked in a project- and team-based setting throughout the programme. As such, a very different method of teaching needed to be in place, not for the purpose of improving the in-class engagement, but out of necessity. In the process of creating and running this course, I witnessed a major shift in the allocation of my time, efforts and other resources: from general to specific, from teaching to advising to observing, from elaborate preclass preparations to impromptu, in-class discussions, thus bringing all my design skills and experiences to the table.</p></abstract>

In this article, I describe my experience of preparing and delivering a brand new computing undergraduate course in a new university and in doing so, share how the special institutional push of the active learning pedagogy of the university changed the way I prepared and delivered the course, and ended up transforming my own view of teaching. I was faced with an unusual cohort of students who were already familiar with active learning styles in classes, were proactive, vocal, and argumentative, were not afraid of making mistakes and of challenging the authorities, were extremely articulate expressing themselves and who had worked in a project- and team-based setting throughout the programme. As such, a very different method of teaching needed to be in place, not for the purpose of improving the in-class engagement, but out of necessity. In the process of creating and running this course, I witnessed a major shift in the allocation of my time, efforts and other resources: from general to specific, from teaching to advising to observing, from elaborate preclass preparations to impromptu, in-class discussions, thus bringing all my design skills and experiences to the table.

From a well-prepared teacher to an on-the-spot facilitator: a reflection on delivering an active learning course

International Journal for Transformative Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

In this article, I describe my experience of preparing and delivering a brand new computing undergraduate course in a new university and in doing so, share how...

From a well-prepared teacher to an on-the-spot facilitator: a reflection on delivering an active learning course

Published Online: Aug 29, 2015

Page range: 26 - 34

Received: Mar 09, 2015

Accepted: Jun 08, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijtr-2015-0005

Keywords
Active learning, student teams, interaction design studio, experience design, learning culture

© 2015

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

From a well-prepared teacher to an on-the-spot facilitator: a reflection on delivering an active learning course

Published Online: Aug 29, 2015

Page range: 26 - 34

Received: Mar 09, 2015

Accepted: Jun 08, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijtr-2015-0005

KeywordsActive learning, student teams, interaction design studio, experience design, learning culture

© 2015

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Active learning, student teams, interaction design studio, experience design, learning culture