What was the reason to set up this bridging course in the first place?
‘It stems from the observation that an increasing number of students in engineering programmes is struggling with essential mathematical concepts. A university assumes this is prior knowledge from secondary education. Yet, we’ve observed both a gap in math skills and in conceptual understanding among first-year students – that’s something I also hear from colleagues. It’s a shame, because the lack of understanding often leads to frustration, a loss of confidence, study delay or even dropouts. So I wanted to develop something to help students out where they need it the most.’
How did you go about that?
‘Well, it started in the academic year 2022/2023, with a half-day workshop for students of the Civil Engineering programme. At the end of the session, there was still quite some material we weren’t able to cover, so I referred the students to some explanatory videos. That didn’t quite work, since the videos somehow didn’t stick with students. So I decided to apply for a 4TU. Centre for Engineering Education call and received funding to set up the bridging course. The thought behind that was: if you offer students a course in their online learning environment – Canvas – they are more likely to follow through with it since it’s part of this environment.’
What does the bridging course offer?
‘It’s a fully online course offering all kinds of different math topics of secondary education, that uses learning analytics to provide personalised feedback. Each topic starts with an entry question. If the student answers that question correctly, then can continue to the next topic or choose to deepen their understanding. If the answer is incorrect, the student gets a short explanation video with follow-up questions included. A topic always ends with an exit question, to gauge if a student truly understands the topic. Based on their performance – such as the number of attempts and their interaction with the video – the student gets a star-based rating. Below 2.5 stars means the topic is insufficiently mastered, above 2.5 stars reflects good progress. That gives them clear and actionable insights in their learning process.’
And the teachers, what insights do they get?
‘They get a different kind of overview, a sort-of heatmap dashboard that visualises the learning process of their cohort of students. As a teacher, you tend to focus more on the performance of the whole classroom than on individual students, given limited time and energy. So if a topic colours light green, you know that a lot of students answered questions correctly on the first attempt. If they struggle with a certain topic a bit more, you see darker colours. So as a teacher, you can immediately detect patterns. Let’s say the topic of trigonometry has a darker yellow colour, you can choose to give more instructions on that during your relevant next lecture.’
What can you tell about the results of this bridging course up until now?
‘The first pilot started in September 2023, in the Civil Engineering programme. In its second iteration, the course was adopted by ten programmes of four faculties. Last September, another programme was added to the list. All the faculties that have a bachelor’s programme are involved. So far, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback, with programme directors and teaching teams asking to also provide it for pre-master students or as a summer course before new students start at the university. And students themselves also say they are enjoying the course.
Where I see some room for improvement, is in the integration in study programmes. I fully understand curricula are already quite packed, but if study programmes support this course, it would be very beneficial to embed it in a curriculum and reserve dedicated hours for it.’
For the last couple of months, you were a Senior Teaching & Learning fellow, what did you specifically focus on?
‘The overarching theme was building inclusive learning communities. I connected this theme to the bridging course by focusing on lowering the barriers for diverse student populations and ensuring that students from different educational backgrounds can receive equitable learning support.’
What has this fellowship brought you?
‘I learned a lot, also from the other fellows. The fellowship strengthened my role as an educational innovator and academic leader and it allowed me to translate educational research into a scalable solution with real impact. During the process, I’ve also expanded my interdisciplinary network across faculties and institutions.’
Looking towards the future, what are your plans for the bridging course and beyond?
‘I want to take it step-by-step. I’ve applied for scale-up funding via NWO and I’m currently awaiting the verdict on that. The course has also attracted interest from other universities. We recently completed a pilot at the TU Eindhoven and there’s also interest from the universities of Maastricht and Münster. I hope to keep developing initiatives that contribute to student success and educational quality, both at the UT and beyond.’
