Situation
The IT University of Copenhagen (short ITU) dedicated themselves to the education and research in the field of IT, with a focus on computer science, business IT and digital design. The student profile and their pre-knowledge especially in mathematics holds a high variation resulting in unequal starting positions. With the use of Grasple in the form of a brush up course at the beginning and for continuous scaffolding of knowledge throughout the course they are able to create more equal learning opportunities for all of their students.
Challenge Of Diverse Academic Backgrounds
ITU Copenhagen welcomes around 100 students in their course “Introduction to Machine Learning” in Computer Science. These students tend to have a large range of pre-knowledge in mathematics due to their previous education, country of origin or the amount of time since they last studied this type of mathematics. The differences in background knowledge of the students is a common struggle for the course as they create inequality, and result in demotivation for those being ahead or behind and the subjects discussed in the lecture are too easy or too difficult.
This diverse mix of students is now starting the same course together where a certain level of pre-requisites is required and the differences start to show. Not having sufficient background knowledge creates inequality that can be difficult to handle for teachers, resulting in a disadvantage for all levels, as students need to catch up to the expected level.
Brush Up Course And Scaffolding of Competences With The “Book of Grasples”
Dan Witzner Hansen, professor for Computer Science & Machine Learning at ITU Copenhagen, tackled the challenge of a wide variation of students with diverse levels of pre-knowledge by designing a blended learning structure for his course. At the beginning there is a brush up course, followed by a continuous scaffolding of competences throughout the semester. This provides students with the learning opportunity to catch up on the prerequisite knowledge, ensuring a less diverse level of base knowledge at the beginning of the course and keeping all students at level throughout the course.
After talking with colleagues and a thorough investigation of the tool they created the “Book of Grasple” as a collection of exercises that students are expected to complete progressively at different times throughout the semester.
The “Book of Grasple” builds on the following method of education: Firstly, students pre-study the material before the lecture. It will be summarized in class and built up on using small exercises in class. Afterwards they study the concepts explained by the teacher during the lecture and further practice the exercises with parameterized variables both during independent study in exercise classes and at home. This process ultimately allows students to implement their acquired knowledge into new contexts in the classroom and in real life situations and keeps the transition from theory to practice small.
By using Grasple, students could access and work on the exercises and learning materials, at home, in class or just on the go. More importantly, it allowed educators to easily build bridges between theory and practice, letting students experience and implement what has just been taught to them, during the lecture.
Student Success And Learning Outcomes
Following the use of Grasple, Dan Witzner witnessed students who used the “Book of Grasple” conscientiously achieved better results throughout the course, on quizzes and exams. Using Grasple, students are encouraged to study continuously because of the mandatory activities every week that ensure deeper and longer lasting knowledge.
Also for teachers the tool proved to be very beneficial in monitoring student progress. Using the learning analytics and insights from Grasple, the teacher can check in with the students, nudge them in the right direction and discuss their optimal learning path. One of the students even mentioned “I wish other students would use Grasple more”. Thanks to the set up in Grasple and the use of parameterization students can continuously practice, optimizing their own time and saving time from the teacher. It allows students to prioritize their time, re-visit problems and iteratively improve their understanding.
Setting it up for the ITU brush up course was a great match. It required minimal assistance, and the large library of ready-to-use exercises, variables, immediate feedback & comments made it easy to integrate into the university's context.
“What I particularly like was: we can define exercises, especially that you have variables … and I think what you actually provide in Grasple, are a set of these exercises that actually help understanding these concepts.”
-- Dan Witzner Hansen
professor for Computer Science & Machine Learning at ITU Copenhagen, highlighting the different functionality and adaptability of Grasple.