Theory-to-practice transfer, errors foster learning, networking of teachers

Roland is scientist at UMIT, the University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology in Hall in Tirol, Austria. His background is in biomedical engineering. Before joining the university, he worked for five years as network specialist and computer administration in a company. In the master program in mechatronics, he teaches a lab in biomedical technology, a lab in measurement engineering and a seminar in biomedical engineering. He has around six years of teaching experience. The interview was conducted in his office at UMIT on January 17^th, 2018. The interview focused on the labs he is organizing.

Theory-to-practice transfer

The aim of the lab is to independently solve a given problem of biomedical engineering. In each lab, students are organized within small groups. They get a limited amount of time (e.g. one full day) to solve a problem. The problem could be, for example, to conduct a proof of concept study on a new technical idea such as a new ECG tool. The student groups have to plan their inquiry, organize their work, and present their solution at the end.

The major aim of Roland in his labs is to foster application of theoretical knowledge within ill-structured, yet realistic situations. Therefore, he organized the labs around ill-defined problems the students have to work on. He lets the students try first on their own to help them to apply theoretical knowledge in a practical context.

Allow errors to foster learning

At the beginning of a lab, Roland finds that students are often a bit confused due to the lack of structure. This is not what they are used to from other labs. He tries to explain them that the idea of this approach is to show them how practical life will be after their university studies (“At the beginning, I try to explain the idea behind the exercises. It is all about soft skills. I refer to my personal practical experiences to explain why this is important.“)

While working on the problems at hand, students are allowed to make some errors (R: „When working in a group, I deliberately let them try and maybe fail. I also put pressure on them, time pressure.”). Yet, he regularly meets with each group to discuss their progress and their challenges with them and to help if needed.

Teachers’ networks for best practice exchange on educational technology

As instructional technology, he uses Powerpoint, a whiteboard and Moodle. He also uses Kahoot for interactive repetitions (“This is well received, the students are quite ambitious. I have some candies for me for the winner.”). In the future, he plans to use more online resources such as video tutorials to support him in presenting theoretical concepts. But he noticed that students are well able to find tutorials in the Internet by themselves.

Roland states that he often lacks ideas on which technology and tools for teaching are available and could make sense. Often it was only by chance that he heared e.g. about Kahoot. He would like to participate in a network of teachers, where teachers present their experiences with new technologies – a best practice network („Often, I just get the idea from somebody else using a new technology. This would be helpful – a list – a list of tools and technologies that are used by other”). Overall, he feels a bit left alone with selecting and using the technology. He also stresses that technology needs to be reliable (“If I try it once, and it does not work – well, that was it”).

Overall, the lab that Roland teaches is about biomedical technology. Yet, I felt that he did not think too much about using educational technology to support learning of his students. It seems that he lacks ideas on how to do this. Understandably, he would appreciate a best-practice-network of teachers to get these ideas.