Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR courses

Guidance and resources to support EPICUR course development, cc-by-sa

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Interactive in-Person Courses

Interactive in-Person Courses

Why interactive in-person courses?

In opposition to online courses, in-person course helps you to decipher whether students are progressing, whether you as a teacher need to lower or raise the pace, whether good questions are emerging in discussion etc. The same holds true for the students connecting to each other and to the teacher.

If your students are used to online learning, remember to involve them in your considerations about good face-to-face teaching by continuously discussing expectation to preparation for class, attendance, and active participation in class.

You might feel helped as a teacher if you reflect on the following before planning in-person courses:
  • What is important for you to spend time on with the students in in-person sessions?
  • Hence, what is important that you/the students do in between in-person sessions?

3 key points about interactive in-person courses (and perhaps also online)

  1. Before class:
    Formulate assignments for the students to prepare for class.
    By clarifying how you would like your students to prepare, you allow the students to contribute actively in the in-person session. You might plan your teaching as flipped learning.

  2. During the session:
    Take advantage of being in the same physical space to create dialogue - between you and the students and among students. 

    a.    Dialogical learning activities support students’ opportunities to try out and test their understanding of the subject and at the same time reinforce a sense of belonging to the academic community. Examples of activities that support dialogue are: 

    i.    Fish Bowl – reflective teams
    ii.    Jigsaw – collaborative teamwork
    iii.    Station Learning – create a learning path 
    iv.    Think-pair share – have students discuss and learn from each other 
    v.    Traveling File – teams give feedback to the work of other teams

    b.    Be aware of the possibilities to use the physical space to create supporting settings for dialogue and discussions (e.g., you might want to move the tables around).

  3. After the session:
    Summarise the session in cooperation with the students and clarify the need for self study. 
    Concerted planning and action of in-person courses and additional student activities promote student motivation for independent work and facilitate the attainment of more learning goals. As an example, at the end of one session you can provide instructions for activities for the next in-person session (read more in this article).

Interactive In-person Courses in practice

will follow

Links to resources for Interactive In-person Courses

References

  • McCabe, A. & U. O'Connor (2014): Student-centred learning: The role and responsibility of the lecturer. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(4), 350-359.
  • C. Roland Christensen (1991): ‘The Discussion Teacher in Action: Questioning, Listening, and Response’ in Education for Judgement – The artistery of Discussion Leadership, ed. By C. Roland Christensen, David A Garvin, and Ann Sweet. Boston: Harvard Business School, pp 153-172.

Inclusive Course Design and Modes of Delivery

Author(s)

This resource sheet has been co-written or written by

  • Rie Troelsen (SDU)

Related Resource Sheets

Next steps

If you need further support with developing your course, please contact your local teaching support unit.
If you need further information on offering your course for EPICUR, please contact your EPICUR institutional coordinator.

Local teaching support units

EPICUR Institutional Coordinators

Adam Mickiewicz University
Karolina Choczaj
karmench@amu.edu.pl

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Nikos Kouloussis
nikoul@agro.auth.gr

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Michael Zacherle
zacherle@kit.edu

University of Amsterdam
Tiffany Boersma
t.a.boersma@uva.nl

Universität Freiburg
Charlotte Langowski
charlotte.langowski@zv.uni-freiburg.de

Université de Haute-Alsace
Léa Ziri
lea.ziri@uha.fr

Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Nicolas Fries
nicolas.fries@boku.ac.at

University of Southern Denmark
Ida Thøstesen
ilt@sdu.dk

University of Strasbourg
Pascale Nachez
pnachez@unistra.fr

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Further use as OER explicitly permitted:
This Resource Sheet within the Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses was created by Rie Troelsen, University of Southern Denmark.
Please attribute according to TASLL rule as follows: Interactive in-Person Courses (Best Practice Guide for Designing and Delivering EPICUR Courses), by Rie Troelsen, University of Southern Denmark. Any icons included are protected by copyright, © The Noun Project, used with permission.
License: This work and its contents are – unless otherwise stated – licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 . 

Last edited: 23. Jun 2025, 09:05, Hutz-Nierhoff, Dorthe [dh1076@rz.uni-freiburg.de]