Integrating practical and theoretical learning

Provide videos, including whiteboard explanations or animations, to directly link theoretical concepts to the remote practical exercises. This is an example of providing a digital artefact.

Link directly to other course content within the virtual learning environment, and align terminology and equation styles with any course notes or other material.

Provide a sample dataset and give the students a hypothesis to investigate using the data. Students then select an appropriate graphing or calculation process from their own prior knowledge. This is an example of providing a digital artefact.

Link directly to other course content within the virtual learning environment, and align terminology and equation styles with any course notes or other material.

In this case, the results and observation from the experiment should be provided to students to analyse. This is an example of providing a digital artefact. The key in this situation is to ensure that structured guidance, such as prompt questions, are provided rather than didactic answer. This is an example of remote staff support.

Build models, either physically or in simulation, that allow free-form exploration of topics. It might be necessary to suggest an initial investigation strategy, before letting students explore more freely.

If the physical tools can be hard to use, provide clear instructions. If the simulation package can be complex or hard to use, pre-build some parts of the simulation, and provide detailed tutorials. In either case, ensure the medium of exploration does not get in the way of the concepts of interest.

For example, students could use spheres (plastic balls, marbles or ping pong balls) and double sticky tape to build 3D atomic structures in metals to visualise stacking sequences of atoms. This would be an example of performing procedure in an alternative environment.