Teaching philosophy

In recent years, I have aligned my teaching philosophy towards the MBF method. The term "MBF" stands for MOOC-based flipped classroom, and therefore defines a teaching methodology that implements and blended flipped classroom strategy using MOOCs. It is clear that both MOOCS and the flipped classroom strategies are not new inventions since they have been around for decades. However, the MBF method refers to a specific way in which this integration between flipped classroom and blended learning should take place for in-person education. Specifically, in order to be able to successfully adopt the MBF method for teaching, the course design must follow three main principles summarized as follows:

1. Structured design. This principles highlights the need to integrate both online and on-campus activities in a wholistic approach aimed at maximizing constructive alignment. The application of this principle requires that the MOOC and on-campus components of the course are the result of a co-design process, rather than integrating elements that have been developed individually.

2. Complexity scaffolding. This principle establishes that the format (online or on-campus) of different resources and learning activities must bear in mind the expected cognitive complexity. Specifically, tasks aimed at the development of competencies higher up in Bloom's taxonomy are more easily promoted through active learning and rely more heavily on direct face-to-face interaction.

3. Workload balancing. This principle highlights the importance of explicitly managing and aligning student’s workload with learning objectives in the blended scenario. The proper management of the student's workload requires a careful co-design of online and on-campus activities.

I advocate for the adoption of the MBF method for improving engineering education practices in the post-pandemic era. In addition to the MBF model, MOOCs have been blended into on-campus courses using different strategies, such as wrapper-based blending or repository-based blending. However, the MBF model shows the highest potential for a sucessfull hybrid experience in on-campus, traditional engineering courses [1].

Publications

1. S. Pertuz, O. Reyes, E. Sancristobal, R. Meier, M. Moreno, MOOC-based Flipped Classroom for On-campus Teaching in Undergraduate Engineering Courses, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Education, (accepted), 2023. [pdf]

2. S. Pertuz, O. Reyes, A. Ramírez, Course Quality Assessment in Postpandemic Higher Education, Learning with MOOCS VIII, 120-125, 2022. [pdf]

3. S. Pertuz, Perception of Engineering Students on Remote Teaching with the Flipped-Classroom Strategy, Revista Ingenierías Universidad de Medellín, 20(39):231-250, 2021. [pdf]

4. S. Pertuz, J. I. Torres, The impact of MOOCs on the Performance of Undergraduate Students in Digital Signal Processing, Proc. Symposium on Signal Processing, Images and Artificial Vision (STSIVA 2016), pp. 1-7. DOI:10.1109/STSIVA.2016.7743356. [pdf]

5. S. Pertuz, J. I. Torres, Lineamientos para el diseño de cursos online masivos abiertos (MOOC) en ingeniería electrónica, Entre Ciencia e Ingeniería, 11(21):42-49, 2017. [pdf]