Scaffolding the Blended Learning Experience by Integrating a Weekly Assessment into an Introductory Power Systems Course

This Research to Practice Category Full Paper presents the implementation of a weekly assessment that is integrated to the blended learning approach to design a Power System Course to enhance student learning. The module has migrated from a traditional delivery of lecture content through two-hour classroom lectures and one-hour tutorials to a blended learning platform with online activities before class and in-class activities. The introductory power systems course offered by the university covers a wide array of topics ranging from phasors, AC circuit analysis, power generation, transmission and distribution. The lectures were moved online but instead of covering one topic and all the sub-topics in one video we covered each sub-topic in a separate video. This resulted in four to five videos a week, but each video was between five and ten minutes. The shorter videos ensure that the student learns the individual sub-topics before his/her attention got divided. The classroom time was spent in relating the theory taught in the videos to practical real-life applications, live demonstrations of the concepts as well as solving mathematical tutorials. Weekly live video sessions were incorporated into the module closed the feedback loop with the students. One of the primary challenges in blended learning approach is that learners need to commit to watch the videos before they come for the face-to-face session. Analysing the module feedback and the uploaded video statistics, it was found that a majority of the students did not really view these videos and expected the lecturer to cover the same topics in the face- to- face session. To address this challenge, it was decided to incorporate a weekly graded online quiz that tested the students on the contents of the uploaded videos. Firstly, the assessments were made available to the students up to a few hours before the start of the face-to-face lectures. This was to ensure that they have ample time after the videos were uploaded to view the content but completed it before the face-to-face lecture. Secondly, the assessment had a graded weightage albeit a very small one to incentivize the learner to complete them. Thirdly, questions in the assessment were an equal spread of theoretical, application based and numerical type questions to let the learner practice different aspects of the corresponding topic. Finally, the students were given multiple attempts with no time limit for attempting these assessments. This resulted in them viewing the videos repeatedly till they got to the correct solutions in the assessment. This paper describes the theoretical basis for using assessments in blended learning, its application in design and integration of the weekly assessment into the learning platform along with quantitative and qualitative results on its efficacy.