TU Delft is using the opportunities of online media to interact with potential future students in secondary schools. This year the university is conducting pilots of online study trials for six bachelor courses as part of its battery of information and orientation activities to get the right student on the right programme.
The university offers 16 bachelor study programmes and a range of outreach activities to help secondary school pupils tackle the daunting task of choosing the right BSc. Annelies Veeningen is secondary school education coordinator at the Science Centre Delft and she has worked on setting up the online study trials.
“Open days are an easy way for pupils to ask their last questions and savour the campus atmosphere,” said Veeningen. “But they are passive. The pupils don’t engage with the subject matter and this is very important for a prospective student to make a final decision on what to study.”
Online study trials were the solution to provide more depth and are based on the massive open online courses (MOOCs) that were set up by the online education department using the EdX platform. They are compact versions with just a couple of hours of content per week focussing on introducing secondary school pupils to first year bachelor course content. The result of collaboration between the BSc course lecturers and the Deft Science Centre, they have a start and end date and are three weeks long.
Once developed and available online, a TU Delft student monitors each module’s progress, answering questions and giving feedback. The study trial modules are available several times per year and the participants can decide for themselves when they want to work on them. Online study coaches Marit van der Does, third year BSc Nanobiology student and Thijs van Essen, second year Mechanical Engineering student, find coaching fun. They get the most out of helping participants to make their choice, showing what their study programmes are about and giving the best impression of TU Delft. “I wanted to get involved in spreading enthusiasm for the programme and attracting new students to the field of Nanobiology,” said Van der Does. “Making sure they are right for the programme.” Van Essen has also participated in open days and accompanied visits and finds it a nice job to showcase his faculty. “I do it because I remember how tough it can be to have to choose a study programme,” he said. “For half a year I doubted between Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.”
“We started offering online study trials in September 2015 and are trying out five courses,” said Veeningen. “Computer science, applied mathematics, mechanical engineering, nanobiology in English and civil engineering. From September 2016 we also will provide clinical technology and applied physics online modules.”
As they were unsure of how many and which online study modules they could provide they have not actively publicized them initially. Up to now they have had a small number of participants per BSc course. But according to Veeningen it is equal to the numbers taking part in the previous on campus study trial activities. “It’s too early to come to conclusions, but we are very happy with the positive reactions from secondary school teachers and pupils,” she said. “Next year we want to increase participation and are busy expanding the number of study trial modules.”
The Science Centre aren’t the only ones creating these taster courses. The three hour English language Aerospace Engineering (LR) mini-MOOC started in October 2015 and derived from a longer existing MOOC. “It shares the same goals and tools as the other online study trials, but is a bit different as it is part of the programme’s compulsory decentralised selection procedure,” said Ineke Boneschansker, LR communication manager.
“If you want to participate in the decentralised selection you have to do it to be able to enrol,” said educational advisor Sander Barendrecht. So far, 904 potential students have completed the course and no applicant so far has contacted LR to say they do not want to participate. “The response so far has been positive,” said Barendrecht. “There’s a consensus that the mini-MOOC allows applicants to get a good insight into what you can expect as a prospective student.” “In the end it will give the faculty the capability to select the students that will do really well,” said Boneschansker.
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