Replacing Traditional Lectures with Interactive Crash Courses

How do you ensure that students not only passively attend classes, but actively engage with, understand and retain the material? Together with Ilse Arnoldussen from Radboudumc, we developed a ‘flipped-classroom’ approach for Oral Health Care students at HAN University of Applied Sciences. In this model is knowledge transfer embedded in video materials, freeing up contact time for active learning and processing.

To replace traditional lectures, a series of crash courses was developed. Students complete these independently at home in preparation for on-campus sessions. Each crash course consists of a short thematic video (maximum 10 minutes), in which students are guided through the core material at a high pace. The information density is intentionally high: students experience it as ‘swimming’ through a large amount of content. Each video is accompanied by questions that gradually increase in difficulty, from recognition to application. These questions function as ‘swim flippers’, helping students process the information in a structured way. Students are encouraged to watch the videos multiple times, improving their ability to answer the questions with each repetition.

After completing several crash courses, students participate in a face-to-face session where their knowledge is deepened through creative assignments. Examples include visualising the structure of cartilage using bead art or designing a recipe to understand the different stages of tooth development. Each session concludes with a short quiz on the material and a comprehensive assignment that students incorporate into their portfolio.