Esther's creativity was rewarded: students were enthusiastic, and so was Esther herself. These tools turned out to work extremely well and fit in with a new style of activating teaching, in which the student is stimulated to participate and be involved as much as possible. Now that we are back on campus again, Esther will continue to use these visual and auditory tools.

Based on students' questions and ideas, the online tools allowed Esther to create new, customised, interactive assignments relatively quickly. Milena, one of the participants of Big History last year, adds: “It was very motivating that we could post ideas and questions on the Canvas discussion board. By posting questions about the things we were curious about, we could have some influence on what the classes were about, and give a little bit of direction. You could also see what others came up with, which gives you ideas of your own. This made me even more engaged in the course.”

For more hands-on advice from both teacher and student perspectives, read the full story here.

This story is part of a series of inspiring case studies of online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged during focus group discussions within the research project ‘Online and blended education at the UvA’. This research project of the Teaching & Learning Centre offers insight into the experiences of lecturers and students with online (aspects of) education and the strategies lecturers have used to stimulate (online) learning. The stories and reports from this project can be found here.