Project

The FLUENT model is an innovative university course planning approach grounded in learning psychology. It distinguishes itself by adopting a fully online perspective, emphasizing evidence-backed elements like deep understanding, accurate planning, and critical structuring elements such as time, space, technology, students' agency, and teachers' reflectivity. Underpinned by cognitive psychology theories, it views learning as an active knowledge construction process, introducing clear learning paths and competencies. The model stands out for its reversible design, accommodating uncertainties, recognizing students in diverse environments, and promoting flexibility, personalization, interaction, and collaboration. Its adaptability to varied institutional infrastructures enhances its practical utility.

During the pandemic, it has become clear that universities are not very flexible organizations that cannot react very flexibly to uncertainties. In the future, however, challenges will become more influential, so universities must be able to respond smoothly to unexpected situations. For this reason, new teaching concepts are required that enable this reaction without difficulty. In this context, the concept of hybrid teaching is an option that offers many possibilities in its design. It is possible for an individual student to complete part of their education in person and another part online, through different groups of students, some of whom are in a classroom and others connected remotely, to fully online models in which synchronous and asynchronous moments of learning alternate. The design is flexible to adapt to needs - however, as the situation we will find ourselves facing in the future is relatively unclear, it is necessary to define the different scenarios within this situation of uncertainty that will allow us to act accordingly, depending on how conditions might change the application of our educational model. Although hybrid models respond to situations where the decision can be made on how to compose the face-to-face (F2F) and online parts that make them up, in our case we are probably faced with another need, namely to know how to design programs in situations that unexpectedly make F2F participation impossible (such as in times of pandemic).

The overall aim of this project is to stimulate innovative learning and teaching practices. To achieve this, the project will develop, test and evaluate a new hybrid education model for higher education with a special focus on inclusion, flexibility and sustainability. The result will be a model that supports a smooth transition between different forms of teaching and learning, promotes inclusion and is flexible and sustainable. By publishing the project results, this innovative model and the developed MOC program will be put into practice.