Course formats

Lecture, seminar, exercise... the classic course formats are familiar to university members as a matter of course. What is included in each of these formats and what can be incorporated in addition?

The following sections present the classic course formats and their characteristics.

Table of contents

1. 1. Lecture
   2. Seminar
   3. Exercise
   4. Tutorial

Lecture

Lectures can be conducted as frontal teaching, often with many interactive elements or completely as an interactive lecture. The challenge is usually a large number of students. Empirical results show higher student learning success in lectures in which students are actively challenged through their own participation. At the same time, it has been shown that an active lecture alone does not lead to successful learning: Active lectures require a coordinated and well thought-out didactic concept.

Dubs, Rolf (2019): The lecture of the future. Theory and practice of interactive lectures (Kompetent lehren).

Seminar

Seminars serve to deepen and supplement lecture content. In order to enable an intensive theoretical and practical examination of the subject content and scientific work, active and cooperative forms of learning (e.g. working in small groups) play a particularly important role in the seminar, the positive effects of which on learning success have been proven in various studies.

Schneider/Mustafić (ed.) (2015): Good university teaching. An evidence-based orientation guide, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, Chapter 3.

Exercise

In exercises, content from lectures and seminars is repeated and deepened, exemplary solutions are developed and approaches to various tasks are practiced. Exercises are used to actively deal with the material, e.g. in small groups. The exercise usually serves as a supplement to the associated seminar or lecture. Courses and exercises are therefore didactically coordinated.

ProLehre at the TU Munich: Basic principles and success factors of good teaching. A handout from ProLehre. URL: https://www.prolehre.tum.de/materialien-und-tools/broschueren/ (P. 38).

Tutorial

Tutorials are courses supervised by students for practicing and deepening the subject matter of the associated course, e.g. lecture or seminar. Similar to tutorials, tutorials serve to deepen knowledge, practice the material taught or prepare for examinations. Tutors support students in acquiring and practicing the learning content in a self-directed manner. The support provided by student tutors plays a key role here: as peers in higher semesters, they serve as contact persons for concerns and questions that may not or only partially be addressed to higher-ranking lecturers or professors with examination authorization. Student tutors can also serve as role models and can also help with general questions about studying or everyday student life that go beyond the subject. Particularly in the first year of study, they are essential for orientation and familiarization with student life. For this reason, it is essential that the assigned lecturers provide transparent and appreciative guidance to their tutors in order to ensure the comparability of the tutorials, but also to be the contact person for questions and concerns of the tutors themselves.

ProLehre at the TU Munich: Basic principles and success factors of good teaching. A handout from ProLehre. URL: https: //www.prolehre.tum.de/materialien-und-tools/broschueren/ (P. 40).