Description of the project

Students at Secondary Schools attend many classes. Some classes are obligatory for all students, others are optional. In The Netherlands students in their fourth, fifth and sixth year of the havo and vwo stream (IB equivalent) can opt for the subject Wiskunde D (Advanced Mathematics). This subject is optional for several further colleges of education, i.e. constructional engineering.

All havo and vwo schools offer a class Wiskunde D, but because only few (7 or fewer) students take it, many schools decide to cancel the course. The students are then obliged to choose another subject, often a lesser match to the expected future careers of these students.

Two schools in The Netherlands, both with the problem of groups of 7 students or fewer for their Wiskunde D classes, decided to work together to form bigger groups. These schools are situated 150 km apart. The students and the teachers learn and teach at their own school, and form virtual groups of 12 to 20 students making use of a combination of videoconference technology, real-time connected digital boards and a virtual learning environment.

Each technology in itself is not new. The edge-breaking work applies to the use of the combination of the technologies mentioned above, the willingness of the schools to synchronise the timetables of the students and the teachers who, as they go along, design a curriculum and learning activities adapted to distance and blended forms of learning.