Personalized learning through flexible delivery

We present a research writing course that uses a flexible mode of delivery to promote personalized learning (Deroey & Skipp, 2023). A flipped approach limits the number of class sessions in favour of student-led activities. On the one hand, this accommodates PhD students’ busy schedules (Casanave, 2010) as well as local teaching staff shortages. On the other hand, it capitalizes on doctoral students’ capacity for independent work and allows our mixed-discipline, multilingual groups to gear their learning to personal and disciplinary needs. Over the years, this course has been successfully run online and on-site.
The course aims to improve insight into the structural, stylistic and rhetorical features of research articles as well as the writing and publication process. Its design promotes personalized, continuous learning by requiring participants to work on their own manuscripts, research disciplinary texts, and evaluate their writing and that of their peers. To this end the course is ‘deconstructed’ into five interlocking components: independent coursebook reading and writing tasks; interactive workshops using the output from those tasks; peer review; writing and reflection; and consultations. Except for the limited number of workshops and online consultation, all work is completed by students in their own time outside the classroom.
We will outline the course and evaluate its successes and challenges to suggest ways in which courses can be designed to address challenges such as group heterogeneity and the limited availability of students and staff.