A proven program: blended learning = online videos + virtual classrooms
After cancelling the regular Dutch Winter School because of COVID-19, we decided to run an E-winterschool on the same dates, just like the E-summerschool. Anyone can participate from home!
Group levels / dates – 2021
2 intensities: intensive or super intensive
INTENSIVE = 2 weeks (no class in the weekend):
– 9 days = week 1: Monday-Friday + week 2: Monday-Thursday
– 4-14th of January 2021
SUPER INTENSIVE = weekend + week + weekend:
– 9 days in a row
– 23rd-31st of January 2021
Don’t book an intensive course next to a full time job! If you can’t take off from work, we recommend our twice-a-week evening course.
Advance of the ‘super intensive’ format = take off only 1 week!
Timetable
A course can have 3 possible timetables. The indicated time is: Amsterdam time.
* the ‘virtual classroom’ times are fixed; the rest you can plan as you want – the given planning is an indication, take into account that the e-learning part takes in total approximately 3 hours/day
We had 35 groups (over 400 students) at the e-summerschool:
E-learning = our key asset
We didn’t switch to e-learning recently. In fact, we took this step in 2014. Three months per year, we are busy running Summer and Winter schools, but the majority of our time we’ve spent building our program. Why would we not use this extensive experience and all those materials that we created? After all, most of the students who visited us in the past, chose us because of this!
Blended learning
For the Dutch Summer/Winter School, we developed a ‘blended learning’ method, that maximises interaction in the classroom. We don’t teach the traditional way: where the teacher spends most of the time on explanations, the students copy that in their notebook and the homework is doing exercises with what you learned… No, that’s not how we do it!
The flipped classroom: with our method, you prepare for the next lesson. Prior to the lesson, you watch the videos, do exercises, learn the words. A maximum of the explanations is given in the videos (selfstudy). So that, when you come to the classroom, we can focus on interaction. The added value of a teacher/classroom is that you can ask questions and you can practise. Our blended learning approach combines the asset of the online materials and the interactive approach of our teachers. Read more about the flipped classroom here.
Does our method work in a virtual classroom?
The answer is yes. The program ‘Zoom’ provides all the options that we need. Showing Powerpoints, virtual whiteboard, but above all: interaction!
Those who followed our program in the past, know that conversation exercises in couples are an important element of the lesson. This way you practise a lot. And the teacher walks from couple to couple and provides feedback. This all can be done in Zoom.
Adaptions
Our e-winterschool program differs a bit from our regular Winter School:
– we limited the tuiton time per day (in the classroom), to have an increased attention span
– we decreased the maximum number of students in a group from 16 to 12
– book: normally you buy it upon arrival, now we will ship the book to you
– unfortunately, no ‘gezellige’ winter evenings
Reviews
Prices – 2021
* 1 academic hour = 45 minutes, 2×2 academic hours ‘virtual classroom’ per day x 9 days
** shipping costs:
– within the Netherlands – free
– within EU – 13 euros
– outside EU – 18 euros
– if the book doesn’t arrive in time: we’ll provide access to the book through an online viewer
– book for level R: you order it yourself ‘Nederlands op Niveau’ (Coutinho)
*** access to premium online course #dutchgrammar is included from 5 weeks before the start of the course until 5 weeks after the end of the course.
General conditions: please read here.
E-learning
Students of the Dutch Winter School, have access to our e-learning package during the course:
The e-learning package contains the courses:
– #dutchgrammar (level 0/A1)
– #dutchgrammar-2 (level A1/A2)
– #dutchgrammar-3 (level A2/B1)
Studying with the e-learning package is part of the homework. This way, students are well prepared in class. That allows our classes to be more efficient and interactive.
