An innovative short blended format for training graduate students to food chemical safety

Overview & Synopsis

A new innovative short blended teaching format is described here. It combines in-class group activity based on a Thiagi frame game with production of graphical representations, and distance self-learning using open-access interactive digital resources organized in several successive modules. The overall lesson duration is 7h, and its scientific content is concerned with food chemical safety and related risk assessment, and proposed in a Food Toxicology course of a second-year master degree academic program related to Toxicology and Environmental Health, with a majority of biological students as the audience. Testing this new format with one cohort of students showed benefits since students were more engaged and encouraged to collaborate, learning from their peers through production of graphical representations in class; also, success rates in the final exam increased. Since open-access resources have been used for designing this innovative teaching format, they could be used by colleagues interested with food chemical safety. Alternatively, the innovative format tested could be transposed to other teaching issues.