For most people, nonstop means a break, uninterrupted activity that takes place around the clock or throughout the year. In terms of education, this usually means a continuous possibility to register and a flexible start of studies. In addition to the usual online study courses, the CampusOnline portal offers nonstop study courses for students of universities of applied sciences.

The nonstop course is typical for:

• the student can start studying flexibly during the implementation’s opening time
• the implementation has its own clearly stated start and end date
• the number of students in the implementation can be limited
• the student’s study time can be limited to, for example, four weeks from the start date
• the completion time often does not follow traditional semester limits
• you can study around the clock and partially or completely at your own pace
• implementation can have individual and group tasks
• implementation can have many kinds of interaction
• guidance and feedback and support are available throughout the study period
• regarding evaluation, the same principles are followed as for other study courses.

Practical tips for teachers:

• one of the learning tasks is preparing the student’s own goals and schedule
• draw up clear instructions for tasks and working, time use and evaluation
• announce in advance the regular guidance times online, e.g. once a week a one-hour online meeting in Zoom
• you can ask the student to register for a guidance meeting (e.g. Moodle selection tool)
• you can request in advance a topic on which the student wants guidance
• announce in advance when you will evaluate learning tasks and give feedback, e.g. every two weeks
• notify in advance if you are away/vacation and not available
• let know how you can be reached if needed
• make use of automatic messages, e.g. when a student starts his studies
• take advantage of a variety of tests and automated tasks alongside wider learning tasks
• use learning analytics to monitor student progress
• implement study progress monitoring in activities and materials in Moodle and guide students to monitor their own progress.

Nonstop implementations often have many students. See ideas from the webinar of the eAMK project Planning the online implementation of large groups (duration 60 min.)