The Contributing Student

SUMMARY At the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology in The Netherlands, we do not talk about distance education but rather ‘flexible learning,’ where distance is only one of the dimensions for which students have different options. In this article we briefly describe our approach to flexible learning and then focus on the pedagogical model of the ‘contributing student,’ which motivates our didactics. The ‘before-during-after’ cycle is presented as a way to involve all students, regardless of their locations, in various contribution-oriented activities. The implications for the teacher are considerable, but the results are seen as positive by students and teachers alike.