Group & feedback

Initial situation

In setting up this new course format, the teacher’s intention was to move away from the traditional course and help students to anchor their learning in the long term by being more active. Thanks to the exercises proposed, the focus is not only on theoretical and technical skills, but also on transversal skills that are valuable in the working world such as teamwork and oral communication.

Project implementation

The course is offered in a flipped classroom format. The teacher provides articles and short videos before class. Students are asked to write one or two page essays on these resources individually or in groups. During class, they share their work with their peers so that each piece of work receives feedback. The teacher explicitly states that this feedback should be kind and constructive so that each student can improve his/her essay before it is graded by the teacher. The time saved in class is used to answer specific questions, frame discussions and apply concepts.

In addition, students work in groups of 2 or 3. They have to read 1 or 2 scientific articles and present a slide show based on a template proposed by the teacher. This work is started in one session, finished on their own and presented to the class the following session.

At the end of the semester, students create another presentation based on articles to be linked. They present their presentation to the class, which provides initial feedback and an opportunity, as with the essays, to improve the presentation before the teacher evaluates it.

The evaluation of the course is done either on the basis of all the essays and presentations made during the semester (knowing that the average is calculated only on the 4 best marks) or by doing a 2-hour written exam at the end of the semester including a reflection question and an analytical problem.

Thoughts and advice

The teacher points out that such a course format requires a large investment of time for the 1ère occurrence of the course, but that this is offset by the time saved in subsequent years. However, it must be taken into account that continuous assessment also requires a certain amount of time.

Student feedback

“I appreciate the focus on learning given in the methodology of the course. I also found the homeworks very useful for my learning. However, I would have appreciated to have received their corresponding evaluation constantly during the course and not in the last week of the course. I consider it important to know the feedback in homework so I can improve in the following ones.” “That it is very interactive and that we are working together to acquire the knowledge. Also the homeworks are effective as we have to read interesting papers and work on them.” “Everyone actively participates during the course which allows us to find the economic insights on our own and really understand in detail each model.”