Interactivity & voting

Initial situation

This course is designed to familiarize students with the foundations, steps and utility of experimental research in education. The instructor’s intention is to create an interactive course format to engage learners cognitively and socially in the session. Many students are not familiar with the experimental method and have not had the opportunity to read research using this method. It was therefore necessary to create a format that allowed students to verbalize their understanding so that the teacher could detect and correct errors in understanding.

Project implementation

First, students learn about the objectives and specificities of experimental approaches compared to other types of approaches. Secondly, the main steps of correlational and experimental research are presented to them with their specific requirements. Particular emphasis is placed on the research questions, hypotheses and variables.

In Chapter 1er , the teacher emphasizes the differences between descriptive, experimental and correlational research. To apply this knowledge, the teacher asks students to categorize different research questions according to these different types of research. Rather than generate examples themselves that would be too obvious to categorize, students generate examples in groups of 3 on Padlet. Students vote individually for the answer they think is correct for each proposal that appears; each team takes responsibility for noting the validated answer in the collective discussion on the Padlet created; the latter remains available on Moodle as a review. Show of hands votes are introduced regularly to check the understanding of the contents.

The teacher encourages short informal interactions on the course content covered, using quick cooperative structures. In pairs or trios, students discuss a question posed by the teacher using a structure that invites each student to contribute. The teacher circulates, listens and shares informally with the students. To ensure student engagement, the teacher informs students that she may invite anyone to synthesize what was discussed in the group. The group feedback allows for clarification of the content. The information gathered by the teacher allows her to regulate the content discussed in the course.

At the end of each chapter, students are given questions in the form of quizzes to help them review their knowledge. The students answer them at home and the teacher repeats the questions that were problematic at the beginning of the next class in order to promote the appropriation of the content. This work in session is proposed on the basis of the students’ answers, provided that there is a sufficient number of respondents.

Students have access to in-depth articles on Moodle that are only discussed in class if they have specific questions about them.

Thoughts and advice

A course in interactive format may lead to deviations from the content originally planned. It is possible, for example, that a clarifying question will lead to earlier and more in-depth coverage of the content. If the idea is to see what the students have understood and to conduct the course from there, it is to be expected that the course will not necessarily proceed as planned. As a result, this requires some flexibility on the part of the teacher.

On the other hand, it is necessary to be attentive during the moments when students speak: some students who are more at ease respond more spontaneously and more frequently than others. It is therefore important to allow everyone to prepare to speak thanks to discussions between students and to invite those who would not speak spontaneously to do so.

Student feedback

“The moments of sharing with peers are necessary for learning, because they sometimes allow us to readjust our vision of things. The fact that the teacher is very present during these moments is also essential, because we can more easily ask her questions about understanding, among other things. In general, the interactive aspect of the course is a strong point.”