Voting & Exercises

Initial situation

This introductory course in clinical linguistics is an optional prerequisite for students wishing to continue in speech therapy. Since 2018, the teacher has been offering exercises on Moodle at the end of each topic covered in order to make students more active in their learning. However, she found this format to be not very interactive since students completed the exercises at home and only received the correction the following week. With this format, since there were many students, there was no exchange between them and the teacher. Therefore, in 2019, she has chosen to introduce Votamatic surveys during her class sessions.

Project implementation

During each class (except the first), the teacher asks the students to answer a Votamatic survey of a few questions (8 to 10) about the content covered in the previous class. This quiz allows the teacher to probe the students’ level of knowledge acquisition in a more efficient way than simply asking them orally if they have understood (the answer is always positive). The surveys also allow for direct feedback from the teacher on concepts that are not well understood and to initiate a discussion with the students. The wrong answers, which are often few in number, sometimes touch on themes that the teacher would not have suspected.

These Votamatic polls are proposed at the beginning of the course, but also during the sessions after each theme. In order not to lose too much time with these polls, the teacher proposes a correction as soon as 45 students have answered, putting an end to the possibility of answering for the less fast. This rhythm allows to maintain a motivated and dynamic class.

In addition to the surveys, the teacher continues to provide exercises for each topic. The exercises are made available to the students on Moodle. The same goes for the correction proposed the following week. These formative exercises are optional.

The exam is composed of short questions, long questions and exercises similar to those offered during the semester. Before the exam, the teacher offers a review session made up of questions asked by the students beforehand. As the questions are often few, the teacher also proposes a Votamatic review on all the themes of about twenty questions. She uses the results of this survey to choose the content on which to focus during the revision session.

Thoughts and advice

The teacher mentions that Votamatic has advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages are that it is easy to use and quick to set up. The main disadvantage is that the presentation of the results does not highlight the correct answer. Indeed, the statistics of the answers show the most chosen answer or answers, but no mention is made of the correct answer.

The teacher takes care to ensure that the Votamatic she proposes reassures the students, showing them that they have understood the essential concepts. It is important for her not to ask questions that are too complex, which could discourage them. She therefore targets the questions on the key notions and avoids dwelling on simple details.

It is also important, according to the teacher, to know how to limit the number of tools used so as not to devote too much time to them, either in terms of preparation or class time dedicated to these tools. For example, she explains that she does not use Votamatic in her Master’s courses, where direct interaction is facilitated by the small number of students.

Student feedback

“The course is well structured and the slides are clear. The exercises on Moodle make it easy to understand the course. The Votamatic’s help to see how well one has understood the course.” “Thank you for this course that connects theory and practice well. The exercises and Votamatic are good ways to work through the course.” “The surveys are great, they give you an idea of what you’re going to talk about beforehand, and a little review after class.”