How to run an interactive study session?

Adapting to Distance Learning: Wooclap’s Innovative Solutions for Engaging Students Online

With the spread of COVID-19, many institutions around the world face the challenge of maintaining a qualitative student experience and exam preparation. UNESCO recommends the use of distance learning programmes to limit disruptions in education.

However, as Dana Watts, the director of research and development for International Schools Services, wrote for Edsurge earlier this month: « So much of teaching is a relationship—and understanding what that looks like online is a completely new venue to figure out. » Much of the teaching is indeed based on classroom interaction, reading faces, and direct transmission of knowledge between a teacher and their students - and imagining what this experience should look like when it takes place entirely online is a major challenge.

Wooclap will feature innovative use cases in distance learning to inspire you if you currently need to move your educational programmes online. This one is pretty fascinating.

Providing a remote yet interactive study session for 6,500 medical students in France

One year ago, on the initiative of Hervé Devilliers, a teacher at the University of Burgundy, and hospital practitioner in internal medicine at the Dijon University Hospital, offered an interactive review of the most important exam for medical students in France: the ECNI.

Thousands of students from all the medical schools in France were able to follow a real-time review of one of the subjects in the 2018 annals of the ACL (Critical Reading of Articles) test of the ECNI. A truly interactive live and remote study session.

What were the stakes ?

The issues at stake for this exam are particularly important for French students, since they determine their entire future career as medical doctors. Depending on their results and ranking, they will benefit from a wider or narrower choice of disciplines, specialties of practice, and place of training in French universities.

How did they make it work?

A teaser was posted on YouTube by Hervé Devilliers to invite as many students as possible to participate.

On the day of the live session, students had two choices:

• They could actively participate in the live review by sending their answers and asking their questions via Wooclap. A time limit was set for answering each question in order to reproduce the conditions of the exam. Students could answer from home with their smartphone, tablet, or computer by connecting to the Wooclap platform. No need to download anything: everything happened on the cloud!
• They could follow the session during the YouTube live broadcast, hosted by Hervé Devilliers and 3 students, who commented on and explained each question.

The Digital Department of the University of Burgundy helped broadcast the event in order to offer a high-quality sound and image. A video of the event gives you an idea of what the setting looked like.

What happened then?

The simplicity and the technical stability of the setup allowed 2,500 students to connect simultaneously to YouTube Live and 6,500 students to participate in the Wooclap event, to study for one of the most important exams of their life. Wooclap can help you maintain interaction during your classes, even remotely and for a large number of students!