Structure of the lessons

Instead of dividing the course into units that correspond more or less to the material to be learned each week by the students, the course material is subdivided into small homogeneous units that deal with only one subject at a time (with the exception of the initial lessons which cover more material, that should be previously known to the student). This structure has several advantages :

• The material can be identified very clearly by the student and learned in a compact manner

• The time required by each lesson is relatively short (30-45’), allowing a different organization of the work during the week. The workload for a given week will typically be constituted by the material of one to three lessons.

• This structure facilitates the use of ex-cathedra lessons in the course. These lessons just need to clearly define the lesson or lessons they cover to be fully integrated with the on-line course.

Each lesson is structured in accordance with figure 2:

• Introduction : observation of a real structure, how does it work ?

• Example : based on the structure already observed, a model of the structure is elaborated and its properties are investigated. The student learns the principles on the case of a case study. Detailed instructions are provided to ensure that all students pass through the important points of the example and draw the proper conclusions.

• Exercise : similar in its structure to the example above, it has the goal to lead the student to autonomy. Much less instructions are provided than in the example, and the student has to study again the material in order to complete the assignment.

• Synthesis : after studying the material and being able to perform the exercises, the student is led to synthesize and formulate the basic principles in a more general manner. This part of the course also introduces similar cases in which the material is also applicable.

• Self-evaluation sections are available to the students to allow them to evaluate themselves their understanding of the subject matter and their need for revision.

Figure 2: Structure of a lesson