The Lab e-nov™, IFP School's digital cultures lab, is working to produce a series of videos and articles devoted to the latest educational innovations implemented at the School.
Entitled "Enseigner autrement" (Teaching differently), this series aims to encourage the School’s teachers to review their practices and integrate new educational approaches.
The first opus in this series, published this month, looks at the transformation of a lecture using the principles of active learning.
From lectures to active, cooperative learning
As part of the Petroleum Engineering and Project Development (PEPD) and Petroleum Geosciences/Reservoir Geoscience and Engineering (PGS/RGE) programs, Carla Castillo, a lecturer at IFP School's Georesources and Energy Center, gave a lecture on digital reservoir simulation.
Structured in two phases, the course consisted of a theoretical introduction lasting 4 and a half days and a project lasting 6 to 8 days.
"I've been teaching this course for several years now, and I regularly find that when students enter the project phase, some of them still haven't grasped certain key concepts," notes Carla.
Eager to make her course more dynamic, take into account the diversity of profiles and actively involve students to ensure the optimum transfer of knowledge to her students, she sought the support of João Silveira, Head of the Creativity and Innovation Hub at Lab e-nov™.
Together, they designed a program combining more hands-on practice and interactivity, inspired by the codes of flipped teaching.
Carla began by reviewing her course materials to identify the essential lessons to be conveyed. She then deleted some content from her presentations, leaving a few hints, and handed over the incomplete slides to the students.
Divided into groups, students were tasked with reconstructing the missing information and putting the presentations back in order within a set timeframe. They took it in turns to present their work to their classmates. To ensure that all students were directly involved, teams were asked to provide a summary of the previous presentation before taking the floor, and to participate in question-and-answer sessions.

During the various presentations, Carla Castillo checked for understanding of the subject, the answers given and supplemented the course with additional elements. She also summarized all the presentations and highlighted the important points to remember.
"The idea is that we teach the course together. The students present the basic concepts and I intervene for the more complex ones. In this way, the co-construction approach helps students to concentrate and motivate themselves," notes Carla Castillo with satisfaction.
"The modalities used enabled them to create links and acquire key knowledge by exchanging with each other. The students were able to explain the concepts better and didn't hesitate to ask questions and communicate with each other and with me," she adds.
Julie Hatcherian, a student in the PGS/RGE program, attests to this: "Our concentration was different. We concentrated on our research and listening to others".
Her classmate Jesús Delfin Seijas also enjoyed the experience: "It was very interesting because it was a new way of approaching classroom dynamics. This new approach uses deductive and interactive reasoning. It's easier to understand these complex subjects".
To find out more: watch the video of this experiment and read the Lab e-nov™ article.
The second capsule and the dedicated article in this series will be available in September... Find out more in the next issue of our newsletter!
Article written by: Meyling Siu