Olympics of learning: Creating interactivity using Wooclap

By ​​Candela S. Baixauli

Wooclap

“Wooclap allows you to add a touch of blended learning into your classes with a range of interactive questioning tools. It’s really easy to use with an accessible interface for both teachers and learners. All learners need is their phone (or any device, really) and access to the internet – no apps involved! Learners don’t need to log in (but you can set it up so they need to if you choose). It has loads (20+) of question types for immediate feedback during your lesson and it’s great for assessment for learning. My favourites are word cloud, wheel spinner, brainstorm, matching and the gap fill. I particularly like the ‘create quick question’ feature which allows you to set up a question off the cuff in super quick time live during a session. You can even embed the questions into your existing presentations so the questioning is seamless!”

Chloë Hynes, AmplifyFE Community Space Lead and FE Practitioner

The background

Launched in 2015 by Jonathan Alzetta and Sébastien Lebbe, engineers from the École
Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Wooclap emerged from a passion for education and technology.
Recognising the growing challenge teachers faced in maintaining student attention, they
developed a neuroscience-based tool designed to enhance engagement and focus. In celebration of higher education institutions that have revolutionised pedagogical methods using Wooclap, the Interactive Learning Olympics were hosted, a global competition honouring the most interactive universities and schools.

A Global competition

This global competition recognised the most interactive education institutions in the world, those where students regularly respond to questions posed by their teachers. The participating institutions competed in nine categories, highlighting the various ways to use interactive technologies to engage students during and after classes.

The University of Edinburgh stood out in the international competition and won the gold medal in the Versatile Champions category, rewarding teachers for their use of various interactive questions such as Find on Image, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and many others.

As Alan Hamilton, Learning Technology Advisor at the University of Edinburgh, puts it: “[Wooclap] has certainly given us a lot more question types to use. The previous tool we used didn’t have as many. We try to encourage people to use more than just multiple-choice questions.”

Increased collaboration within educational teams

Other education professionals shared their vision of pedagogical innovation where collaboration among various stakeholders in education was particularly highlighted. This includes collaboration between teachers, between learning technologists and teachers, and involving students in the creation of learning resources.

Alan Hamilton, University of Edinburgh, “We created a SharePoint page where we build and maintain information and guidance on using Wooclap with all the different question types. This includes a ‘try it yourself’ participant-paced resource, where we explain each question type and provide examples. Each presenter can experience a question as a participant and use it as a resource to familiarise themselves with more unusual questions before their event or before teaching a class.“

Read more information on the competition and the winning universities.

Turn your students into active learners, try Wooclap for free and explore their educational
options.

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