Skip to main content
About HEC About HEC
Summer School Summer School
Faculty & Research Faculty & Research
Master’s programs Master’s programs
Bachelor Programs Bachelor Programs
MBA Programs MBA Programs
PhD Program PhD Program
Executive Education Executive Education
HEC Online HEC Online
About HEC
Overview Overview
Who
We Are
Who
We Are
Egalité des chances Egalité des chances
HEC Talents HEC Talents
International International
Campus
Life
Campus
Life
Sustainability Sustainability
Diversity
& Inclusion
Diversity
& Inclusion
Stories Stories
The HEC
Foundation
The HEC
Foundation
Summer School
Youth Programs Youth Programs
Summer programs Summer programs
Online Programs Online Programs
Faculty & Research
Overview Overview
Faculty Directory Faculty Directory
Departments Departments
Centers Centers
Chairs Chairs
Grants Grants
Knowledge@HEC Knowledge@HEC
Master’s programs
Master in
Management
Master in
Management
Master's
Programs
Master's
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Summer
Programs
Summer
Programs
Exchange
students
Exchange
students
Student
Life
Student
Life
Our
Difference
Our
Difference
Bachelor Programs
Overview Overview
Course content Course content
Admissions Admissions
Fees and Financing Fees and Financing
MBA Programs
MBA MBA
Executive MBA Executive MBA
TRIUM EMBA TRIUM EMBA
PhD Program
Overview Overview
HEC Difference HEC Difference
Program details Program details
Research areas Research areas
HEC Community HEC Community
Placement Placement
Job Market Job Market
Admissions Admissions
Financing Financing
Executive Education
Home Home
About us About us
Management topics Management topics
Open Programs Open Programs
Custom Programs Custom Programs
Events/News Events/News
Contacts Contacts
HEC Online
Overview Overview
Degree Program Degree Program
Executive certificates Executive certificates
MOOCs MOOCs
Summer Programs Summer Programs
Youth programs Youth programs
Article

Blended Learning format in the Grande Ecole program

Embracing digital in business education
Published on:

Interview with Pascal Quiry, Affiliate Professor in the Finance Department, Author of Vernimmen, and BNP-Paribas Chair holder at HEC Paris.

Caroline Meriaux, Digital Learning team: Can you talk to me about your blended learning course in the Grande Ecole program?

Pascal Quiry: It’s a mandatory course in Corporate France, for Master 1 students. So far, this 36-hour course was spread into 24 sessions of 1h30 each, at the rate of two weekly sessions, one on Monday morning and one on Wednesday morning. 

Having developed material (videos and quizzes) for the creation of online courses (ICCF@HEC, ACCF@HEC), I decided to reduce the face-to-face time by two and to offer the other half online. So Monday sessions are now replaced by distance learning whereas Wednesday sessions remain face-to-face. Before coming to Wednesday session, students must have studied the online material and done the related quizzes. This format allows to make more applied activities in classroom.

 

I decided to reduce the face-to-face time by two and to offer the other half online.

Do other professors teaching in this course have adopted the same format?

Being the course coordinator, I first tested this new format in my course before deploying it in the other courses. Today, the online part is therefore the same for all groups whereas the face-to-face part is run by several professors.

On which platform is hosted the online course?

The course is hosted on First Finance’s platform, our partner with whom we have developed the Executive Online Certificates. They take care of technical support for students.

How do you make sure students do the online work?

The day before the face-to-face course, professors log in on the platform to verify if their students filled out the mandatory quiz and send a reminder to those who didn’t. Quizzes are there primarily there to make sure they watch the videos and to test their understanding. But we nevertheless need a "carrot" so that the work is done. Quizzes are thus graded and represent 20 % of the final grade.

blended learning redlands eacademy
Blended Learning format (by Redlands Eacademy)

What are the advantages of this new course format?

One of the first positive consequence is that course evaluations have increased for all professors! This new format has also allowed to standardize the course content and supporting material thanks to the online resources which are the same for all students. They can now learn at their own pace during the week and can post their questions on the discussion board if they need help. 

This blended learning format also divides by two the classroom occupation and thus reduces significantly carbon emissions! We, the faculty, but also some students, only come to campus once a week instead of two.

 

The students can now learn at their own pace during the week and can post their questions on the discussion board if they need help. 

What are the risks of such format?

Some students wait until the last moment to watch all the videos, generally just before the final exam. This is detrimental for them because we cannot do any formative assessment and check their understanding all along the course. Most of the time, they fail the exam as it is impossible to assimilate so much content in so little time, without putting things into perspective and with no maturation time. 

Does monitoring the discussion forum take a lot of time?

Not that much because most students ask questions the day before the mid-term and the final exam. Furthermore, we have as a rule not to answer by email to questions related to the course content. Students must post their question in the discussion forum so that the whole promotion can see the question and the answer, and therefore they also learn this way. On our side, we avoid numerous individual emails for the same questions.  

What would be your recommendations to your colleagues?

Don’t be afraid, it works ! Turning the material into a digital format is a huge investment at the beginning. However, this can be done with some help. We can then make it profitable and mutualize this investment during several years. To be really effective, the only condition, I think, is to have already given the course face-to-face. Because we know "where it sticks", we know the parts of the course where students have the most difficulties. We can thus take it into account in the conception of the online resources.

Related topics:
Embracing digital in business education

Related content on Embracing digital in business education

online education
Embracing digital in business education

Embracing Digital Innovation in Business Education - The HEC Paris Experience

By Marc Vanhuele

Information Systems

Robots Can Improve Student Learning, But Can’t Replace Teachers

By Sangseok You

MOOC on tablet
Embracing digital in business education

MOOCs and the Promise of Continuous Personalized Feedback: What Research Says

By Xitong Li

Pierre Dussauge MOOC vignette
Embracing digital in business education

How Online Learning Changed my Teaching Methods

MOOC HEC
Embracing digital in business education

What Do We Teach Online? A Story of Continuous Innovation

Embracing digital in business education

How Does Technology Transform Business Education and the Learner’s Experience?