Use Cases | CASE 06 Turning a Large Lecture into an Interactive Class by Using Smartphones

"Students are beginning to shift from passively just listening to consciously thinking and learning for themselves."

Department of Food Business, College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University

Assistant Professor Hiromi Kubota

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Current Issues in University Large Lecture Classes

The burden of printing, distributing, and collecting a large amount of lecture materials

Students tend to become passive in classes driven by one-way communication from the teacher

Students cannot learn each other’s individual opinions

Teacher feedback on submitted work is slow

Because questions cannot be resolved on the spot, students gradually lose interest

Because the class is only once a week, students forget the previous lesson

Benefits of Introducing LoiLoNote School

Saving the time and effort needed to prepare, distribute, and collect materials

Because lecture materials can be sent to each student’s smartphone, there is no longer any need to print and hand out paper materials. Feedback sheets can also be quickly sent from students’ smartphones. Even in this class with more than 150 students, the time needed for distribution and collection has been greatly reduced compared with before.

Interactive classes increase student initiative, changing them from "listeners" to "contributors"

In traditional large lectures, teachers naturally had strong ability to deliver information, but students tended to become "listeners." With LoiLoNote, students can do more than just listen to the lecture; they can also share their own opinions. Some students said that because their opinions are reflected in the class, attending the lecture feels worthwhile.

Sharing opinions among students during class

With LoiLoNote, not only can teachers and students communicate, but students can also share opinions with one another. Students can compare other people’s answers with their own and view the opinions of others. Some students also said that although speaking out loud feels embarrassing, LoiLoNote makes it easier to express their opinions.

Easy class feedback from each student’s own smartphone

By opening the app, students can view a list of past class materials, making it easier for students who were absent to check them. In addition, past submitted materials also remain available through the app, so students can quickly confirm for themselves what they learned in previous classes.

Overview of the Practice

In a large university lecture, LoiLoNote School was introduced so that lectures could be conducted using smartphones, with the aim of improving the efficiency of material distribution.

In addition to reducing working time through the mass distribution of materials, it also became possible to present materials in line with the progress of the lesson. This enabled a shift from the traditional knowledge-transmission style of teaching to interactive classes shaped by students’ thoughts and opinions, creating a sense of unity and rhythm.

Students write their opinions on LoiLoNote cards in response to the question, “What do you think about this issue?” and send them to the teacher. All submitted responses are then shared, and students compare each other’s opinions. The teacher marks the cards submitted by students and returns them individually. In addition, at the end of the lesson, the teacher checks whether the previous assignment has been submitted. Students who have not submitted are displayed in a list on the teacher’s screen, so the checking process is completed simply by reviewing the list, greatly reducing the time required.

By using LoiLoNote, it has become possible to provide opportunities for students to participate in class even in large lectures, and students’ motivation to learn has also improved.

Goals of the Practice

In large lectures, students will develop an active attitude toward participating in class rather than a passive one (motivation to learn).

Students will develop the ability to think for themselves about the social factors behind why something happened, rather than immediately seeking the correct answer.

Students will be able to explain clearly to others, in their own words, the characteristics of the food service industry and the changes in how its market has evolved.

Students will be able to state their own opinions logically about the current issues and future outlook of the food service industry.

Scenes from the Practice

1. Sharing lecture materials

Lecture materials are distributed and shared on the smartphone screens of 150 students.

Students had frequently requested that slide materials be provided.

With LoiLoNote, the teacher can instantly share any materials simply by sending a card from the screen.

Some students said that because they can view materials such as detailed color graphs and statistical data on their own smartphone screens, they now look at the materials more carefully than before.

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2. Students make presentations

Students present their own opinions, creating an interactive class in which students participate even in a large lecture.

LoiLoNote has a function for “having this student present,” so the teacher selects a card and nominates a student. The nominated student sees a message on their own screen saying “Please present,” so they know they have been selected as the presenter.

Because the student’s own opinion is already written on the card, it is easy to encourage the student to speak.

In large lectures, it used to be extremely difficult to have students present their opinions, but with LoiLoNote, students seem to have become more comfortable presenting.

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3. Reviewing the previous class

At the end of every lecture, students were asked to write in 200 characters what they had learned and submit it.

Previously, this was done on paper, but no record remained with the students, and they often forgot what they had written and submitted.

With LoiLoNote, students record their work on cards instead of paper and submit them to the teacher, so the cards remain with the students. Because of this, they can check what they wrote on the cards, which helps them review.

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4. Sharing each person’s opinion with the whole class

Students write their opinions on a LoiLoNote card in response to the question, “What do you think about this issue?” and send them to the teacher. The submitted opinions are then displayed in a list on the screen. In this way, students can refer to how other students are thinking and can also reconsider their own thinking. Some students said that although they cannot speak in front of a large group, LoiLoNote makes it easier to share their opinions.

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5. Handwriting feedback on submitted work and sending it back

The teacher marks the cards submitted by students by hand, such as circling items, underlining important points, and writing comments by hand. The corrected cards are then sent back to each student individually.

Students commented, “Large lectures can feel somewhat impersonal, but (when using LoiLoNote) there is a response from the teacher, and it felt good because the distance between students and teachers became smaller.”

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6. Checking assignment submission

At the end of the class, the teacher checks whether the assignment given in the previous class has been submitted.

Because students submit assignments by writing them on cards and sending them to the teacher, whether they have submitted or not is displayed in a list on the teacher’s screen.

It has become easy to see who submitted and when, eliminating the need to arrange papers in student number order or check them one by one, which has greatly reduced the time required.

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