What I Learned About Pedagogy at Stanford

Despite what the title might suggest, I didn't have the chance to study at Stanford. I know, you're already disappointed, but hang on a bit.

Quick reminder: Stanford is one of the most prestigious universities in the United States, particularly in computer science. Some incredibly famous projects came out of its labs, like the Internet network or the Google search engine. No big deal.

But did you know? Like other universities, Stanford publishes some of its computer science courses on video, here are a few of them.

I regularly watch some of their lectures, and over time I've started noting down some interesting ideas in terms of pedagogy that I wanted to share with you here.

The goal here is not to make a comparison between our French universities (in which I've always had very good experiences, by the way) and American universities, but simply to gather ideas so that anyone can pick them up and put them into practice within their own educational ecosystem.

NB: Some of these ideas are already in practice in many schools, but I'd rather push on open doors than leave them closed forever.

1 - A number of authorized late days

Each student has the option of submitting one or more assignments/projects late, under several conditions:

The total number of late days must not exceed 7 days, nor more than 3 days on the same assignment. An exception is made for the final project of the course, which cannot be submitted late.

These late days are meant to give students flexibility, allowing them, for example, to take one or more days to give talks or attend events outside the university.

Students can also use it in case of illness or temporary physical discomfort, for example.

2 - Anonymous questions

Everyone knows the feeling of wanting to ask a question, but neither having the courage to ask it in front of everyone, nor wanting to wait for the teacher after class.

Stanford University solved this problem by setting up the tool "Piazza," which notably allows students to ask questions anonymously to the course instructors.

No more stress, and no more unanswered questions!

3 - Broadcasting courses on the internet

If we set aside the obvious ethical aspect of distributing public learning materials, this distribution mainly means that the professor (or instructor) must be very rigorous in preparing the course, since it's not just the institution's reputation at stake, but also their own.

The second advantage is that the course presented must be accessible to everyone, both in substance and in form. (Taking into account the course level, of course)

4 - By students, for students

Who better than a student who has understood a topic to explain and present it to the rest of the class (or another cohort) in their own words and with their own examples, often closer to the reality of the other students?

This idea is sometimes found starting at the Master's level, but I think it would be useful for it to become widespread at all levels.

5 - Talk about fun and passion

Taking the time to teach the fundamentals of a subject properly is important, but you shouldn't neglect passing on a passion rather than just a raw list of knowledge.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and he will never go hungry again.

Don't hesitate, for example, to tell interesting and funny anecdotes related to the course topic; it will convey your passion more easily and help your students remember you and your course!

6 - Having an honor code

We're all familiar with the well-known internal regulations found in companies, schools, or universities, but major American universities also have students sign a collaboration honor code.

The difference? The regulations legally bind you to the institution, whereas by signing the honor code you pledge your word to other students to respect the rules of ethics and proper collaboration (not appropriating or commercializing someone else's work, crediting everyone behind a project, etc.).

Note that this isn't always perfectly effective, remember the story of Facebook's creation and Harvard's honor code!

7 - A personal project

When it comes to a final project for a course, there are often three distinct types: the fictional project chosen by the institution, the professional project linked to a company, or the personal project.

Of these three options, the personal project is, in my experience, the most revealing of the student's skills, imagination, and investment.

As for the fictional project, it's often very well thought out in terms of assessing learning outcomes, but it very often has no real-world application and sometimes lacks creativity. The consequence for students is a quick loss of motivation, and students often hesitate to include it in their portfolio.

As for the professional project, it happens far too often that the company isn't sufficiently available to answer students' questions, resulting in a project that only partially meets client needs while not fully covering the skills to be assessed.