Language
French
Prerequisites
The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.
Content
The first session is devoted to the presentation of the general objectives of the course and of the working method. The two following sessions deal with the methodological skills used in the seminar: critical reading of an academic article, construction of a problematised research question, documented use of generative AI tools.
The students then form groups of 4 to 5 members and choose a subject from a list proposed by the teaching team; another subject may be chosen subject to the teaching team's approval. The work is structured by the following stages: the choice and problematisation of the research question; the constitution of a limited body of core sources that all members of the group must master; the elaboration of a documented detailed outline, indicating for each section the references used; the keeping of an evidence matrix listing, for each important claim in the report, the source, the result, the method and the main limitations; the writing of the final report; its oral presentation.
The theme covered this year will be "climate change mitigation policies".
The students then form groups of 4 to 5 members and choose a subject from a list proposed by the teaching team; another subject may be chosen subject to the teaching team's approval. The work is structured by the following stages: the choice and problematisation of the research question; the constitution of a limited body of core sources that all members of the group must master; the elaboration of a documented detailed outline, indicating for each section the references used; the keeping of an evidence matrix listing, for each important claim in the report, the source, the result, the method and the main limitations; the writing of the final report; its oral presentation.
The theme covered this year will be "climate change mitigation policies".
Teaching methods
The course takes the form of a seminar of twelve two-hour sessions (8:30–10:30) organised as a role play: working in groups of 4 to 5, the students take on the role of junior consultants in a firm commissioned by a public administration to estimate ex ante the impact of a reform; the teaching team takes on the role of the senior consultants in charge of the project, and may also play the interlocutors for whom such studies are intended (chief of staff of the minister responsible, representative of a stakeholder, member of an administration opposed to the reform under consideration).
The first three sessions, devoted to the method and to the core skills, as well as the final presentation session, are held in person with all students. The intermediate sessions alternate, every other week, between in person and online: during the in-person sessions, the groups work together on site for the two hours and are received in turn for a meeting with the teaching team; during the online sessions, each group is received for a meeting by videoconference. Of the twelve sessions, eight are thus held in person and four online.
Each weekly meeting (approximately twenty minutes) follows a fixed structure: progress and decisions; questions from the teaching team, some of which are addressed individually to a designated member; feedback and setting of the objectives for the week. At the end of each in-person session, each group submits a brief written record stating the work carried out during the session and the individual commitments of each member for the week.
The teaching method described above makes participation in the course compulsory.
The first three sessions, devoted to the method and to the core skills, as well as the final presentation session, are held in person with all students. The intermediate sessions alternate, every other week, between in person and online: during the in-person sessions, the groups work together on site for the two hours and are received in turn for a meeting with the teaching team; during the online sessions, each group is received for a meeting by videoconference. Of the twelve sessions, eight are thus held in person and four online.
Each weekly meeting (approximately twenty minutes) follows a fixed structure: progress and decisions; questions from the teaching team, some of which are addressed individually to a designated member; feedback and setting of the objectives for the week. At the end of each in-person session, each group submits a brief written record stating the work carried out during the session and the individual commitments of each member for the week.
The teaching method described above makes participation in the course compulsory.
Evaluation methods
Assessment is continuous and includes a predominant individual component. The first-session grade is composed as follows:
Use of generative AI
The use of generative AI tools is authorised and expected in this course, provided that it is documented. What is assessed is not the text produced but the personal understanding the student demonstrates of it: a student's inability to explain a source, a method or a result appearing in the work to which he or she has contributed results in a grade of zero for the component concerned.
Attendance
Attendance is required. Any unjustified absence results in a grade of zero for the continuous assessment component of the session concerned. In accordance with article 72 of the General Regulations governing Studies and Examinations, the course directors may propose to the jury that it refuse to register a student who has not attended at least 80% of the sessions.
Second session
The continuous assessment components and the collective oral presentation cannot be reproduced in the second session. The second-session grade is established on the basis of a revised and individualised version of the report (30%) and an individual oral examination bearing on the whole of the work and on the body of literature used (70%).
- 40% continuous individual assessment: contribution and mastery demonstrated during the weekly sessions (presentation of progress, answers to questions put individually to each group member and which may bear on any part of the work, exercises carried out during the session, session records submitted by the group). The student asked to present or to answer questions may be designated at random.
- 20% individual oral defence: individual questions and answers at the end of the final presentation, bearing on the whole of the group's work.
- 20% written report (group grade).
- 20% final oral presentation (group grade).
Use of generative AI
The use of generative AI tools is authorised and expected in this course, provided that it is documented. What is assessed is not the text produced but the personal understanding the student demonstrates of it: a student's inability to explain a source, a method or a result appearing in the work to which he or she has contributed results in a grade of zero for the component concerned.
Attendance
Attendance is required. Any unjustified absence results in a grade of zero for the continuous assessment component of the session concerned. In accordance with article 72 of the General Regulations governing Studies and Examinations, the course directors may propose to the jury that it refuse to register a student who has not attended at least 80% of the sessions.
Second session
The continuous assessment components and the collective oral presentation cannot be reproduced in the second session. The second-session grade is established on the basis of a revised and individualised version of the report (30%) and an individual oral examination bearing on the whole of the work and on the body of literature used (70%).
Bibliography
Le cours n'utilise pas d'ouvrage de référence, mais s'appuie sur une bibliographie qui sera communiquée aux membres de chaque groupe en fonction du sujet choisi.
Faculty or entity
Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)
Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Bachelor : Business Engineering