Reaching a 90% Attendance Rate in a 3,000-Student Course
3,000+
Students enrolled in Introduction to Psychology each term
90%
Attendance rate in Introduction to Psychology
The Challenge
Cutting through the noise in a 3,000-person course
Michelle Cadieux has spent over 13 years teaching Introduction to Psychology at McMaster University. As a course coordinator and co-instructor, she is tasked with a monumental challenge: managing a class of 3,000 students each term. In an era defined by constant digital distraction, Cadieux views her primary role as more than just delivering content. “The sheer number of students means I can’t individually notice whether a student is struggling. On top of that, we cover a lot of material in class—some of which is easy and some of which is really challenging,” Cadieux shares.
Beyond distilling psychological concepts, Cadieux faces the practical difficulty of keeping students’ attention in a world where they are designed to be distracted. Traditional discussion-based engagement is nearly impossible to scale, making it difficult to foster a sense of belonging or trust. To minimize distracted learners in class, Cadieux has structured her lectures to require student participation every 10 minutes. In addition to her own enthusiasm for the subject, her use of Top Hat has given students an additional reason to come to class eager and excited to learn.
School background
McMaster University is a leading Canadian research institution located in Hamilton, Ontario, known for its innovative teaching and strong commitment to interdisciplinary learning. Founded in 1887, McMaster is home to a vibrant community of students and scholars and is internationally recognized for excellence in health sciences, engineering, business and the humanities. As of 2026, McMaster was rated the fourth best Canadian university by Times Higher Education.
About the professor
Michelle Cadieux is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior at McMaster University. She currently serves as course coordinator and one of the instructors for Introduction to Psychology. Cadieux is the recipient of the 2025 Teaching Award of Excellence from the McMaster Students Union.
Michelle Cadieux Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behavior at McMaster University
The Solution
Building trust through real-time demos and student-driven data
Using Top Hat, Cadieux has found a sustainable way to maintain student attention during class. She has implemented a bonus point system where students answer two content-based questions—one at the start and another in the final third of the class. These low-stakes check-ins encourage consistent attendance and ensure that students remain mentally present throughout the entire lecture session.
Trust and engagement are further built through live demonstrations and real-time data collection. Cadieux uses Top Hat to replicate psychological studies in minutes, gathering opinions from the 600 students often sitting in front of her, per lecture section. “We run a fun Top Hat activity that asks students to share which one of their grandparents they love the most. And another one that asks students about their gambling decisions, which we then correlate with gender. We deliberately use students’ data to keep everyone engaged and wanting to learn more,” Cadieux says. Instead of reading notes off a slide, Cadieux firmly believes in the power of asking students to reflect on their own experiences outside of the classroom.
To extend the engagement outside the classroom, Cadieux and her co-instructors authored a custom eText that is offered via Top Hat. “Our dynamic textbook includes videos, checkpoint questions after every section and ungraded discussion prompts that hundreds of students answer voluntarily,” she shares. This approach allows her to provide more detail and context while ensuring students understand the material before they set foot in class.
The Results
Validating Top Hat as a student engagement partner with near-perfect attendance scores
Pairing discussion-heavy lectures with interactive readings has led to an extraordinary outcome for a course of this size. Cadieux proudly shares that her attendance rate has hovered around 90 percent over the past year. She observes that while lectures are recorded and posted online, students choose to show up because they recognize that watching a video is not the same as participating in a live demo or contributing to class data. Making the class more interactive has transformed the lecture hall from a place of passive listening into a fun, engaging environment.
Approval rates for the textbook in particular have also soared. “Since we switched over to Top Hat actually, and started having a more dynamic textbook compared to our print copy, our ratings on our textbook have gone way up,” Cadieux says. “It’s now something we’re much more proud of compared to our previous text.” Over a decade of refinement, she has proven that even a class of 3,000 can feel like a close-knit, participating community.
“Since we switched over to Top Hat and started having a more dynamic textbook compared to our print copy, our ratings on our textbook have gone way up.”
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