Denis GILLETSwiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)

School of Engineering and Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN)Swiss EdTech Collider

Graasp Association for Digital EducationTechnical coordinator of the European H2020 Go-Lab Initiative for STEM Education

University of Kurdistan, June 9, 2020

Online Science and Engineering Education in the Time of COVID-19

Online Science and Engineering Education in the Time of COVID-19

AgendaInteraction SystemsCore EPFL MissionsFrom blended to Online Education• Blended learning as initial conditions for online education• Blended design thinking for teamwork• Massive open online laboratories• Computational Thinking

COVID-19• Adaptation• Evaluation

Concluding remarks

Interaction SystemsInteraction @ Scale

CyberPhysical Systems

Social Media

Platforms

Devices &Vehicles

Data &Knowledge

Agile Exploitation ofLive Data by Connected

People and Thingsin Contexts

Astrobots

graasp.eucloud platform

SpeakUpEdTech App

Peugeot-Citroën,Safran and Valeo

Remotelaboratories

Core EPFL missions

Tech transfer

Active, collaborative,

and blended Learning

EducationalTechnologies

Human Computer Interaction, Translational Research inLearning Sciences, andLearning Analytics

Technology Transfer in EdTechSwiss EdTech Collider, an accelerator for startups in Educational Technology

Translational Research

EPFL LEARN Center for Learning Sciences• Support digital transformation in Switzerland through education• Translational research – from research idea to classroom practice• Collaboration with schools – Inspiring and training teachers• Contact point for joint research, innovation and validation

Digital education enabled through blended Learningcombining digital and physical modalities, activities, roles, tools, and skills as enablers of change in education using

free and open access digital education platforms for agile personal, collaborative, and inquiry-based active learning enabling teachers and students to create, share, and use easily open educational resources for the acquisition and the consolidation of both core and transversal skills

Digital Education

EdX Enabling Platform

Flipped classrooms • 100 MOOCs • 2.5 million users

free open access digital education platform for the personalization or the (co-)creation and the sharing of open educational resources (OERs), as well as learning and (self-)reflection

Graasp stands for “grasp resources, analytics, activity spaces and people” in shared private or open online spacesCo-funded by the Go-Lab EU Initiative offering OERs for STEM education

Graasp Enabling Platform

Graasp.eu

2006 Platforms for Online Communities of Practice • Palette (FP6)Connecting people across organization boundaries

2009 Platforms for Personal, Social and Self-directed Learning • ROLE (FP7)Connecting legacy and cloud resources and services • Learner centric

2012 Platforms for Inquiry Learning at School with Online Labs • Go-Lab (FP7)Integrating online labs, support apps, and analytic bots in spaces • Teacher centric

2017 Ecosystem for STEM Education and 21st Century Skills • Next-Lab (H2020)Co-creation, sharing and exploitation of open educational resources at school

2018 Go-Lab Goes Africa • Go-Ga (H2020) • Kenya - Nigeria - BeninHandling under-connected areas and STEM teachers training in Africa

2019 SUDAC MOOL-CLOC (swissuniversities) • MENA RegionDigital engineering education, peacebuilding, gender & diversity, for the SDGs

Graasp Enabling Platform

Implementation at theBachelor and Master Levels

Enabling students to develop simultaneously core and transversal skills in flipped classroom integrating expositoryand design thinking activities

Bachelor course on global issues in Communication. Combining lectures, MOOC sessions, and teamwork integrating societal and technical dimensions across study programmesMaster course on the design of social media solutions with students from computer science, business, and art. Topics in EdTech, Knowledge Sharing, ICT4D, HumTech, or eHealth

Design Thinking Process

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Prototype

Test

“Teachers” and “TAs” acting as coaches not having solutions

Design Thinking Space

Design Thinking Space

Design Thinking Outcome

Best posterSpring 2019

Global issueProblem statement

Coordinated actionsInterdisciplinary

dimensionsMain references

Context and solutionsPoster design

Oral presentation

Design Thinking Outcome

Best socialmedia appsSpring 2019

Peer evaluation

IndividualproposalsAll reportsBest pitch

2/3 students1/3 instructors

Holzer A., Gillet D. ; Laperrouza M. (2018). Active InterdisciplinaryLearning in a Design Thinking Course: Going to Class for a Reason.

2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE)

Massive Open Online Labs

The Swiss partners of the project • EPFL : Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne• HES-SO : University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland

The south partners • Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran - Tehran• University of Kurdistan, Iran - Sanandaj• Lebanese American University, Lebanon - Byblos• Université de Abdou Moumouni, Niger - Niamey• Université de Djibouti, Djibouti

Massive Open Online LabsThe MOOL (Massive Open Online Laboratories) project is a collaborative initiative aiming at sharing the expertise and infrastructures of the twoSwiss partners with several institutions from the global south

The main challenge of the project is to develop and implement innovative education activities through a collaborative widespread network deploying remote laboratories in electrical, mechanical, and control engineeringat a large scale within MOOC infrastructures

The project tackles several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by proposing online sharing of Swiss laboratories and infrastructures with a massive number of engineering students in southern countries, in order tooffer online features to support hands-on digital education

Massive Open Online Labs

Hosting MOOC platformSmart Devices + Lab Servers

Web Server

Massive Open Online Labs

Distributed solar panels as remote labs

Massive Open Online Labs

Distributed solar panel remote lab clientRelying on the new P1876 IEEE standard

Each partner is proposing its own integration scenario for a control course

Massive Open Online Labs

https remote labs can be integrated as iframe of native graasp app

Computational Thinking

Physics MathComputational

Thinking

Modelling Abstraction Processing

Computational Thinking

Physics MathComputational

Thinking

Dedicated courses and integration in other disciplines

Computational Thinking

Platforms for computational thinking • EPFL instance of

Jupyter Notebook integrated with Github

• Code App integratedin Graasp

• Learning Analyticsfor both teachersand students inGraasp

Pre-COVID Summary

Culture, resources and platforms for blended learningCulture of strengthening transversal skills (autonomy, collaboration, peer and self assessment, communication, …Access to laboratory facilities at distance (remote labs)Federated online platforms for courses (Moodle, MOOCs, documents, data, …) and national authentication solutionVirtual machine and cloud infrastructures for computational thinking and computer aided design (EE, ME, architecture, …)Video-conferencing systems for research (Zoom, Skype, …)

Education in time of COVID

March 6: 80 large lectures online (>150)Friday March 13Campus closed: 700 lectures onlineMonday March 16Online educationstarted using ZoomPhD exams fully online(agile governance)

Education in time of COVID

Adjust Zoom licenceTrain teachers through webinars

Students projects requiring hardware access on campus turned into a social studyhttps://www.epfl.ch/education/educational-initiatives/online-lecturing/

Online Lecturing with Zoom

Education in time of COVID

Education in time of COVID

Survey aftertwo weeks(P. Jermann& R. Tormey)

I have access to a proper place to work

I have access to all texts I need(books, documents, …)

I manage to stay concentrated on my computer as long as required for the classes

Strongly agree Agree No answer Disagree Strongly disagree

Education in time of COVID

Survey aftertwo weeks(P. Jermann& R. Tormey)

I managed to teach the same way online than on campus

I managed exercise sessions the same way online than on campus

I managed to interact enough with my students

Strongly agree Agree No answer Disagree Strongly disagree

I managed to interact enough with my teaching-assistants

The online teaching and learning tools were easy to use

Education in time of COVID

My course on Global Issues in Communication• Before confinement: Flipped classroom• After confinement: Short live lectures and online discussions• Mid term MCQ exam canceled• Online teamwork with online office hours (TAs visiting the

personal rooms of students in Discord, Zoom or Whatsapp)and team visiting my public zoom room

• Submission of a poster maintained• Live teamwork (poster) presentation replaced by a pitch

recording and a personal essay (changes announced late)

Education in time of COVID

General exam policy at EPFL and beyond• Continuous assessment maintained• Semester and master projects temporary stopped and the ones

not requiring presence on campus resumed after two weeks• Written exams postponed from June to August • Failed attempts

will not count • Main objective: Keep students working & learning• In other Swiss regions and European countries, final exams are

canceled and achievements assessed based on continuous assessment • There is no national competition in Switzerland

• Focus on formative rather than summative evaluation during confinement

EPFL as a Digitalization Model

Supporting primary education with Graasp in Geneva• Chosen by the State of

Geneva for 3’000 primaryschool teachers to shareresources with parents

• Contacts on March 16,tutorial ready March 18,used starting March 19

• Data hosted in Switzerland,RGPD compatible, no needto create an account forparents

EPFL as a Digitalization Model

Supporting primary education with Graasp in Geneva• Two weeks of agile adaptation of the platform for end users with

completely different profiles (primary school teachers, parents, …)

• New Web apps for alternative digital activities • Hotline support

ConfinementTutorial

preparation

Onlineclasses

start

Easterbreak

Pick everyMonday

21’000 users

Semideconfinement

on May 11Full

deconfinementon May 25

20% of mobile users16% of students disappeared(social divide)

Concluding Remarks

Blended learning practices and infrastructures, as well as digital competences (students and teachers) as enablersFrom synchronous on campus activities to asynchronous online knowledge transmissionCampus for interaction and acquisition of competencesTeachers and students will continue to enjoy more online activities • A new balance has yet to be foundA new balance has also to be found between formative and summative assessment, as well as between continuous evaluation and final examination

Contact details

denis.gillet@epfl.chhttps://react.epfl.ch

https://graasp.eu