EPICES (European Platform for Innovation and Collaboration between Engineer Students) will allow developing a European collaborative at a distance project-based learning framework and method, based on already existing and still developing technical platforms, i.e. collaborative and engineering tools. A special focus will be made on teachers' role and students' coaching, from the analysis of what a coach should be in project based learning to training packages for teachers and development of assessment methods. There are two backgrounds for EPICES: 1. The French PLACIS project (September 2012 – August 2016), funded by the French National Agency for Research under the "Investments for the future" program with the reference ANR-11-IDFI-0029. • PLACIS is managed by SUPMECA, in the framework of the Collegium Ile-de-France (gathering 3 engineering schools : SUPMECA, ENSEA and EISTI), • PLACIS is a pedagogical research project, • In every sub-project, on a multidisciplinary subject submitted by a company, a team of students (from 2 institutions from different countries) is formed. Students work in their home university and use the latest collaborative and engineering tools. 2. The progressive change of the structure of engineering studies, switching from the trilogy "courses – supervised practical work – lab work” to a more complex and open teaching & learning way, including MOOCs and different types of projects, with a changing role for teachers and the need of new assessment methods and tools, especially in project based learning environment. The main objectives of EPICES will be the development of PLACIS like sub-projects and the use of these sub-projects as study materials in order to: • Analyse the coaching/facilitation in project based learning in European engineering education and, based on hypothesis, write the first model of what a coach should be, • Enhance teachers' role as facilitators, teachers' competencies in project mode, with the development of methods and training packages for teachers, creation of a platform for the implementation of best practices in coaching, and test on sub-projects with teachers and students. • Perfect assessment methods in project based elarning, with the development of toolboxes/toolkits. All the results of EPICES will be published online and presented during events. EPICES project and the goals we aim to reach make us able to address 5 target groups: Two main target groups: 1. Teachers participating in the project 2. Students participating in the project Two secondary target groups: 3. Industrial partners, especially industrial tutors 4. Academic institutions partners of the project A third general target group: 5. Non-EPICES European engineering academic institutions and teachers Among many expected impacts, we can quote: 1. On teachers participating in the project : • Enable them to change their traditional roles from teachers to coaches, • Make them fully integrate project based learning approach and guide them to successfully facilitate authentic and engaged learning outcomes for students in project based learning. 2. On students participating in the project: • Make them fully integrate project based learning approach and enable them to enhance their roles as learners in a project based learning approach, • Demonstrate how they can use distance collaboration to work transnationally with peers during their studies and in their future jobs. More widely, EPICES aims to provide data, results, guidelines on project based learning in engineering to the whole community, making easier, for institutions and teachers especially, the implementation of project based learning. In order to carry out EPICES and make it efficient, EPICES partners were selected as following: 1. Non-PLACIS members adding their value, experience, points of view on pedagogical issues, project and problem-based learning issues, teachers’ involvement and role, dissemination..., 2. PLACIS members, 3. SUPMECA, both PLACIS coordinator and EPICES coordinator. SUPMECA, Aalto University, Riga Technical University, KU Leuven, Politecnico di Torino, Universita di Napoli Federico II, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and SEFI (the only non-academic partner) will carry out this project, with the ambition to achieve the goals established, and, then, to go further and launch in September 2016 a Knowledge Alliance project to explore deeper some issues resulting from EPICES.
EPICES (European Platform for Innovation and Collaboration between Engineer Students) is based on two avenues of previous and ongoing work, forming the background for EPICES. These avenues are: 1. The French pedagogical research project PLACIS, managed by SUPMECA and funded by the French National Agency for Research; reference ANR-11- IDFI-0029. In every sub-project, on a multidisciplinary subject submitted by a company, a team of students is formed. Students work in their home university and use the latest collaborative and engineering tools. 2. The partner universities of the EPICES projects are all active in development of engineering education through numerous projects in problem- and project-based learning (PBL). This has been driven by the progressive change of the structure of engineering studies. Namely, switching from the trilogy "courses – supervised practical work – lab work” to a more complex and open teaching & learning way with a changing role for teachers and the need of new assessment methods and tools, especially in PBL environment. In order to carry out EPICES and make it efficient, EPICES partners were selected as following: 1. Leading technical universities with multicultural and multidisciplinary background and evidence-based development actions in engineering education, including experience, publications and visibility at EU level, pedagogical development, experience in PBL and interest in developing pedagogical support for teachers. These partners are all active members of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI). 2. Selected PLACIS members, as deemed relevant to the EPICES project. 3. SUPMECA, the EPICES coordinator. SUPMECA, Aalto University (Aalto), Riga Technical University (RTU), KU Leuven, Politecnico di Torino (PoliTo), Universita di Napoli Federico II (UNINA), Universitat Politecnica di Valencia (UPV) and SEFI carried out this project and achieved the goals. The main objectives of EPICES were to: • Develop some PLACIS like sub-projects and use them as well as PLACIS sub-projects as study materials in order to help achieving the other three following objectives, • Build a joint platform via sharing best practices in roles of facilitation for PBL in engineering courses. Via this platform, provide teachers with models for facilitation roles that can optimally support student learning in e.g. different courses, disciplines, at different institutions, with different groups of students and multicultural settings. • Develop training packages for teachers to enhance their specific competencies as facilitators of PBL, by providing easy access to digitalized instructions and advice on how to plan and execute courses in order to reach high engagement of student learning. • Generate a quantitative assessment method for PBL, in which the development of engineering and general skills in addition to specific disciplinary content can objectively be assessed by the teacher. EPICES addressed 5 target groups: 2 main target groups (teachers and students), 2 secondary target groups (academic and industrial institutions partners of the project). The main impacts expected at the beginning of the project have been achieved as following: 1. On teachers participating in the project: • Enable them to change their traditional roles from teachers to coaches, • Make them fully integrate PBL approach and guide them to successfully facilitate authentic and engaged learning outcomes for students in PBL. 2. On students participating in the project: • Make them fully integrate PBL approach and enable them to enhance their roles as learners in a PBL approach, • Demonstrate how they can use elements like assessment tools and take into account the issues related to the relation with a tutor or to distance collaboration to work efficiently with different stakeholders in their studies and in their future jobs. EPICES achieved to build a digitalized platform, based on data collected, tools, results, and guidelines on PBL in engineering to the whole community, making the implementation and facilitation of PBL easier for institutions and especially teachers. The main outcomes of EPICES are 1) the platform, which enables the facilitation of PBL amongst multidisciplinary engineering courses, allowing the selection of suitable teacher facilitation roles for coaching of students in PBL. In conjunction to the development of the platform, 2) a quantitative assessment method applicable to different engineering disciplines was constructed and tested (helping teachers to evaluate the students’ learning results, analyze acquired skills individually, calculate the final grade of the course and analyze the whole project group performance), and 3) training packages for teachers were developed. All the results of EPICES have been presented disseminated at both international and local events and are online : https://sites.google.com/view/epicescoach/home