After the master degree in physics the career of a graduated student normally evolves in an international research context: universities, international research institutes and laboratories, and private industries. However, the number of students in Science, Mathematics and Computing participating to the Erasmus mobility programme is still too low considering the overall number of students enrolled in higher education on this subjects. The students therefore lack of international mind-set and experiences and indeed find themselves introduced in international projects and research institutions without the right preparation and skills. Relevant Stakeholders such as CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research, in which all iTHEPHY Partners daily collaborate in international research projects, suffer from this lack of internationalization of the young researchers recently graduated. The main goal of the iTHEPHY project is to provide master physics students in Europe with the skills needed to deal with the complex nature of an international research world. The project aims at developing innovative student-centered, Deeper Learning Approaches (DPA) and international Project-Based teaching and learning methodologies for HE students. The innovative DPA and International Project-Based learning and teaching methodologies will be produced and than tested and evaluated during simulations of real research projects in physics carried out by groups of students from different countries. Teams of high qualified European professors and researchers experienced in international research projects and context will drive the process, in which both students and teachers will improve their collaboration skills. The project foresees also two intensive teaching and learning activities (Summer Schools) where the pedagogical methodologies will be tested. Developmet of ICT-based educational tools will support the groups of students and the teams of teachers during their DPA- and Project-Based learning and teaching. A development of a customized moodle platform on, built with open source software, where the standard moodle installation will extended by developing additional ICT-based educational tools useful for a productive collaborative virtual environment for an efficient learning and teaching. An additional Output is a Dynamic guided problems for a Deep Learning in Physics, developed for moodle platform consisting in a set of developing e-learning problems with dynamic solutions, which will help the student to develop problem-solving and critical thinking. Finally a methodological handbook Output for DPA- and Project-Based learning and teaching will be published with the aim of outlining the methodology of the project and of promoting repeatability in other master degree courses. The impact of iTHEPHY will be notable both on European and worldwide physics communities, as iTHEPHY will give to all the persons directly or indirectly connected with the project the opportunity to increase internationalization, collaborative attitudes and HE teaching and learning quality. In addition, this project will have a great impact on the attractiveness of other partners, such Relevant Stakeholders like CERN, for future collaboration in straighting the link between teaching and research.
The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for Higher Education iTHEPHY has involved universities and research institutes from Italy, Germany, and France, with long-lasting relations that have been reinforced thanks to the project. The Consortium included: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna (UNIBO) Bologna, Italy; Unversite Clermont Auvergne (UCA), Clermont-Ferrand, Franch; Tecnische Univeristat Dortmund (TUD), Dortmund, Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique and Institute National de physique nucleaire et de physique de particules (CNRS/IN2P3), France; Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY), Hamburg, Germany. A crucial role in supporting the project Summer Schools organization and implementation has been played by the Associated Partner Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques De Cargese (IESC), located in Cargese, Corsica, France. The project aimed at building a strategic partnership to promote an innovative educational environment and exchange of good practices in the field of higher education. The project consists of developing e-learning and blended learning methodologies and tools for teaching particle physics to students attending the second year of the master's degree, making them work together in real research projects supervised by international teachers and researchers belonging to the iTHEPHY Consortium. The innovative educational approach applied promotes internationalization, team-work skills enhancement, and contributes to boosting mobility worldwide. The project outputs can be summarized as follows: IO1. Moodle platform for Physics, based on the open-source Moodle framework and its plugins. It has been designed and successfully implemented to support the DPA- and Project-Based teaching and learning methodologies. The web-based platform has also supported the team during the project integrating a video web-conference plug-in, a chat room, a shared storage area for files, a scheduler/agenda for planning meetings between teachers and students, and a project management tool for an efficient implementation of projects, able to assign sub-tasks and tracking their progress; IO2. A full set of guided exercises with full solutions also available on the e-learning platform; Physics disciplines taught in master courses need intensive practice with exercises and problems (EPs) in order to well internalize the advanced concepts, rather than passively reading, memorizing, or listening lectures. ITHEPHY successfully implemented dynamic guided problems and solutions for a Deep Learning in Physics IO3. A Methodology handbook describing the implementation methodology of the project for future replications. Educating-through-research is the core teaching, and learning feature of the iTHEPHY project usually, named by the Consortium the Tandem-Project (TP). This innovative educational methodology was implemented in three academic years, 2018/2019, 2019/2020, and 2020/2021. About 40 students, enrolled in the second year of the master’s degree in physics from the three partner universities were engaged to be part of TPs. They have been combined to form seven cross-national teams (made of two or three students and two or three international supervisors). International research projects based on HEP research have been assigned to each group. Students had the possibilities to present their results during the three editions of the Summer School, in 2018, 2019 held in Cargese, and in 2020 held online due to the COVID emergency. The project-based learning and teaching activities have been supported by the project's outputs, i.e. advanced collaborative tools, integrated into a customized Moodle platform built with open-source software and guided exercises made available on the platform. In conclusion, the iTHEPHY project has implemented and proposes an innovative and unconventional approach to learning and teaching based on educating-through-research activities supported by ICT tools. This approach is complementary to frontal lectures and promotes the internationalization of master's degrees in and outside Europe. It is worth to underline that at least two achievements exceeding the initial expectations were obtained by ITHEPHY. The first consists of the institutionalization of Summer School as an official activity, approved by the Physics Department Committee and by the ViceRector for Teaching and Education of the UNIBO, delivering 6 ECTS credits to all the attendants, for the activities of the tandem-project. Second UNIBO, UCA, and TUD signed an agreement to set up an International Master's degree in Particle Physics (IMAPP). IMAPP is a joint degree program implemented by the 3 HEIs, integrating the tandem-project and Summer School activities (and hence the iTHEPHY's outputs) in the degree program, with 6 compulsory ECTS. iTHEPHY's research institutions will host students for their internship in preparation for the final thesis.