CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND: PhD students in every discipline and in every country are a small group of individuals, everyone with a personal and specific learning history and therefore a completely different training. The training offered by each University cannot satisfy the specific needs of a small population of students. Therefore, PhD students usually see a dichotomy between their specialized study goal and the generalized training offered by their University. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the project are to build an Open Networked Platform for the learning of Industry 4.0 themes dedicated to PhD students. The project will not just create an open platform but a set of models in order to standardize the learning and physical processes as a “virtual copy” of the learning activities. The models will be structured in a modular approach in order to promote the integration in the existing mechanisms as well as for future necessary adaptations. Other than the aforementioned standardization, the project will examine in depth the necessary changes in existing protocols and platforms to support the proposed platform. The students will be able to co-create their learning track and the learning contents and dynamic students teams will be created for every specific learning requirement. Teams will be composed by students from all the countries represented in the project. Teams will interact using a Social Network application, therefore there will not be necessary the physical presence. NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS: Around 3000 participants belonging to the following groups will be identified and involved in the project: - Teachers of PhD courses from all partners, selected among the ones teaching subjects in the key aspects of Industry 4.0 covered by the project; - Actual and potential PhD students from all the partners, to use and test the developed Open Networked Platform for learning Industry 4.0; - Entrepreneurs of companies related to the key aspects of Industry 4.0 covered by the project, to collect extra teaching material for the courses and test the developed platform; - Technicians and web developers to implement the MOOC and the Social Network; - Researchers, students, and entrepreneurs to test the methodology and the developed systems. ACTIVITIES AND METHODOLOGY: In order to successfully implement the project, it has been structured in four phases, closely connected to the development of the intellectual outputs, which will be carried out through the 36 months project period. The phases are as follows: 1) Definition of the ontological model of the course subjects. 2) Development of the MOOC specifics. 3) Co-creation of learning material. 4) Factory simulation model. 5) Final release of the platform RESULTS AND IMPACT: The aim of the project is to develop an innovative training model for detecting and accrediting the entrepreneurship skills of migrants and offering a training platform and program (comprising methods like e-learning, face-to-face training, VR simulations) which can enhance their abilities for succeeding with their entrepreneurial business endeavours. The main results expected from the project are: 1) Development of a Learning ontology (described in intellectual outputs, O1) 2) Creation of a permanent Project platform (described in intellectual outputs, O2) 3) Co-creation of learning material (described in intellectual outputs, O3) 4) Creation of an Enterprise simulator (described in intellectual outputs, O4) 5) Final release of the platform (described in intellectual outputs, O5) 6) Multiplier event - A Final Conference (see E1) 7) Training activity: (see C1) 8) Quality Assurance Plan, Evaluation Plan and Checklists (described in F.1) The expected impact of the project is twofold: on the one hand they will learn advanced concepts related to Industry 4.0, thus improving their competences and being able of access key roles in companies addressing the digitalization of data and the consequent knowledge extraction and management; on the other hand, they will have the possibility of meeting and interacting with other students from foreign universities, thus improving their language and communication skills as well as building the foundations for future collaboration in their research field. The expected impact on the participating organizations will be the acquisition of knowledge and tools in collaborative learning, and also the possibility of developing international projects with the contribution of students from different countries. POTENTIAL LONGER TERM BENEFITS: The project MOOC will be based on the Federica.eu platform running on a server of the University of Naples Federico II; this aspect ensures the sustainability of the results after the end of the project. For its nature, Federica.eu platform is open to contributions from teachers and students from other Universities and Research Institutes that can continuously add new learning material using SNE.
Background PhD students have usually different goals in their study that will be synthesized in the PhD Thesis. The training offered by every University cannot satisfy the specific needs of a small population of students. Therefore, PhD students usually see a dichotomy between their specialized study goal and the generalized training offered by their University. Usually, the team composition for a specific research is made of a professor, one/some research assistants and a PhD student. Professor and research assistants are engaging in several research activities with different PhD students, by splitting their time. The team is hierarchic and not peer leveled,and the team’s goal is the research outcome while the PhD student main goals are to learn a discipline and to work on research project.Therefore, it is difficult that a group of PhD students in the same University be engaged in shared learning activities and be able to constitute a learning team. The Tiphys initiative addressed this gap by proposing an state of are course design focused on student interactions and based on distance learning. Objectives The objective of the project is to build an Open Networked Platform for the learning of Industry 4.0 themes dedicated to PhD students. All the learning material is designed according the modern Constructive Alignment paradigm. Through this platform the students can co-create their learning path and the learning contents and dynamic student teams will be created for every specific learning requirement. Teams are composed by students belonging to all the European countries. Teams will interact using a Social Network application. Participants Tiphys consortium is made of Teachers, PhD students and lab technicians from 7 universities in 6 different European countries. The choice of the single participant at each partner reflected the need for specific competences necessary to deliver the project results entrusted to the related partner.In detail: •KTH the Royal Institute of Technology, the coordinator, Constructive Alignment (CA) •University of Napoli Federico II, UNINA, MOOC domain for distance learning. •University of Minho, UMINHO, Social Network Education •University of Ioannina, UOI virtual reality Transnational cooperation was particularly important for the success of the project because: 1. Allowed to reach the critical mass of students in order to justify the effort in setting up the course 2. Cluster together the knowledge, information and best international practice about Industry 4.0. 3.Allowed to enhance access to international educational best practices, which can be used and compared, and exchange knowledge 4.Six Countries –six languages –Six Educational systems allowed a richer learning experience and wider dissemination Activities 1)Definition of the ontological model of the course subjects using the OWL language and the KTH model called CONALI (Constructive Alignment) ontology 2)Development of the MOOC specifics using open access platform Moodle further developed by UOI. 3)Co-creation of learning material based on the UMINHO approach of Social Network based Education (SNE) 4)Factory simulation model, exploiting the VR engine developed at UOI to implement the suggested educational unit in a virtual environment and consequent final release of the platform Main Results - The LTT activity formed 10 teachers from the consortium on how to use Constructive Alignment to design educational units. - A total of 7 courses were re-design according to this new knowledge providing interchangeable knowledge base across different universities. - BONUS: an updated version of the underlying CONALI ontology was released and published as result of the instantiation of the original model on new courses. - The MOOC was produced using an open access platform called Moodle - A technical feature of particular importance was that the e-learning platform enabled collaborative work, enhancing views' equity. With the integration of the PADLET tool, the platform included simultaneous collaborative editing of files, awareness, and registering of participants who were doing what and history of creations and changes. - The HANDBOOK on “Virtual Reality Technology as a Tool for Industry 4.0 Design, Implementation and Operation” was delivered as planned. This can be used as blueprint to implement a similar approach in different educational units - BONUS: 2 Workshops in co-creation of learning material were hold by UMINHO as a way to train the consortium members on co-creation of learning materials - A virtual platform and related scenarios were developed as planned : - Workshops on the Virtual Reality environment was held by UoI to teach the partners how the VR environment works and show its capabilities. - Knowledge of PhD. students was examined through Tiphys Moodle MOOC platform. - Validation and evaluation report