While engineers have always had to consider ethical concerns when designing and developing technology, the rapidly changing digital landscape and the exponential evolution of AI raise new questions and pose a new set of challenges.
To address this, the team at the Center for Digital Education (CEDE) draws on the latest approaches in engineering ethics education to develop resources and provide support to help teachers incorporate digital-specific ethical thinking skills into their engineering courses.
The primary goal of this project is to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the ethical implications of the digital technologies they will work with in their careers.
By integrating ethical thinking into engineering education, this project aims to foster an approach to technology development that is responsible and sustainable and which factors in the impacts that digital systems can have on society and the environment.
Conducted in partnership with ETH Zurich and UNINE, the project is part of swissuniversities’ “P-8 Digital skills” program, which aims to support the strengthening of “digital skills” in education. It is a continuation of the Computational Thinking development project launched in 2019.
Development of a game-based approach to learn about fairness in machine learning
This educational tool is designed to engage students in a fun and interactive way while also helping them understand the importance of fairness in machine learning algorithms.
The game lets students take on the role of a data scientist making design decisions and allows them to explore the ways in which biases can be inadvertently introduced into a machine learning system.
By playing the game, students learn about the ethical implications of machine learning algorithms and how to design fair algorithms that do not perpetuate existing social biases.
A canvas for integrating ethical reflection into the design process
Designed to facilitate the integration of ethical reflection into the design process, this canvas was developed as a visual guide structured around four ethical principles specific to digital: benefit, autonomy, equity, and privacy. For each principle, the framework leads to the identification of corresponding risks, but also of possibilities to limit these risks.
Evaluated in practical workshops, the framework encourages the development of a practical understanding of ethical issues related to the design or use of digital tools.
The Learning Companion is the result of a collaboration between the Center for Digital Education (CEDE) and the Teaching Support Center (CAPE) at EPFL, both members of the Center LEARN.
The Learning Companion allows students to self-assess on three levels. It invites them to reflect on their learning habits, problem-solving strategies, and their project management skills.
Based on the theoretical concepts and recommendations of the book “Learning to study” (Tormey & Hardebolle, 2017), the Learning Companion is a web-based tool developed for EPFL students in 2018 but available to all university students of Switzerland. It uses learning data collected to automatically generate personalized recommendations for each difficulty students encounter. This system also allows teachers to have access to the (anonymous) data of their class and to identify and address any relevant difficulties.
This tool offers a series of self-assessment questionnaires that allow students to situate themselves in relation to their learning habits. For example, by answering questions such as: “Do I manage my stress well?” or “Am I revising effectively?” “.
Students receive personalized recommendations and learning resources to improve their skills in the different areas.
Solving a problem in mathematics or physics requires a systematic approach that is new for some students starting their studies at EPFL.
The Learning Companion is designed to improve students’ problem-solving skills using a learning journal that they complete after working on their exercises.
The entries in the log are then visually summarized in a dashboard. This allows students to identify the areas in which they can improve, by giving leads such as “checking the calculations” or “persisting when it is difficult”.
This system allows the teacher to have access to the (anonymous) data of his class in order to identify and address the difficulties that require additional explanations.
Next step :
The Learning Companion is currently undergoing further development aimed at adapting it to the Secondary II level by the BeLEARN team.
This extension project will notably see the addition of a multilingual version, will make it possible to examine the differences between populations (compulsory school vs. university) and to prepare students to acquire self-regulation skills in anticipation of their entry into graduate studies.
The 3T PLAY project develops playful activities with tangible objects to teach transversal skills to engineering students. Embedded in a premier engineering school, we take a research-based approach to identifying skills that are under-addressed in the higher education literature and skills of emerging importance for today’s environmental, social and economic challenges. The trident framework and activity guides have been iteratively developed through empirical observations and implementation, creating open-source resources for the engineering education and research communities.
Engineers and scientists must have more than just excellent technical knowledge and skills to provide leadership and solutions for the challenges faced by society. While most science and engineering courses develop the technical skills specific to each discipline, there is an accompanying set of transversal skills that graduates should master to leverage their skills and knowledge. These competences include, but are not limited to, negotiation, conflict resolution, intra- and interpersonal communication skills, inclusion, and ethical reasoning. While there is strong, multilateral agreement on the importance of these skills for engineers, concern about the development opportunities provided by current engineering programs has been expressed by students, alumni, educators, institutions and accreditation bodies.
The contributions of the 3T PLAY project involve improving how engineering students are taught transversal skills, leveraging empirical investigations to explore current practices and assess interventions. The resources developed by 3T PLAY provide evidence-informed, practical and adaptable approaches to teaching transversal skills to science and engineering students. As illustrated by the 3T PLAY framework [see Figure below], interventions targeting the development of transversal skills are designed to involve 3 types of pedagogical activities.
Knowing (what is the skill, why it is important, and what strategies can be employed),
Experiencing (engaging activities that intentionally leverage the skill), and
Learning from Experience (explicit reflection prompts to help students transfer what they learned to their next project).
Approach
While tangibles are widely used to teach technical skills in engineering, we have found little prior evidence of their application for transversal skills development. Therefore, the 3T PLAY team has worked with instructors in diverse educational settings to create, iterate and evaluate its trident framework for teaching transversal skills using tangibles to create micro-experiential learning opportunities focused on transversal skills. The activities implement evidence-informed approaches including low-stakes experimentation, short feedback loops, iteration, desirable difficulties and opportunity for reflection.
Open access to the 3T Playbook
The activities developed by the project are published as individual chapters (PDF format) via the Zenodo platform. Beta versions are now available, with the finalized versions that will include implementation feedback and evaluation scheduled for fall 2024.
CHAPTER 1
Transversal skills in engineering education, evidence-informed teaching and the 3T PLAY trident approach (forth coming)
CHAPTER 2
Choosing which transversal skills to teach, facilitating interactive activities and how to use this book (forth coming)
CHAPTER 3
How to support students giving each other constructive feedback, especially when it is difficult to hear (view)
CHAPTER 4
How to support students to develop skills that promote sustainability (view)
CHAPTER 5
How to support students to develop coaching and peer teaching skills (view)
CHAPTER 6
How to support students to do risk assessment and planning (forth coming)
CHAPTER 7
How to support students to cultivate psychological safety in their teams (view)
CHAPTER 8
How to support students to manage unequal contributions to teamwork (forth coming)
CHAPTER 9
How teachers can use the 3T PLAY trident framework to design activities that develop transversal skills (view)
3T PLAY Team
3T PLAY is a joint initiative of the Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN), the College of Management, the Teaching Support Center (CAPE) and the Discovery Learning Labs (DLL) Makerspace. The project is kindly supported by the LEGO Foundation, in the context of exploring future skills through new, playful and creative learning approaches.
The 3T PLAY project enjoys strong internal support at EPFL and increasing recognition internationally. The EPFL Vice-Presidencies for Education and Student Affairs and Outreach have put strong emphasis on the need for teaching and learning transversal skills at scale across campus. The integration of 3T PLAY at EPFL is exemplified by its executive board members, which include the unit heads of the Center for Career and Transversal skills(CCTC), DLL, CAPE, LEARN and the emeritus director of the College of Management. Externally, 3T PLAY activities are facilitated by a growing number of institutions located in 7 countries.
Siara Isaac – Project manager & researcher
Yousef Jalali – Researcher
Joely de Lima – Pedagogical Advisor
Valentina Rossi – Pedagogical Advisor
Marta Ruiz Cumi – Administrative support
Contacting us
Please do reach out if we can support you to adopt/adapt 3T PLAY materials for your own context or if you have feedback to share.
The project is kindly supported by the LEGO Foundation, in the context of exploring future skills through new, playful and creative learning approaches.
The teams in LEARN provided support for teachers at different levels in their efforts to setup and constantly adapt their distance and blended teaching. LEARN teams worked with teachers to face the sudden switch to distance teaching during the lockdown. Part of the team worked with EPFL teachers, while others focused on teachers in public primary schools.
The teams in LEARN provided support for teachers at different levels in their efforts to setup and constantly adapt their distance and blended teaching. LEARN teams worked with teachers to face the sudden switch to distance teaching during the lockdown. Part of the team worked with EPFL teachers, while others focused on teachers in public primary schools.
Our aim is to make these resources available to all teachers across institutions and levels. Some of these resources are translated in English and in French.
Support for teachers at EPFL
As a means to continously minimize the risk of transmission of covid-19, the Center for Digital Education (CEDE) and the Teaching Support Center (CAPE) have set up documentation, workhops and a helpdesk to support EPFL teachers in mixing online and on-campus teaching modes. Their ressources are regularly updated.
Support for teachers in primary schools
Since 2018, the LEARN Center has been working with the Department of Education, Youth and Culture (DFJC) of Canton Vaud on the “Digital Education” project, in collaboration with HEP Vaud and UNIL. The phase of distance learning offered a particular challenge to teachers: to ensure continuity of learning for students and to maintain the link with families. The LEARN team wished to support them in the definition and implementation of this new task, with the tools at their disposal while remobilising the content already seen in the training that is part of the project.
We proposed, in collaboration with HEP Vaud, online sessions starting one week after the beginning of lockdown in 2020. These short and operational sessions helped to co-construct remote teaching. The ressources shared here are in French:
LEARN collaborated with Edit Change Management to create a trilogy of picture books, called Oscar & Zoe, to adress the digital challenges related to the pandemic (e.g. fake news, screen time management). Here is the news article with links towards the free download in English, French and German.
The two main questions our research teams dealt with concerning covid-19 and education were: How does distance teaching during lockdown affect students and teachers? How can we collect the evidence in order to inform decision-makers?
1. Research into remote teaching during the lockdown
As a reaction to the pandemic, our research teams worked to provide evidence about the impact of covid-19 related measures on education by studying teaching at EPFL and in public schools during the lockdown.
1.1. Study on EPFL teachers adapting their teaching
A study on teacher adaptability was ongoing at the moment when covid-19 hit tertiary education in February 2020. It was quickly re-designed in order to capture teachers’ adaptability in the situation of forced change. The analysis introduces perspectives of pedagogical innovation and touches upon social components of learning which, during the lockdown, have left an impact on the meaning of professional teaching role. The recording and slides of a presentation of this study in a lunch&LEARN session are linked on the left.
1.2. Study on teachers’ experiences with remote teaching in Canton Vaud
More than 5500 teachers from the Canton Vaud have participated in the study. The analysis of the factors associated with effective distance learning reveal that there are three types of factors that play a role: contextual factors (student, teacher and school equipment; as well as the technical and socio-emotional support available), individual factors (teacher and student autonomy, competence and motivation) and pedagogical factors (practices and tools). The complete report is available here.
2. Collecting research evidence on the impact of covid-19 on education
The pandemic has had a major impact on education, not only because of the social isolation during the lockdown, but also because of the need to organise education differently after reopening of schools. New practices have emerged. Educational researchers have quickly accompanied the emergence of these new practices with research activities. Many have conducted studies to document and investigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on education. These studies can make a significant contribution to understanding what has happened, but also to preparing future scenarios, based on evidence.
But how to gather all these studies in order to make them accessible and useful for the entire research community? The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK/CDIP), the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI/SBFI/SEFRI) and the EPFL Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN) teamed up to propose a platform for the sharing of research on Covid-19 impact on education in Switzerland.
2.1. Open repository
We initiated an open online repository of studies addressing Covid-19 impact on education in Switzerland and were able to gather more than 60 studies. Please feel free to use the repository for your research and share it with colleagues.
In December 2020, more than 100 researchers participated in an informal conference to share the current knowledge about covid-19 in education. 17 studies were presented by colleagues from UniFR, FORS, EHL, UniZH, PHZG, FSO, SFIVET, UZH, UniGE, UniDistance and EPFL. Full programme
Our online and on campus workshops address the typical range of university teaching activities.
Informed by contemporary research on teaching engineering, our online and on campus workshops address the typical range of university teaching activities (teaching, presenting, labs and exercise sessions, assessment, using technology and distance learning technology).
Workshops are constantly updated with in-house examples and contemporary research on teaching and learning in STEM teaching. Since COVID-19 crises, workshop offers have been adapted in formats (drop-in session, short workshops, online, hybrid) and the themes now cover a range of hot issues (DIE, online assessment, student motivation, etc.)
The term “flipped classroom” refers to a teaching approach in which students get a first exposure to course content before class, through readings or videos, then spend class time deepening their understanding of that content through learning activities with the teacher and/or teaching team (e.g. interactive quizzes, experiments, demonstrations, group problem solving assignments, etc.).
This model is usually opposed to a more “traditional” teaching approach in which students get the first exposure in class, mainly through lectures, and then deepen their understanding through homework after class, when the teacher is not present.
Flipped Classroom in Linear Algebra:
The Linear Algebra courses (MATH-111) are offered during the propedeutics year to all EPFL classes but Architecture, Mathematics and Physics. The final exam is common at 80% among all these courses, which are taken by a total of about 1’800 students.
In addition to the already existing courses, a flipped version of the course, given by Simone Deparis, was opened to volunteers from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020. A carefully designed study has been put in place over the successive editions of the course.
Partnerships between teaching advisors and faculty members are more likely to provide adequate and timely support to the teaching staff. The resources to advise teachers are blended, as they combine face-to-face meetings with relevant videos and documents.
Each year, the Teaching Support Center dubbed CAPE (Centre d’Appui à l’Enseignement in French) works with hundreds of teachers and teaching teams on an individual basis to respond to their teaching and learning inquiries.
CAPE works with teachers who explore the use of new technology in their practice or decide to switch up their instructional approach. CAPE also provides support to sections in assessing academic cycles, namely Bachelor and Master Programmes.
CAPE draws on counselling strategies to work with teachers who are building their confidence to teach and assess their pedagogical practices.
A three-phase model to support new Tenure-Track Assistant Professors (PATT) establishes a partnership to work with young researchers to build their teaching dossier based on evidence of their teaching (Just-in-time teaching (JiTT) a pedagogical strategy that uses feedback between classroom activities and work that students do at home, in preparation for the classroom meeting).
Support to sections for evaluating their programs includes discussing, formatting and creating surveys. Questions are adapted to the sections’ needs and concerns.
CAPE sends the surveys to students and Alumni in order to have a snap-shot of how students assess their EPFL education. The surveys explore Alumni’s perception of the contribution of their EPFL education to their current job. CAPE takes into account their specific profiles and current professional tasks. The surveys also ask participants to self-assess the state of specific technical knowledge and professional skills. CAPE analyses the results and drafts reports which are then fed back to the sections to build evidence-based solutions.
We believe that machines can help humans teach and learn better. That is why we combine artificial intelligence and machine learning with insights from the learning sciences to better understand what people know and how they learn.
The CHILI lab (Computer-Human Interaction in Learning and Instruction) follows two approaches: developing new learning technologies that produce novel sources of data on how people teach and learn, and using machine learning and statistical methods to unlock the insights that are hidden in these sources of data.
CHILI develops novel technologies designed to support teaching and learning, with a focus on learning in team settings. Many of the technologies created provide the ability to capture novel sources of data on how individuals teach and learn together. In addition to traditional statistical methods, the use of Learning Analytics helps making sense of the data.
By using state-of-the-art methods from machine learning and artificial intelligence, CHILI uncovers insights about how people teach, how people learn, and how technologies are best able to support teaching and learning. These methods have helped us understand the learning process across a wide variety of educational settings and with a variety of different technologies, including with educational robotics, in online learning environments, and when using tangible user interfaces.
The goal of this initiative is to build a test to gauge computational thinking skills in a valid and reliable fashion. We are building, testing and validating a test that can be taken by anyone regardless of their previous knowledge or expertise in computer science.
This initiative builds a new assessment tool to measure computational thinking (CT) among science and engineering students.
Why is this needed?
First, the pervasiveness of digital tools and the use of computational methods is essential in contemporary sciences and engineering, which turns CT into a vital set of skills for current scientists and engineers. Thus, CT becomes a pillar of scientific and engineering education alongside other foundations traditionally considered as mathematics and physics.
Second, in accordance with the current relevance assigned to CT, EPFL has adopted CT as a subject for first-year students in an attempt to promote a transferable base in solving problems computationally. EPFL is offering an introductory course on CT and it intends to further implement courses for all degree programs, from Bachelor’s to Masters’ through to PhD. Therefore, we seek to advance our evidence-based understanding of how to best teach and learn CT such that teaching practice can be informed. Measuring learners’ CT in a reliable and valid fashion is necessary as it will help to identify effective methods.
Third, the tools built up to date to evaluate CT skills are, to the best of our knowledge, not sufficient for our intended use: they are scarce, have multiple shortcomings for evaluating CT skills in higher education, and are not validated for populations of engineering and science students.
A lunch&LEARN session was dedicated to this initiative, watch it below:
Professional (transversal) skills are career competences that are not specific to a particular job, task, discipline or are of knowledge. They are skills that can be used in variety of work settings, and as such are necessary for engineering graduates’ successful transition into future jobs.
Engineers and architects often need to deal with great social, technical and environmental complexities, and the demand for having broadly educated holistic engineers will only continue to grow in the future. Being able to manage and lead diverse teams, understand complex, interdisciplinary systems and solve open-ended problems across and beyond different subjects is expected from the next generation of graduates.
There are several projects under this initiative, joint in the attempt to examine how well professional, transversal and interdisciplinary skills are integrated into the curriculum at EPFL. The work done under the umbrella of examining professional skills integration is done through studying curricular material, collecting students’ and coaches’ opinions through surveys and interviews, analysing interdisciplinary MAKE projects, and mapping examples of good practices across the institution.
Mapping Transversal Skills
An initiative to map, examine and track teaching and learning of transversal skills at EPFL was developed as a result of a collaboration between the LEARN team, the Teaching Support Service (CAPE) and the Discovery Learning Program (DLP). Under this initiative we have so far looked at:
Mapping transversal skills presented in the course documents (fiches de cours) across all sections
Presenting examples of good practice in using different teaching methods in integrating transversal skills
Examining the coverage of transversal skills in master courses
Mapping transversal skills offered by units that are not covered through the regular curriculum
Two reports are available, one on curricular material and one on extra-curricular content. The first was presented on SEFI 2020 and is available at infoscience, and the second was developed as an internal document. In addition, several videos of teachers providing examples of their practice in teaching transversal skills were compiled. These are available here.
MAKE Research
This study looks into the effects of interdisciplinary MAKE projects on students’ motivation, learning strategies and project-management skills, with the aim of evaluating the impact of this initiative and providing useful feedback. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy and quality of project-based learning experiences at the MAKE program at EPFL, with the aim of supporting further development of a more holistic curricula that would better support student engagement and learning (not only in terms of disciplinary learning but also transversal competencies).
As a result of this study, feedback and results would be provided to the teacher(s) and managing staff at the end of the experience. Results of this study are presented at SEFI 2021, and documented in a conference paper available below.
Evaluation of MA Programs
An evaluation of 5 MA programs has been done by CAPE and data were collaboratively analysed with LEARN, mainly to assess the strengths and weaknesses of Master courses given at EPFL. Based on quantitative and qualitative input, the evaluation indicates that students at the MA level receive a strong theoretical knowledge, while on the more practical level, students seem to expect more of transversal skills, such as management skills, IT tools and understanding ethical, legal and environmental impacts within engineering. The study has been presented at SEFI 2021, and the paper is available at infoscience (link below).
The aim of Lunch&LEARN sessions is to gather an EPFL audience interested in novel and effective learning and teaching approaches, and to create a rich discussion around successful paradigms based on evidence. Do join us!
As an informal and open event for the EPFL community, Lunch&LEARN allows participants to have their meals, or enjoy their coffee break, while gaining new insights about interesting pedagogical approaches, opening possibilities for knowledge sharing and further collaborations.
Our guests encompass a range of innovative teachers and researchers from labs working on learning (CHILI, REACT, MOBOTS), service units (CEDE, CAPE), and educators with new visions for education at EPFL.
This event is open to EPFL teachers interested in innovative teaching and learning and, regardless of whether you are curious or doubtful, active participation in Lunch&LEARN discussions is very welcomed!
If you want to be informed about lunch&LEARN sessions, please subscribe to LEARN’s memento. Also be in touch with us at lunchLEARN@groupes.epfl.ch if you would like to suggest a topic for a future session or would want to moderate one yourself.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
