Building Innovative Environments
Paris-Saclay University wishes to provide each student with a learning environment that promotes success. It has already devoted significant resources to upgrading the digital platforms and physical learning spaces that enable learner’s engagement from initial trainings to continuing education. The University’s academic community is currently exploring new ways of learning in their respective disciplines, with a strong emphasis on experimentation and simulation.
Digital Environment
As soon as they register at the University, students have access to a comprehensive learning ecosystem using their unique identifier. This application set built around the eCampus educational platform not only provides access to academic resources, but also enables individual learning monitoring and enriches teaching experience in the classroom thanks to training and assessment activities. With over 48k users, eCampus is presently being used by the following institutions: Paris-Saclay University, ENS, IOGS, UEVE, Agro Paris Tech, INSTN, as well as some IPP institutions: Telecom Paris, ENSTA, Telecom Évolution.
The eCampus educational platform
In addition to the core educational platform, 9 digital pedagogy apps are available for direct access on eCampus via the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) technology:
Wims is a free pedagogical platform that allows to build and share interactive exercises. It is hosted on the Paris-Saclay servers (LTI since July 2021).
Collaborate is Blackboard’s virtual classroom and video conferencing service that can be accessed from the course section of eCampus in addition to Teams (MS).
Compilatio is a plagiarism detection service that scans assignments submitted by students on the educational platform or directly from the application portal.
Wooclap is an online service that allows for quizzes and live interactive activities. Students use their smartphone or computer as a voting box and answer to the lecturers’ questions.
Intelliboard allows to generate dashboards to measure the activity and follow the progress of a student. It is currently in the setup and testing phase.
Mediasite is a streaming service designed to host and distribute course-related videos or capsules. It is currently in the configuration phase.
Voltaire is a portal that offers spelling refresher courses available on eCampus for students and professors.
Mahara is an educational portfolio system linked to the eCampus Moodle server. Students have the ability to build and populate their portfolios based on their projects and internships. It allows instructors to assign portfolios to students for them to complete and submit for evaluation.
OnlineFormaPro offers training courses on the Office suite. These courses are available on the eCampus platform, in the course section of the instructors who prescribe these courses.
Physical Learning Spaces
The layout of the classrooms and tutorials responds to the pressing need for changes in teaching practices. The design and implementation of innovative spaces are linked to current limits of pedagogical innovation, legacy practices, and the digital world. The Paris-Saclay University is investing in the implementation of these physical learning spaces with the construction of new buildings, but also by upgrading the existing designated areas on all its campuses via earmarked funding (ORE, NCU, DSG). A group of CentralSupélec students is currently conducting a survey to gather information critical to the proper design and implementation of these new and improved spaces.
Remote and Innovative Practicum
These are initiatives led by a professor or teaching team in a given discipline that the University wishes to highlight to its community via targeted funding (NCU, AAP) to promote interdisciplinarity in its curricula. The main objective is for students to develop multiple skills: the ability to understand a complex system, the ability to suggest and implement a protocol, the ability to analyze and interpret a set of experimental or numerical results in relation to a course, as well as the ability to synthesize them.
STEEVE Project from the ENS Paris-Saclay
Orsay IUT’s Remote Backpack
JupyterHub@Paris-Saclay
La Physique Autrement Website
Simulation Lab
Immersive learning requires controlled environments using innovative technologies: virtualization, augmented reality, interactive design, etc. LabForSIMS is one of the oldest (10 years) and most active French centers for medical training through simulation in the country. Created in 2012 with the support of the Faculty of Medicine of Kremlin-Bicêtre (belonging to Paris-Saclay University), it allows the implementation of an official activity of learning through simulation at the University level.
Paris-Saclay’s Simulation Lab in the Medical Field
Archive Project ANR LABFORSIMS 2