Training

Centre for Educational and Digital Innovation (CIPEN) © Jason Sansol

Innovation in education in 2020: the creation of CIPEN

The I-SITE FUTURE project included the creation of the CIPEN. The aim of this Centre for Educational and Digital Innovation is to support teachers and teacher-researchers in the setting-up of transforming and/or innovative educational measures, to produce multi-media teaching resources, analyse teaching practices, lead research action in education and provide a language training service for specialists in other fields, in addition to certification in digital uses.

The goal of the CIPEN is to crystallise various teaching experiences thus helping to make Université Gustave Eiffel a reference in innovative teaching on a national and international level. The CIPEN serves a transversal vice-directorate-general for the whole establishment, enabling the concrete transformation of the University’s training programme through the support it lends to the various training units.

Further to consultations and discussions with member schools and units, University departments and agents in 2019, the CIPEN was created on 1 January 2020 in its initially-designed format. The 70 teacher-researcher, administrative and technical staff members joined the CIPEN, the result of a merger and/or pooling of existing departments such as CAPLA and the Digital Campus of the former UPEM (now the Digital & Media Department), but also through the creation of new departments such as the Observatory for Teaching Practices, the Transversal Training Department and the Educational Department.

The centre was hard hit by the health crisis in March 2020, forcing its closure. The teaching continuity plan had to be activated, which led the CIPEN to suspend its development and focus on the direct service to be provided to staff and students.

In spite of this, the CIPEN was able to support teaching teams in the implementation of the New University Curriculum project, D.Clic, provide teacher training to new lecturers, offer general teaching and digital training courses, update digital teaching tools in collaboration with the IT Department (DGDIN), roll out the Zoom video-conference application, begin testing the PIX certification, recruit new staff on new projects, equip classrooms with audio-visual facilities, supply audio-visual equipment for the purposes of remote working and teaching continuity, support training courses for the implementation of the competence-based approach, and initiate a research action for the promotion of teachers’ educational investment, etc.

Creation of the BESTm bachelor course

ESIEE Paris, in partnership with Université Gustave Eiffel, created an innovative 3-year programme, directly accessible at French high school diploma level: the Bachelor in Economics, Science and Multimedia Technologies (BESTm). This primarily scientific, ‘dual skills’ programme combines science, economy and human & social sciences.
The selective course, which is accessible to students leaving French high school with a general diploma, is geared towards those with an inquisitive nature who do not wish to specialise immediately after high school. Students can gradually specialise over the course of the programme in one of three areas: science, management & economics, or multimedia.

The first year is thus a core course to acquire fundamental knowledge. In the 2nd year, 20% of teaching is devoted to the chosen area, which increases to 50% in the 3rd year. The curriculum includes dedicated periods for personalised support and individual and collective projects. There are two compulsory work placement periods; one month in 2nd year and at least 4 months in 3rd year (France or overseas). A study period abroad is also organised during the programme.

Each year, students will spend one week on a ‘learning expedition’ to one of the partner laboratories or the research campuses of Université Gustave Eiffel. The aim is to enable students to discover ‘research on the ground’. This broad-range training course will give graduates direct access to numerous professions, depending on their chosen path, such as developer, project manager, business manager, web integrator, assistant financial consultant, economic and statistical studies officer, sound technician or audio-visual assistant, etc.

Bachelor diplomas also open up a multitude of possibilities for continued studies, particularly in the masters and engineering programmes offered by Université Gustave Eiffel: ESIEE Paris (2nd-year engineering, ENSG (M1 Geomatics), EIVP, ESIPE (IMAC multimedia section), IAE (M1 HRM, Banking, SMM, IDL), Master in Arts, Letters and Civilisations, etc.

This bachelor programme is set to open for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Striving for students’ success

In response to the “New University Curricula” call for projects launched by the French National Research Agency in the framework of the Investments for the Future Programme (PIA3), the University obtained the necessary lead times and means (Classification A+, €8.1 million) for the implementation of the D.Clic project. The aim of this project is to boost students’ success by drawing on three intangible driving forces: the implementation of a skill-based approach, the diversification of study paths and the integration of schemes to promote career orientation and professional skills. Working from this basis, each teaching team will be able to design and develop an appropriate model, according to its context and the specific requirements of its students.

Find out more about D.clic

Boosting the impact and international attractiveness of training through research

In the framework of the call for projects by the Investments for the Future Programme (PIA) ‘Structure training via research in excellence initiatives’ (SFRI), Université Gustave Eiffel submitted the project ‘Graduate Programs for Doctoral Studies (GP-DS)’, for a budget of €9 million. The aim of the project led by Université Gustave Eiffel, in partnership with Paris-Est Créteil University, École des Ponts ParisTech and the CNRS, is to boost the impact and international attractiveness of training via research. Actions will be coordinated within a Graduate School and implemented via ‘Graduate Programs’.

The first four Graduate Programs to be set up are:
Urban Future
Digital Studies and Innovation for Smart-Cities
Mathematics and computer science
Connected Objects, Devices and Systems (CODS): connecting and sensing the city

Other Graduate Programs will be rolled out by the Graduate School at a later date.

Training in and through research

In terms of training, calls for I-Site projects also pursued their momentum. The second call for projects devoted to training ‘in’ and ‘through’ research closed on 31 January 2020. Geared towards inter-establishment collaborations, the objective of the call was to support teaching projects in response to the Programme School of Excellence action, which aims to intensify research training in the Engineering, Architecture or Master cycles. Seven projects received funding.

On 3 November, the Université Gustave Eiffel Observatory for Teaching Practices organised the second edition of Teaching Day, under the title ‘Exploration and sharing of remote and hybrid teaching practices’. The event took place online and brought together some fifty participants. Speakers presented various tools designed to accompany students and teachers in distance-teaching.