"The closure of universities and educational institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a massive use of digital tools in teaching and learning. At the end of this period, teachers did not shelve these tools and computer skills. On the contrary, hybrid teaching (combining face-to-face and online activities), which had already been gaining momentum for several years, became even more firmly rooted in the university landscape".
Margault Sacré, Doctor in Psychological and Educational Sciences at the University of Liège, talks to The Conversation about how digital tools can meet students' needs and support their success.
Importance of formative feedback
"Research has long shown the positive influence of formative feedback, i.e. feedback that aims to inform students of the level at which they are, rather than giving them a grade or ranking them," observes Margault Sacré. "These feedbacks can be given following exercises, assignments or activities carried out as part of the course, and digital tools make it possible to automate them".
This approach enables students to become aware of the gaps that exist between their learning objectives and the current state of their knowledge, and guides them in the actions they need to take to close these gaps. "In this way, formative feedback reinforces self-regulation and enables students to manage their own learning. They can observe their progress through non-academic assessments, and research shows that this mechanism can promote a positive perception of their skills".
Offering students this type of online activity also transforms their relationship with mistakes. "Students are less afraid of making mistakes when they do exercises online, because when they do make a mistake, it's easier for them to go back and do it again and again".
Mobilizing students' intrinsic motivation
Digital tools can also support the feeling of carrying out tasks by personal choice, rather than by constraint.
"Studies suggest that to meet this need for autonomy, it is necessary to mobilize students' intrinsic motivation, in particular by emphasizing the interest of the content taught, fostering a deep understanding of it and making explicit the links with professional practice."
According to Margault Sacré, teachers could also consider :
- provide students with management tools - calendar, timetable, automated reminders - to give them an overview of the course and structure their learning;
- make essential resources available right from the start of the course - enabling them to work and progress at their own pace;
- enable students to record the traces of their learning - ePortfolios, ability to annotate documents, highlight them, add bookmarks...
- provide personalized learning plans based on students' prior learning - individualization or differentiation of learning.
Extending exchanges outside the classroom
"Interpersonal exchanges were sorely missed by students and teachers during the school closures caused by the pandemic, and digital interactions ultimately compensated very little for the lack of face-to-face interactions. When teachers gave their classes by videoconference, they "felt like they were speaking into a vacuum": most students turned off their cameras and microphones, uncomfortable with the idea of showing themselves in front of all the other students".
In the context of hybrid teaching, digital tools can extend or even generate face-to-face interactions, especially when teachers are addressing large cohorts of students.
"These activities can be facilitated by the use of various tools: collaborative spaces with shared documents, instant discussion channels enabling text, voice or video exchanges, and asynchronous discussion forums.
"Teachers are not necessarily trained in these tools, and they develop a low sense of self-efficacy about their use and about computing in general. In some cases, they don't even realize how useful they are. This feeling, coupled with sometimes disastrous experiences during the pandemic, only serves to weaken teachers' use of technology".
Despite this, 60% of teachers (40% in Belgium, 45% in France) take part in professional training courses on the use of digital tools, which shows that, despite the obstacles, teachers are taking charge of their professional development in this area.
Référence :
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Universities: the forced transition to distance learning has shown the extent of the progress to be made
Since March, distance learning has become the norm in universities. A sudden change for which higher education institutions, teachers and students were unequally prepared.Since March, the press has multiplied surveys and testimonies of students: isolation and fatigue. If some congratulate themselves for being well accompanied through their online courses, others deplore hours of cold monologues affixed to slide shows.The forced transition to distance learning has shown the extent of the progress to be made in this area: a majority of teachers have found themselves having to handle new digital tools without having been trained in either technical or pedagogical terms.The shift to digital technology undoubtedly marks the decline of the lecture and accelerates the transition to "reverse lecture": in this system, students learn their courses independently (via online videos, for example) and use the lecture sessions to exchange with the teachers.The profession of educational engineer, until now relatively unrecognized, is now attracting a great deal of interest and demand.
Mars 2020: the confined university goes videoPhilippe Malbos, vice president in charge of digital at Claude-Bernard University in Lyon, describes the switch to distance learning at the time of the first lockdown in March 2020. "Until then, videoconferencing was only used on an ad hoc basis, for meetings within research teams or governance. But the system had never been industrialized. Our practice of distance learning was anecdotal.Since then, the number of connections, courses and resources available online has exploded. The VP rolls out the numbers, " By the second week, we were averaging 700 online meetings per day." By fall 2020, that number had grown to 2,300 meetings and more than 38,000 participants per day on average, for a university with more than 47,500 students and 5,500 staff. During exams in May-June 2020, we even went up to 80,000 connections per day."
39% of students have experienced problems with their internet connection and 17% have had difficulty using digital toolsThe " Student Living Conditions 2020" survey, produced by the Observatoire national de la vie étudiante (OVE), published on January 28, provides an initial insight into the difficulties encountered by students.
69% of students took courses via video conferencing
77% said they had interacted with teachers and 73% said they had received handouts or course materials.
69% of them also had the opportunity to take courses or work meetings via video conferencing.
39% of students have encountered problems with their internet connection and 17% have had difficulty using the digital tools available to them
92% of students surveyed report having a computer or tablet for personal use.
Only 64% said they had a "good internet connection" and 58% had " a workspace of your own (isolated and quiet)".
Disparate investments by institutions to support distance learning According to data collected by the specialized agency AEF, the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin has invested 750,000 euros in the digitization of its courses, for 19,000 students (i.e. 40 euros per student), while in Rouen only 22 euros per student were invested, and 21 euros at the University of Franche-Comté. The gap is even greater with the grandes écoles: Rennes SB says it has invested 104 euros per student, the Léonard-de-Vinci university cluster 133 euros and Essec peaks at 322 euros.These structural inequalities are felt in the students' assessment: according to the survey Student Living Conditions 2020According to the survey, 48% of business school students and 44% of engineering school students were "satisfied" with the educational continuity during the first confinement, compared to 36% of university students.
Educational engineers on the front lineNew figures in higher education, these professionals are training more and more teachers in distance learning technologies.While distance learning was becoming more and more popular in universities and colleges due to lockdown periods, educational engineers were faced with a considerable increase in requests for teacher support,"Technical problems, isolation of students and evaluation methods... We had to set up new videoconferencing tools, support teachers in transforming their courses, respond to technical problems, innovate to maintain distance exams, but also fight against the isolation of students... We had to find emergency solutions," Alexis Gartion (Lab'UA, the educational engineering laboratory of the University of Angers) told L'Etudiant . The technical support to the teachers was also an opportunity to teach them how to develop new online activities, such as MCQs. "Some teachers feel overwhelmed. Our role is to make them more autonomous.The newspaper Le Monde devoted a survey to educational engineers and points to an increased demand from higher education institutions for these professionals, "a scarce resource that they are snatching up as distance learning becomes the norm again, after the ephemeral interlude of a face-to-face start to the school year. We are the linchpins," says Aristide Doucet, digital education engineer at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. "By telephone, e-mail, video conference or by taking control of a teacher's computer, he and his two colleagues have tried to "make new technologies more innate to teachers recruited solely on the quality of their research in their discipline.According to Stéphanie Fleck, head of the "educational engineering" master's program at the University of Lorraine. "The pedagogical engineers are there to tell the teachers what pitfalls to avoid in order not to lose students online. For example, administering a short MCQ every twenty to twenty-five minutes of class allows them to check if they are paying attention.In France, a few universities offer degrees in educational engineering.
"The student digital divide is not a myth""The crisis has reminded us that the digital divide among students is not a myth. Not everyone is equal in front of the computer tool, in terms of equipment but also in terms of practices," said Frédéric Fleury, president of Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL), in December 2020, in an interview with AEF info.To remedy students' equipment and connection problems, the university launched "Tous connectés à l'UCBL". The university invested 1.3 million euros in this four-phase operation, which benefited 2,600 students. This assistance took the form of financial support for the purchase of a computer. " This was the preferred solution because it was complicated for us to place massive orders, as the market would be completely saturated by spring 2020. An envelope was also allocated to the loan of 4G keys for students experiencing connection difficulties. The task of identifying these students in difficulty was entrusted to the student representatives. 80 students were also hired to interface with the institution.At the University of Rouen, during the lockdown, a measure of this type was conducted as a matter of urgency after sending 30,000 SMS messages to qualify the needs of students. About 100 computers were distributed, as well as phones for about 100 to 120 students and 4G cards for about 20.
The regions have financed, in March 2020, in emergency, the digital equipment of students or universitiesThe Ile de France region offered 10,000 computers to universities. Students could ask their university to borrow a computer if theirs was being repaired, while waiting to buy one or sometimes to finish the year. Students with scholarships in their first year of studies could also apply for a "digital check" worth 100 euros.The Occitanie region has distributed 5,000 computers and 2,000 4G keys to students on scholarship. In addition to individual aid, the region has mobilized 3 million euros to digitally equip the region's universities in order to improve the quality of videoconferencing courses. The region has provided easier access to its network of third-party sites.The New Aquitaine Region has donated 1,500 computers to universities to distribute to scholarship and first-year students who need them.The Grand Est region has voted to allocate 5 million euros to the universities and Crous to develop access to third places for students.The Normandy region has provided 1.8 million euros to the universities of Caen and Rouen for digital investments in order to increase the capacity of distance learning: acquisition of digital teaching equipment, equipment for video recording, components to help create and share interactive video content.The Centre Val de Loire region has made a stock of computers available to universities so that students in need can borrow them. The region also undertook to recover computers from private or public companies, entrusted them to structures to recondition them before inviting students to go themselves to these structures to participate in the renovation of computers.The Pays de la Loire region has voted 700,000 euros in support for universities to fight against the digital divide among students.
November: creation of 20,000 student jobs for tutoring missionsThe government announced on November 27 the creation of 20,000 additional tutors, for a period of 4 months.As upper-year students, their mission will be to accompany their first and second year peers in their studies (help with documentary research, help with the completion of TDs, appropriation of the digital workspace, etc.), but also to act as an interface with the teachers and all the services available to students (social, health, digital, schooling, etc.)
November: SFR and Emmaüs Connect join forces to help studentsDuring the first lockdown, SFR and Emmaüs Connect implemented an emergency plan alongside the Ministry of Education and Youth by donating 75,000 prepaid top-ups with unlimited calls and SMS, 750,000 GB of data and 20,000 phones and smartphones for young people and people in precarious situations.In November, SFR and Emmaüs Connect, in partnership with the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, launched an action plan for young people in precarious situations, with students as a priority. As part of this plan, SFR is donating 20,000 prepaid top-ups, 240,000 GB of data, 3,000 smartphones and 1,500 4G pocket boxes.
Stimulus package: $35 million to strengthen distance learning capacity and digital services for studentsThe Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) allocated funds in June 2020 to enable universities to equip themselves: 21 million euros following a call for projects for the hybridization of training.69 projects were submitted and 15 of them, involving nearly 90 institutions, were selected. 19 other projects will be supported by the MESRI via a seed fund.The stimulus package, released in September, includes a 35 million euro envelope 6.5 billion allocated to higher education and research to develop hybridization and digital university equipment.
"The hybridization of training aims to allow institutions to provide teaching in both face-to-face and distance learning formats.
Digital platforms are being developed in parallel to deploy a controlled and sustainable virtual classroom solution, to offer a learning management system (LMS of the Moodle type) and to set up a simple webinar solution designed to conduct synchronous training for a large number of students.
Support will be offered to teachers to help them develop their teaching practices and master the new tools, through the organization of training sessions and the establishment of a support team.
The digital services offered to students will make it possible to carry out all administrative procedures remotely and in a dematerialized way.
A virtual backpack of the student will also be created, including his identity, schooling and skills, via an e-portofolio.
Third places are now making their way into universities
Proto204 at Paris-Saclay, UL factory at the University of Limoges, La centrif' at Cité Descartes, Ludomaker at the University of Paris 13, UBee Lab at the University of Bordeaux, and La fabrique de l'innovation at the University of Lyon are just some of the names given to these academic third places that are springing up near schools and universities. "Somewhere between a coworking space and an innovation ground, designed as a fablab or an incubator, these third places allow students, researchers or teachers to enrich their skills in order to carry out their projects.Still hybrid, these collaborative workspaces bring together students, entrepreneurs, young graduates, PhD students, teachers and companies, with the sole aim of creating innovative projects.(Re)creating social links"One of the primary objectives of third places is to encourage exchanges. Third places are as suitable for teachers looking to share their experiences with peers as for students looking for a network for their future professional life. As for young freelancers, they can get out of the isolation they can sometimes suffer from".More and more university libraries are also adding workrooms or meeting rooms to meet the changing needs of their users.An airlock between the academic and professional worlds"Whatever their form, third places are intended to create a transitional space between the university and professional life. At the University of Nice, the third place is both a space for social innovation, where bridges between students and neighborhoods are encouraged, as well as a platform for orientation, professional insertion and commitment."The Toulouse 3-Paul-Sabatier University's third-location center is a pre-incubator. It offers students an alternative to traditional training courses."These non-academic third places are making more and more room for future graduates. They can welcome, as in La Colloc in Lorient, entrepreneurs, organize conferences or coworking workshops to put students in contact with professionals.
Online teaching: 39% of students had problems connecting and 17% had difficulties using the digital tools available to them
Since March, distance learning has become the norm in universities. A sudden change for which higher education institutions, teachers and students were unequally prepared.The "Student Living Conditions 2020" survey , produced by the Observatoire national de la vie étudiante (OVE), sheds light on the difficulties encountered by students.This national survey was conducted between June 26 and July 8, 2020. The results correspond to the analysis of 6,130 questionnaires that were sufficiently complete to be exploited.69% of students took courses via video conferencingDuring the lockdown period, traditional teaching modalities (face-to-face classes) were modified for a large majority of students.77% said they had interacted with teachers and 73% said they had received handouts or course materials.69% of them also had the opportunity to attend classes or work meetings via videoconference. There are significant differences between the types of institutions attended:94% of students in the classes préparatoires en grandes écoles (CPGE) attended classes or meetings via videoconference, 81% in engineering school but only 63% in university.The lockdown was an opportunity for 87% of students to interact with other students in their course.39% of students have experienced internet connection problems
92% of students surveyed report having a computer or tablet for personal use. Only 64% say they have a "good internet connection" and 58% have a "workspace of your own (isolated and quiet)."According to the National Observatory of Student Life, "39% of students consider the training provided during confinement to be satisfactory or very satisfactory, compared to 25% of students who consider it to be unsatisfactory or not satisfactory (and 36% moderately satisfactory).However, the proportion of students rating training as unsatisfactory or poorly satisfactory varied greatly by containment conditions: 42% of students without a personal computer, 34% of students without a quiet space to work, and 33% of students without a good internet connection were unsatisfied or poorly satisfied with their training during containment.
If the organization of time and personal work is the area where the most students have encountered difficulties (51%), Internet connection problems (39%) come second. (51% of them), internet connection problems (39%) come second.17% also said they had difficulty using the digital tools available to them.Successful completion of exams depends on containment conditionsIf, on the whole, 42% of the students declare themselves satisfied or very satisfied with the adaptation of the evaluation modalities during the confinement and if 50% of them declare not to have met any difficulty during the second semester exams, 23% mention difficulties related to the internet connection and 16% the connection to the platform or to the exam server."The National Observatory of Student Life concludes that "distance learning, which has been implemented in most institutions, has made it possible to reveal new inequalities within the student population: with the development of distance learning courses, having a personal computer, a good Internet connection or a quiet environment, all variables that are no doubt dependent on social origin, have become particularly essential for success in higher education.
