The goal of GRE@T-PIONEeR is to provide resources and courses that
cover a wide range of aspects of nuclear reactor modelling and
physics. Students that take these courses will be the next generation
of nuclear scientists and engineers, providing much-needed skills to
the nuclear energy sector. The courses are also available to people
already working in the sector that want to increase their knowledge
and sharpen their skills.
Each course uses multiple tools to engage with students,
including:
This is explained in further detail below.
The essence of the pedagogical principles of the course offering relies on flipping, i.e., the delivery of some learning resources in an asynchronous self-paced fashion, followed by a set of synchronous sessions. A Moodle-based Learning Management System (LMS) is used for the delivery of all teaching resources. Students are typically given four weeks to complete the necessary asynchronous work, followed by the synchronous sessions typically arranged on five consecutive days, alternatively ten consecutive days (with a weekend in between). Whereas the asynchronous learning phase is entirely online, the synchronous sessions are offered simultaneously onsite and online. The courses are thus hybrid for the onsite students because of the online asynchronous activities, whereas the courses are entirely web-based for the online students.
The asynchronous work consists of (a) reading a set of handbooks specifically written for the courses, (b) watch some short summarizing video lectures aimed at capturing the main concepts presented in the handbooks, (c) answer some quizzes associated to each of the video lectures, and (d) put questions on and participate to a forum discussing the technical aspects of the courses. The synchronous learning phase consists of (a) short summarizing lectures intertwined with (b) quizzes/discussions/Q&As with or without prior group discussions, and (c) more advanced hands-on activities that the students need to work on. The hands-on heavily rely on the use of computer simulation tools and/or the use of training reactors. For the computer simulation tools, three main types of activities having different objectives are given:
Research reactors at 1. the CROCUS
reactor from EPFL (image by Maxime Filliau)
In order to provide accessible and interesting training, especially in
a field as technical and specific as reactor physics and nuclear
reactor safety, the courses, modules and materials are designed
using principles based on robust and demonstrated pedagogical
(educational) concepts and principles. These principles can apply to
many different areas, such as how courses are taught and the design of
the materials. In the traditional format, engineering students are
exposed to new concepts for the first time in class. As a result, the
students cannot dive deeper into the topics and must take the time to
do this later with limited support from the teachers.
According to Bloom’s revised taxonomy for the cognitive domain (seen in the pyramid below), students need to develop various cognitive skills while learning. This process starts from low-order thinking skills, such as remembering and understanding the course concepts, to high-order thinking skills, such as applying, analysing, evaluating the course concepts and then being able to create work themselves. Courses and modules should be designed to enable the students to reach the top of this pyramid and give them the skills needed for the challenges they will face working in the nuclear sector.
Modules are designed so as to tell a cohesive story. This holistic approach is essential for providing critical-thinking skills to the students, while each module goes in-depth into the covered topics. This is in clear contrast with all previous teaching initiatives, where sets of isolated courses were compiled together with no clear through line.
The courses rely on the use of different resources offered
either online or face-to-face, either synchronously (at the same
time) or asynchronously. Various innovative pedagogical
techniques are implemented, with those techniques properly
chosen with respect to the thinking skills to be developed
according to Bloom’s taxonomy for the cognitive domain.
Formative feedback are provided to the students on their
learning during the entire learning sequence.
The implemented ICT tools are:
All tools are accessible within an intuitive Learning Management System, constituting a single entry portal to all materials.
As mentioned above, when students are presented with a new concept for the first time in class, their higher-thinking capacities are not triggered. By implementing a “flipped classroom” where lectures and materials are instead made available to the students on the web and before class, the students can get familiar with the topics and more actively engage during the class.
This can help them understand the topic deeper, allow them to ask questions to clarify areas that were unclear and also to probe and analyse even deeper while the teacher is present. Monitoring this asynchronous learning also provides important information to the teachers, information that can be used to tune the subsequent interactive sessions according to the student needs.
Students participate in engaging activities, either physically on-site or remotely on the web, with the support from the teachers, rather than simply listening to a lecture and completing their activities by themselves outside the classroom (like homework).
The interactive sessions in each course module are offered in a condensed format (well suited for life-long learning) and are organised in dedicated interactive teaching rooms allowing mixing students on-site and students off-site, while fully preserving the interaction possibilities between the two audiences and with the teachers. The core of the active leaning sessions is based on carefully designed hands-on training exercises, heavily using research/training nuclear reactors and computer-based modelling environments.
Both students and teachers can give feedback on the content and implementation of the modules, shaping the courses to suit all audiences and ensure that the education the students receive is of a high-quality. In addition, anonymised or pseudonymised student learning data are gathered and analysed, to better understand how the various resources are used by the students and whether the learning experience can be further improved. The learning analytics data will are used to identify the concepts the students did not fully understand before the interactive sessions. The teachers will thus have the possibility to tune their sessions to the actual student needs.
