General mail 1: 16/12/2005 18: 23 Some information and preliminary works

GENERAL MAIL 1: 16/12/2005 18:23

Some information and preliminary works

In order to begin to work as a network, I send to you some preliminary information and preliminary tasks to manage.

In order to avoid to send you too many e-mails, I send to you a large one combining several points.

On the points beginning by ACTION TO DO, it means that you have something to do, as soon as possible, please :-) , I would say the OPTIMAL DEADLINE could be around 15th January (please don't forget the consortium is very large, 110 partners, and so the analysis of documents take some time)...

On the points beginning with INFORMATION, it is just Information ;-) ...
1) INFORMATION (recall)

I invite you for the first general meeting of EIE-Surveyor which will be held in Santander (Spain) on Saturday 25th February 2005 with the following preliminary agenda.

8. 45 Welcome

9 Presentation of the project (overview, deadlines)

Presentation of the financial aspects

------------------------------------------------------------------------

9.30 PRESENTATION OF TASKS

12.00 Everybody will choose a working group (relative to the tasks)

12. 30 LUNCH

14 Working groups (with rapporteurs)

15.30 Feedback from the working groups (organisation of the tasks, activities during the year, expected outputs by the end of October 2006)

16.30 BREAK

16.45 General synthesis

17.30 feedback from the monitoring group

2) INFORMATION (recall)

- I recall that EAEEIE (www.eaeeie.org) is an association which is a strong sponsor of our thematic network. This society organises its annual conference in Craiova, Rumania, 1-3 June 2006, http://robotics.ucv.ro/eaeeie/ and we are all invited to submit papers.

I would like to mention the fact that there will be some working group meetings of the EIE-Surveyor project which will be held in Craiova, in conjunction with the conference => this is an added opportunity to submit a paper there (optimisation of costs).

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3) INFORMATION, Domain, website and mailing lits

We have a domain for the network www.eie-surveyor.org, with a website and a mailing list ([e-mail]).

This mailing list is moderated by myself (it is just to avoid the propagation of viruses or spams, if any). It means that if you send an e-mail, you may wait for some hours before this e-mail is sent to the list.

PLEASE USE THE MAILING LIST ONLY IF IT IS NECESSARY SINCE WE ARE MANY USERS SHARING IT

4) ACTION TO DO, Registration on the eie-surveyor website

The EIE-Surveyor website will be used both as a managering tool for the managing team to manage the project and for all the members to share documents, data (presently are available the full application of the project, the feedback from rapporteurs, ...)...

In order to update the data relative to the members of the project, I need your contribution:
- Could you please connect yourself to the website, with the login "surveyor" and the password "surveyor".

http://www.eie-surveyor.org/

- Then click on the "MEMBERS" button on the left menu.

- Then click on the "New Member" button on the main page.

- Then fill the form

* Enter your first name

* Enter your last name (family name)

* Choose a password (as you want, but with alphanumeric characters only (ex: Mich7ael), NO special characters)

* Confirm your password (PLEASE NOTE SOMEWHERE YOUR PASSWORD IN ORDER TO USE IT AGAIN)

* Enter your e-mail (the one you want to be addressed with, within the project activities)

* Then you SHOULD mention if you are the contact of your university for the project (there is one, at least one and not more, contact person per university)

All the fields above are compulsory.

- Then fill the non obligatory fields:

* Phone, in the following international form: [phone]

* Fax, in the same international form

* Institution

* Address

* City

* Zipcode

* Country

- You can choose then if you want to receive or not a confirmation e-mail.
- Once you have registered (clicking on save), you login will be displayed (normally 6 letters for the family name and one or two letters for the first name, example: Paul McCartney would receive mccartp), PLEASE NOTE SOMEWHERE THE LOGIN WITH YOUR PASSWORD, BOTH WILL BE NEEDED TO CONNECT AGAIN IN THE INTRANET...)
Then logout and you can login with your login and password in order to make modifications, for example.
If you meet any problem, please let me know.
5) INFORMATION : Managing team of the project, 1st managing team meeting

For the first year, I have organised a managing team, trying to have a geographical equilibrium.

This managing team is composed of :
Olivier BONNAUD (FR)

Michael HOFFMANN (DE)

Gert JERVAN (EE)

Jan LIGUS (SK)

Maria João MARTINS (PT)

Tony WARD (UK)

This managing team met in Lyon (9-10 December 2005), together with some other colleagues and BEST representative in order to organise the lauching of the project (minutes of this managing team meeting will be available soon on the website of the project).


6) ACTION TO DO

Please could you Check and update the attached file (list of actions partners) =>

The form to fill is page 7 to 9 (the previous pages are a description of the actions and the explanation of the codes of the tasks).

Please correct in red font this form (page 7 to 9) for your university (if you are several persons interested or contributing, please discuss all together and converge to a common view).

I will use these forms in order to organise the first meeting in Santander, so please fill it PERTINENTLY and ON TIME (many thanks !).

7) ACTION TO DO

In order to have an overview of the dissemination possibility of our whole consortium,

could you please let me know if you are a member of an association, or if you have a contact with a potentially interested association

If yes, could you please fill this information concerning this society (for each society, if needed):

/Name of body/

/Link person (in the assciation)

/

/Description of activities/

/Countries covered/

/Web site/

/Why is this link of interest to EIE-Surveyor/

/Information of interest to the project/

/Potential dissemination action this association could be intersted in

/
Could you please let me know if you are a member of an accreditation board (for each board, if needed):

/Name of body/

/Link person (in the assciation)

/

/Description of activities/

/Countries covered/

/Web site/

/Why is this link of interest to EIE-Surveyor/

/Information of interest to the project/

/Potential dissemination action this association could be intersted in

/
In order to have an overview of the potential participation of partners into conferences, could you please give me the name of the conferences you have participated in, or you plan to attend, from 1st October 2005 to 30th September 2006, connected with the project?

......................

......................

......................

8) INFORMATION (Money !)

As far as the money is concerned. We have get from the European Comission a global grant of 400 480 Euro for an approved budget of 1 250 769 Euro

(this is less than expected, see the full application form in the intranet of the website).

After discussion during the managing team meeting, we will have the opportunity to organise one General meeting per year, plus other working group meetings.

We will reimburse travel and accomodation for this meetings, but respecting one IMPORTANT condition.

The project is based on CO-FINANCING (partly the E.C., partly the institutions (for example staff costs)).

Each of us will have to provide financial documents, in fact three parts:

- actual expenses (done for the meetings), reimbursed by the project (co-financing from the E. Commission)

- other travel, accomodation, registration, and other costs expenses, done for activities connected to the project (participation to conferences), not reimbursed (co-financing from your institution)

- staff costs for you and other colleagues, who work on the project, not reimbursed (co-financing from your institution).

We will be available to reimburse the "reimbursed" part only if we received the financial pieces for both the "reimbursed" and "non-reimbursed" parts.

This is an important point, if we want to be able to use all the money given by the commission.

I hope it is more or less understandable, please contact me if it is not clear.

Pr. Jean-Marc THIRIET

Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble

EIE-Surveyor Coordinator

APPENDIX: LIST OF ACTIONS FOR THE PARTNERS (extract from the Full Application)

2. Rationale, Objectives, Target Groups (maximum 3 pages)
2.1 Explain the rationale of and background to the project (current situation, previous or preparatory work, the results of any needs analysis undertaken etc.). You may attach appropriate but succinct supporting documents.

Today, in various European countries, work is in progress to put the curricula in conformity with the Bologna-process scheme. The aim of this process is to enhance and favour the mobility of students and academic staff, to facilitate the recognition of diploma all around Europe, and to attract students coming from outside Europe thanks to a better readability and comparability of degrees and their contents in Europe.

In the various European countries, universities are implementing new curricula conforming to the Bologna-process. Some of them (Italy, Czech Rep., some French universities) are actually running it and others are on a reflection stage .

At the same time, the European Commission programmes encourage HEIs to work together in the development of common or shared curricula (see Curriculum Development Programme) and notably at the Master level to improve the emergence of international degrees and to tend to Excellence under the frame of the ERASMUS MUNDUS programme.

We propose a new thematic network which focuses on the fields of "Electrical and Information Engineering" (EIE) and Applications dealing with the aspects described above. The aim of the project is to facilitate the recognition of diploma all around Europe, in order to enhance and favour the mobility of students and academic staff, of previous students once in their professional life, and to improve the readability and comparability of degrees and their contents in Europe so as to attract students coming from outside Europe.

The background of the project consists in the results of the THEIERE project (www.eaeeie.org/theiere) during which was set up an observatory on the implementation of the Bologna process in Europe, in Electrical and Information Engineering.

This observatory resulted in a monograph (Under the co-ordination of J.M. THIRIET & M.J. MARTINS - Monograph: Towards the harmonisation of Electrical and Information Engineering Education in Europe" - Ed. EAEEIE, August 2003, 350 pages, ISBN, book version: ISBN 972-97738-2-3, ISBN: CD-ROM version: ISBN 972-97738-3-1) which was published and sent all around Europe (700 copies).

The other main outputs of the THEIERE project are the development and proposition of pedagogical resources in Electrical and Information Engineering (http://www.eaeeie.org/theiere/pedagogical_resources.html), also with the aim of harmonising the curricula for ODL and life long learning processes.

2.2 Define the concrete aims and objectives of the project and describe the ways in which the situation set out under 2.1 above will be changed and the needs set out in 2.1 addressed by the project.

EIE is actually the common substrate of all the most advanced technologies. So an important point is to get an observatory on the implementation of the Bologna-process in EIE: a tool for feedback, but also for colleagues, some frames to follow the advancement state of this process with a European overview, the proposition of tools to help colleagues (example of good practices, guidelines). The aim of the project is to become a reference point in EIE.

The general aim is to enhance the attractiveness of ERA (European Research Area), the links with industry, and to participate to the continuous evolution of HE in Europe. It is also important to maintain and enhance the European dimension thanks to the involvement of many actors from various participating countries.
To answer to these needs, the aims of this proposed thematic network are:

1. to implement the "Tuning project"¹ approach in EIE (TASK A.4 in the following), complementing the work done in other disciplines by the Tuning project itself and other thematic networks; the aim of this Tuning Approach is to identify and quantify the fields which have to be taught to a student, the generic competences (Line 1 of the tuning approach) as well as the subject-specific competences obtained (Line 2 of the Tuning approach): that is to register the competences in EIE (which is a broader concept than skills( => see Document on physics from theTuning project where competences as points of references for curricula design and evaluation). The pedagogical approaches should be taken into account at this level, for example Problem Based Learning or Project Based Learning approaches. In this direction, some preliminary works have been done during the THEIERE project concerning a frame for a bachelor in Electrical and Information Engineering. In this reflection, we would try to implement a system of credits, both for initial degrees and LLL (Life Long Learning). The outputs will be some frames and guidelines for the development of contents, at the bachelor and master level (see also Tuning project).

Some reflections will be achieved also on "Dipploma Supplement" (DS). DS has been proposed in order to facilitate European recognition. In the field of EIE and for the various levels (bachelor, master, PhD), a template could be designed.

We are in contact with the Tuning Project and Pr. Hendrik Ferdinande (Tuning project) will be our "conseiller".

2. to incorporate Internet-based educational resources (e-learning) for EIE education (TASK A.5). For this purpose it is necessary first to have web available specific materials, covering the required EIE topics, and second computer supported tools to use these materials in a suitable way for attaining specific learning objectives and to allow different learning strategies (project based learning, collaborative/cooperative learning). This task deals with e-learning, for life-long learning as well as initial education. To achieve the task’s aim we propose two actions:

- to set up a mediatheque of pedagogical resources available through internet in EIE, as a census of existing resources. The aim is here to implement Quality in education to pedagogical resources in EIE available via Internet. This means to select and classify educational materials for EIE in the basis of:

• 
  the quality of content in relation with the concepts, models and competences required in EIE.
  
• 
  the potential effectiveness as teaching-learning tools for EIE education,
  

AND to make them available to the EIE community. The work will be a continuation of the activities related in Task 2 of the THEIERE project and completed with the selected resources.

- to design tools implemented in web-based environments for using the resources online: Individual tools, in order to allow the user to evaluate their learning process, and group work tools in order to foster the collaboration among different users.

To connect tools and materials, some learning activities will be designed to be implemented during the last year in the dissemination phase of the project. Then, students connected from different countries will use the material available in virtual classes throughout Europe. They will be guided by one tutor that can be a professor member of the TN. The use of these materials in the context of specific learning activities will be monitored in order to evaluate their quality as educational materials as well as learning fostering resources (validation with end users: teachers, learners).

E-learning could be considered as a pedagogical methodology in the sense that, even for students in initial curricula, the fact to be able to use such an approach and tools will give the student the possibility to become autonomous, once in the professional life, to learn by themselves.

This task will allow also to complete the existing mediatheque in pedagogical resources, depending on the needs.

3. to hold an inquiry on what are the jobs in Electrical and Information Engineering (TASK A.6). There is presently a certain disaffection of students for scientific studies in many European countries. In order to enhance the attractiveness of our disciplines, we propose to investigate on the applications and to develop some tools (communication tools) which can be useful to advertise on our disciplines and their interests (see also Career-Space programme www.career-space.com for ICT fields and relevant results from the LEONARDO project "VALEURTECH"). In this point, we would identify what are the concrete links (and what are the kinds of links) existing between industry and the EIE curricula in the various European countries (concrete links such as participation of employers into the curricula or participation of students in professional periods in industry, or indirect links such as the participation of representative of the industrial field into the definition or accreditation of curricula…). The communication tools described previously should be designed for young students or pupils, in order to attract them to scientific curricula. This work could be achieved with other thematic networksin the same field* ARCHIPELAGOS( and also scientific and engineering associations (for instance some activities are presently on the way within the French Club EEA, an EIE Association at the national level, EAEEIE, IEEE education chapter (region 8) at the European level).

4. to tend to a methodology for accreditation (TASK A.7): for that, a preliminary study of the existing accreditation procedures has been done during the THEIERE project. We should go further and complete the study in order to have a better view on the way the accreditation is done in the various countries, this point is strategic if we want to go further in the recognition of degrees and diploma all around Europe (we will study the way the American Board functions for the accreditation). We will provide guidelines of good practices of accreditation based on the required competences and industry needs.

5. to reflect on how to advertise on the existing curricula in EIE in Europe (TASK A.8), in order to attract students coming from outside Europe. The monograph and the portal proposed in TASK A.1 should be a good tool for this purpose; we should identify various organisations which can be helpful for this "advertisement". Related to this task, we can provide some answers to the fact that some countries are suffering due to the unbalanced flow of students in the framework of international exchange projects (e.g. Erasmus): the number of students going out is >> than coming in. We should identify reasons for such a situation and devise means to improve the balance. So the main aim of this action is to increase the attractiveness of European higher education area, both for students from outside Europe to come in and for students inside Europe to be mobile.

6. to make a census of the existing multinational multilingual curricula in EIE (TASK A.2). The aim is to identify how are organised the studies, how are managed the lingual and cultural aspects, and possibly what is the part dedicated to distant learning. The main outputs will be available in the monograph and the portal described in part 8 below. (see also: "Christian Tauch and Andrejs Rauhvargers, ‘’Survey on Master Degrees and Joint Degrees in Europe’’, September 2002"). We propose to contribute as the proposition of a guideline of good practices in the development of multinational curricula in EIE (also Integration of relevant results from the LEONARDO project "VALEURTECH").

7. to identify and let know "Excellence regions" in some specialities of EIE and applications (TASKS A.3), thanks to a focus on master and PhD specialities. This work could be partly based on the study: "European University Association EUA DOCTORAL PROGRAMMES PROJECT", starting time March 2004. Another interesting point for us in this action will be the way PhD studies are organised in EIE and their adaptation to industry needs. In this action, we will discute on what are the criteria to define Excellence.

8. to implement a survey of the Bologna process in EIE at the bachelor level, at the master level but also at the PhD level (TASK A.1) (relations with the TNP "Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe TREE" for example). The activities will be the finalisation and update of the maps of European undergraduate and postgraduate studies: a monograph² has been achieved during the THEIERE project (2000-2003), but some countries remain to be completed, some information needs to be updated because the situation is always evolving and the PhD studies should be added, together with the identification of the existing links between masters and PhDs, taking into account the master courses which will prepare the students for PhD studies. The completion and updating of the data of the portal (see prototype at www.eaeeie.org/theiereyp) will be achieved at the same time. The main outputs will be the update and completion of the monograph (1^st version available end 2003) and of the portal.

We are in contact with TREE thematic network within the frame of the "Archipelago" working group (participation of four persons from our previous Thematic Network THEIERE in the techno-TN 2004, in Brussels, even if THEIERE was not granted in 2003-2004…).

TASKS A1 and A5 will extend and update actions initiated during the former THEIERE project.

TASKS A2, A3, A4, A6, A7, A8 are new tasks, all connected with actions aiming to have a better understanding of the organisation of the education of EIE in Europe and to propose guides of best practices for all these actions, and to elaborate communication tools towards students (young students (undergraduate for masters, scholars for bachelors) inside Europe, students outside Europe).

TASKS	Academic year 2004-2005	Academic year 2005-2006	Academic year 2006-2007
1. TASK A.4	Analysis of the generic and specific competences vs. contents of curricula, for bachelors, masters in EIE, with the TUNING methodology.	Redaction of guidelines "Tuning in EIE"	Dissemination and validation of the guideline content (with the help of professional bodies and accreditation boards)
2. TASK A.5	Census of existing educational resources in EIE Definition of a quality evaluation procedure	Implementation of the quality evaluation procedure on some resources. Design and set up the mediatheque, from the existing and evaluated pedagogical resources.	Presentation of the results Design of learning activities using resources previously selected. Create a students control group to use and evaluate the proposed materials
3. TASK A.6	Census of the jobs, study of other programmes, choice of pertinent jobs Elaboration of a pertinent communication strategy (targets, tools,…)	Analysis of the existing links between industry and curricula. Census of these links	Dissemination
4. TASK A.7^3	Census of the accreditation boards, contact with them in order to identify their methodologies	Analysis of the (some) procedures, general synthesis, proposition of a common guideline for EIE	Validation by some accreditation boards
5. TASK A.8	Design of a communication strategy and Continuous action: identification of pertinent targets, and communication tools		Realisation and dissemination of the communication tool (leaflet, CD, DVD…)
6. TASK A.2	Census of the existing degrees	Deepen analysis of the content and organisation of multilingual curricula	Integration of data into the monograph
7. TASK A.3	Census of the existing PhDs	Deepen analysis of the organisation and links with industry	Integration into the monograph
8. TASK A.1	Completion of the study, integration of PhD	Update of the monograph and portal	Dissemination

As a reflection group, the thematic network partnership has also to be considered as an incubator of proposals for developing international European master programmes, within the frame of Curricula Development programmes or for tending to some Excellence masters in EIE (ERASMUS MUNDUS programme). It is planned to implement some curricula parallely to the life of this thematic network proposition.

2.3 Explain what you consider to be innovative about the project, namely in relation to defining or building a European dimension.

It is essential for European HE survival to maintain the level of quality, while being open to new developments which occur very fast in our areas. We should also foster continuous education.

The analysis of required knowledge in EIE speciality associated with guidelines for the development of contents for bachelor, master and PhD levels, the definition of a coherent European credit accumulation system and the design of pedagogical resources available through Internet so as to improve the level of quality of our curricula and to increase the exchange of students and colleagues in European countries, these are parts of the innovation brought by the project.

We should provide the European Commission, the colleagues, the students, with a general view of the implementation of the Bologna-process in EIE in Europe, provide colleagues with some guidelines in order to propose comparable curricula in EIE and also to share good practices for initial students and LLL. We should also provide the extra-European world with a clear and understandable view of the curricula available in Europe in our discipline in order to be really attractive⁵.

The web available resources selected will provide educational materials for EIE education that will be guaranteed from a quality point of view (a reference point), thanks to the external assessment and validation proposed in partnership with some associations, which are partners of the project.

2.4 Indicate, if applicable, the main pedagogical and didactical approaches and concepts which will be promoted by means of the project.

We plan to focus on competences in the Tuning project approach (TASK A.4), student centred approach (project based learning…), quality in learning in the various activities, specially the activities dealing with quality (TASK A.5). We will also continue the development of pedagogical resources in EIE (to complete the existing mediatheques) and implement a quality assessment in some of these resources.

2.5 Specify the direct beneficiaries of the results or those that will implement the outputs from the project, both among and beyond the participating institutions.

Electrical and information engineering (EIE) is the thematic area targeted, as well as applications of EIE.

These project targets are the teachers and researchers in Higher Education institutions, for the definition of new curricula in EIE, and the students (direct users of the degrees), and the employers (users of the former students, once in their professional life), both inside and outside Europe. There are not any important differences between participating and non participating institutions as far as the use of the outputs of the project are concerned, since all the outputs will be available freely.

The various target groups will be also some associations such as SEE, IEE, IEEE, Ordem dos Engenheiros, CNISF (comité national des scientifiques français) … as well as associations of former students in various universities or engineering schools.