Students' union | EPFL Graph Search

A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organizational activities, representation, and academic support of the membership. In the United States, student union often only refers to a physical building owned by the university with the purpose of providing services for students without a governing body. This building is also referred to as a student activity center, although the Association of College Unions International (largely US-based) has hundreds of campus organizational members. Outside the US, student union and students' union more often refer to a representative body, as distinct from a student activity centre building. Purpose Depending on the country, the purpose, assembly, method, and implementation of the group might vary. Universally, the purpose of students'

Promoting Computational Thinking Skills in Non-Computer Science Students Gamifying Computational Notebooks to Increase Student Engagement

Juan Carlos Farah, Pascal Felber, Denis Gillet, Adrian Christian Holzer, Marc Lafuente Martinez

Computational thinking (CT) skills are becoming increasingly relevant for future professionals across all domains, beyond computer science (CS). As such, an increasing number of bachelor and masters programs outside of the computer science discipline integrate CT courses within their study program. At the same time, tools such as notebooks and interactive apps designed to support the teaching of programming concepts are becoming ever more popular. However, in non-CS majors, CT might not be perceived as essential, and students might lack the motivation to engage with such tools in order to acquire solid CT skills. This paper presents a field study conducted with 115 students during a full semester on a novel computational notebook environment. It evaluates computational notebooks and CT skills in an introductory course on information technology for first-year undergraduates in business and economics. A multidimensional evaluation approach makes use of pre- and post-test surveys, lectures, and self-directed lab sessions tracking analytics. Our findings suggest that, in the process of learning CT for non-CS students, engagement in active learning activities can be a stronger determinant of learning outcomes than initial knowledge. Furthermore, gamifying computational notebooks can serve as a strong driver of active learning engagement, even more so than initial motivational factors.

2022

Challenges and Opportunities in Integrating Interactive Chatbots into Code Review Exercises: A Pilot Case Study

Juan Carlos Farah, Denis Gillet, Adrian Christian Holzer

While chatbots are commonly used to support software developers with repetitive tasks, their use in programming education is still limited, particularly for students in non-technical domains. To better understand the potential for chatbots to support programming education, we conducted a pilot case study aimed at integrating interactive chatbots into an online lesson on programming best practices. Using an educational application simulating the code review process, students were introduced to Python code style guidelines as a part of their practical work for a course on computational thinking aimed at non-technical graduate students. Our mixed-method analysis sheds light on the opportunities and challenges affecting the implementation of our chatbot integration and its potential for adoption in programming education. While we identified opportunities to guide students through predefined conversational pathways, provide students with personalized content, allow students to request support from the instructor, and incorporate humor into the learning process, we also encountered challenges involving configuration, repeated exposures, and limited scripts. These findings have implications that affect the design considerations of the technological and pedagogical aspects of our chatbot integration, which are relevant to educators and researchers in digital education looking to incorporate similar chatbot technologies into their practice. Strategies for harnessing these opportunities and addressing these challenges in future work are discussed.

IATED2022

The Library of the Rolex Learning Center : considered as the «best place to be» on the Campus @ EPFL.

David Aymonin

The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne is a science and technology university building its « Rolex Learning Center », which will be inaugurated in 2010. Point of entry to EPFL, the Rolex Learning Center (RLC) will be a place where people canl learn, obtain information, and live. The RLC is built as a huge modern academic library, multifunctional, i.e. with shops, restaurants, conference room, students facilities, and many other facilities and services. It will of course, house both paper and electronic collections of documents, information desks and loan services like in any Information Commons of today. Nowadays, it seems that when considering the construction of a new academic library or the renovation of an existing building, one must try to reach this kind of critical mass of services and activities, otherwise crowds will never come. It can be explained by what is sometines called the « cafeteria effect » : a place allowing exchange, discussion, collaborative work, socialization among faculty and students. This is what people are looking for. It is therefore necessary, as librarians, to think deeply about the embedding of such contradictory and complementary functions into and around our information spaces. Drinks, food, comfort, long opening hours, plenty of working places - silent or noisy - are a must in such a library. Equally necessary are digital and printing facilities, wireless and wired internet acess, and open stacks for books, which can be automatically borrowed via selfcheck stations. Then add a pinch of relaxing and social activities, such as a bookshop, students associations offices, or cultural activities, etc. Put in the middle of your building a library desk animated by librarians able to give help on any subject or fix any problem, and you’ve got it: a library of the 21st century. This presentation will analyse the EPFL environment, the concept of the RLC and the steps which underpin its construction, from the point of view of the Head Librarian. I hope to share with the audience, some of the thoughs and findings that emerged during this unique experience, and reflect the transformation of our mission.

2009

The Library of the Rolex Learning Center : considered as the «best place to be» on the Campus @ EPFL.

David Aymonin

2009