The ePrep Community of Practice (ePrep CoP)

The ePrep Community of Practice (ePrep CoP), arisen from the existing ePrep community of interest born in 2002, was officially launched in Sousse, Tunisia, on the occasion of the first ePrep Thematic Seminar (October 2006).

Members of the ePrep CoP are teachers in "Classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles" (CPGEs) , or representatives from universities, research institutes, training organisations, from France and French-speaking countries, all interested in the domain of ICT (information and communication technologies) for enhancing international and social access to the "Grandes écoles".

The PALETTE project of which ePrep is a partner supported the first steps of this emerging CoP, analysed the needs of its members and proposed them to use advanced PALETTE tools and scenarios in order to more efficiently work together in the development of the various ePrep objectives.

The ePrep CoP is an open community sharing values like curiosity and open-mindedness, mutual respect and consideration, involvement and team spirit.

The member list of the ePrep Community of Practice is available on this Web site (in French).

The activities and tools of the ePrep Community of Practice can be described in four points (click below to directly access the sections you wish):

• ePrep Thematic Seminars as instruments for the CoP development
• Exploratory projects now developed in an operational way
• Other exploratory projects
• Tools: participative design and training sessions
• The life of the ePrep CoP

 

ePrep Thematic Seminars as instruments for the CoP development

Since the launching of the CoP at the first ePrep Thematic Seminar (Sousse, October 2006), the ePrep Thematic Seminars, every year, are important meetings for CoP members.

In 2006, the Community has defined several projects to be conducted in an exploratory way. The Thematic Seminars in Lyon (November 2007) and Beijing (October 2008) were an opportunity to validate the development of these projects. The Thematic Seminar in Paris (October 2009) concluded to the development in an operational way of two of these projects. These two projects will be officially launched on the occasion of the 2010 Thematic Seminar, at the Sénat, in Paris (see the section Projects below).

The ePrep Thematic Seminars are also the occasion to organise participative design sessions involving the ePrep CoP members and the designers of the tools chosen by CoP (see the section Tools below).

Finally, the ePrep Thematic Seminars, as friendly meetings, are an important part of the CoP life (see the section Life of the CoP below).

 

Exploratory projects now developed in an operational way

Since the beginning of 2010, two projects successfully developed in an exploratory way by the ePrep Community of Practice have associated Ecole Polytechnique / ParisTech, ESSEC and ePrep to be developed in an operational way. These projects are the Francophone platform and the Wikiprépas Web site, now developed in the framework of the SILLAGES initiative.

Francophone Platform

In its exploratory phase, the purpose of the Francophone platform project, launched in 2006, was to propose in free access pedagogical content for CPGEs and similar establishments in France and French-speaking countries. This content was created by CPGE teachers members of the ePrep CoP, and was uploaded on the platform under a Creative Commons License.

In the early 2010, the Francophone platform, using the Intersession platform under a CeCILL license in the framework of a partnership with Omeric, hosted by ParisTech, offers more than 2300 pages of pedagogical content (the more often pdf files in SCORM format), including two XML modules (a XHTML/MathML Physics course and a SMIL History course) developed in 2008 in cooperation with PALETTE researchers.

Associated to the Web editor Amaya and the multimedia authoring tool LimSee3 for editing XML content, the Francophone platform is an example of "good practices".

From now on, the Francophone platform project is to be developed in an operational way, beyond CPGEs, for enhancing international and social access to the "Grandes écoles", and is renamed the SILLAGES Platform.

In the same time, the cooperation with the French "Universités numériques thématiques" (UNT) is launched through the indexation of the scientific resources of the platform according to the UNT standard, thanks to Unisciel and Omeric.

Wikiprépas

In its exploratory phase, the purpose of the Wikiprépas project, launched in 2006, was to create a Wiki gathering definitions useful for the whole CPGE educational community (teachers, students, people helping the students in their studies - students' parents for instance). The project was limited in the elaboration, by CPGE teachers members of the ePrep CoP, of a dictionary gathering useful definitions in mathematics, chemistry, physics... in the respect of the CPGE pedagogical programme established by the French Ministry for Education.

In the early 2010, the Wikiprépas Web site, hosted by ESSEC, built with MediaWiki , offers interesting functionalities (including a LaTeX editor) for the edition of articles (more than 80 articles have been edited) under a Creative Commons License. This project is an example of "good practices".

From now on, the Wikiprépas project is to be developed in an operational way, beyond CPGEs, for enhancing international and social access to the "Grandes écoles", and is renamed the SILLAGES Wiki.

 

Other exploratory projects

At its launching in 2006, the ePrep CoP defined three projects to be conducted in an exploratory way for CPGEs and similar establishments: the Francophone platform, the Wikiprépas Web site and the International Cooperation between establishments. While developing these projects, the CoP has naturally set up pedagogical innovation.

From now on, if the Francophone platform and the Wikiprépas Website are developed in an operational way, the Pedagogical Innovation and the International Cooperation are still developed in an exploratory way.

Pedagogical Innovation

The Pedagogical Innovation includes the production of multimedia courses. A first example of interactive multimedia course had been developed in 2008 within the ePrep CoP with LimSee3, a PALETTE tool, in XML/SMIL (an account is available here and the course is proposed online - Ressources: Cours - Domaine: Histoire). A second example has been realised for the annotation of oral examination (a short film - in French - is available here).

International Cooperation

The International Cooperation between establishments is also an important axis of the ePrep CoP reflection.

First steps were initiated in 2005 with a specific cooperation with Ecole Centrale de Pékin. The 2008 ePrep Thematic Seminar (Ecole Centrale de Pékin, Beijing, China, October 2008) was organised in this framework.

Up to date, this international dimension is reinforced by the coming of new members inside the CoP. For example, ePrep is becoming a partner of the IFC-EG@ proposal (project od a French-Cameroon Institute coordinated by the EG@ Consortium).

 

Tools: participative design sessions and training sessions

The tools chosen by the ePrep CoP to develop its projects were / are: MediaWiki, the Intersession platform, the Web editor Amaya, the multimedia authoring tool LimSee3.

Specific participative design sessions or training sessions have been organised for ePrep CoP members (see the corresponding section in French).

 

The life of the ePrep CoP

The ePrep CoP members have face-to-face meetings on the occasion of the ePrep Thematic Seminars, of the participative design sessions or training sessions, and of formal meetings.

They often exchange by emails or through the ePrep CoP mailing list or by viso-conferences thanks to FlashMeeting, a tool used by the CoP in the framework af a partnership with Open University.