The ePrep Community of practice

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

Members of the ePrep Community of Practice are teachers in the first higher education cycle in France and French-speaking countries or representatives from universities, research institutes, training organisations, etc. interested in the domain of ICT (information and communication technologies) for education.

The PALETTE project of which ePrep is a partner has 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
• 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 2006, 2007 and 2008 ePrep Thematic Seminars were also the occasion to organise participative design sessions involving ePrep CoP members and PALETTE researchers. These sessions have participated both in the development of the CoP projects and in the development of the PALETTE tools.

Finally, the ePrep Thematic Seminars, as fiendly meetings, are an important part of the CoP life.

Exploratory projects

At its launching in October 2006, the ePrep CoP has defined three projects to be conducted in an exploratory way for CPGEs and similar establishments: "Wikiprépas", the "ePrep Francophone Platform", the "International cooperation between establishments". When developing these projects, the ePrep CoP has naturally discovered the "Pedagogical Innovation". These elements are presented below:

Wikiprépas

In its first phase (from November 2006 to November 2008), the Wikiprépas project aims to create a Wiki gathering definitions useful for the whole CPGEs' educational community (teachers, students, people helping the students in their studies - students' parents for instance).

During this first phase, the project was limited in the elaboration, by ePrep CoP members, of a dictionary gathering useful definitions in mathematics, chemistry, physics... in the respect of the CPGEs' pedagogical programme established by the French Ministry for Education.

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", but the CPGE teachers' Unions did not answer the ePrep invitation for developing the project with their membres.

In its second phase, the Wikiprépas project proposes an openness beyond CPGEs.

ePrep Francophone Platform

In its first phase (from November 2006 to November 2008), the purpose of the ePrep Francophone Platform project is to propose in free access pedagogical content for CPGEs and similar establishments in France and French-speaking countries.

During ithis first phase, the project consists in the elaboration, by ePrep CoP members, of pedagogical content to be uploaded on the platform under a Creative Commons License.

The ePrep Francophone platform, hosted by ParisTech, offers more than 1400 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 cooperation with PALETTE researchers.

This study is an example of "good practices", but the CPGE teachers' Unions did not answer the ePrep invitation for developing the project with their membres.

In its second phase, the Wikiprépas project proposes an openness beyond CPGEs.

Pedagogical Innovation

This study includes the production of multimedia courses. A first example of interactive multimedia course has been developed 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.

Tools: participative design sessions and training sessions

The tools chosen by the ePrep CoP to develop its studies were / are: MediaWiki, the Saatar 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 praticipative design sessions or training sessions, and of formal meetings (see the corresponding section in French to access the minutes of these meetings). They often exchange by emails or through the ePrep CoP mailing list.