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International audience; This innovative practice paper presents a self-evaluation model for study programs or institutions linked with a unique quality enhancement process. It focuses on enhancement at the study program level but can be used at different levels. The study program evaluates itself on 28 criteria. Based on such self-evaluation, it identifies a subset of the criteria it would like to improve. The improvement process has at its heart a cross-sparring collaborative and iterative approach, whereby paired study programs are to learn and inspire each other by being critical and constructive friends. This paper focus on the pairing - how can a good match be made so that there will be new insights and inspirations? The criteria draws upon an international super-set of criteria from engineering accreditation systems like ABET, EUR-ACE, CEAB or Engineers Australia, and is extensible. They are scored on process maturity levels as found in the most recent ISO/IEC 33020:2015 series, and complemented by contextual parameters such as the size of the study program, disciplinary main focus or geography. The authors propose a pairing algorithm to find the best match for (engineering) study programs that want to learn from and to inspire each other. Based on four pilots conducted in the fall 2015, this paper reflects on the pairing of eight accredited engineering study prgrams.

International audience; The CDIO approach to engineering education has become a hot topic in curriculum design in recent years. It is championed as "an innovative educational framework for producing the next generation of engineers". The CDIO framework recognizes that engineering education and real-world demands on engineers have drifted apart in the 2000's and the framework endeavours to close this gap. Among its standards, the basis of the CDIO syllabus standard 2, which can really be adapted to any organization or higher educational institution, stresses the development of engineering fundamentals set in the lifecycle of projects. However, it appears that most of the institutions that have successfully implemented CDIO to date are generally traditional with the standard cohort of on-campus students, working in standard facilities using most often face-to-face teaching practices. As the search for new education markets intensifies, many institutions are now starting to venture into the area of online and distance education. This mode of delivery places very different demands on both students and academics, and it also has further consequences for curriculum and assessment design. In addition, distance, part time and online educational modes present greater opportunities for a more diverse student cohort to undertake tertiary education. This additional student diversity must also be factored into curriculum design as this new cohort of studentswill bring significant diversity to the ‘virtual' classroom. This can be successfully harnessed and used constructively within the curriculum with good curriculum design. This paper investigates opportunities and barriers to implementing the CDIO framework for distance and online education providers.

International audience; This paper describes a process to enhance the quality of higher education. At the heart of the process is a cross-sparring collaborative model, whereby institutions are critical friends. This is based on a prior self-evaluation, where the institution / programme identifies quality criteria it wants to improve. Part of the process is to ensure the documentation of best practices so that they can be shared with others in a so called market place. Linking the best practices to a criterion makes them searchable on a large scale. Optimal pairings of institutions can then take place for the cross-sparring activities.

International audience; In engineering education, several reference models of quality are defined by accreditation bodies or quality assurance organisations, at national and international levels. With approaches based on standards, they favour transparency and benchmarking of programs, in line with accountability issues. Quality assessors and program managers have to juggle with such models: grasp all - lose all. As shown by several accreditation system updated requirements, to support continuous improvements in the field of engineering education, reference models to align with tend now to be complemented by assessment models and processes. However, more closer to recommendations or good practices to follow, managing the quality enhancement of an engineering higher education institution still often remains practically informal and subjective. To cope with such challenge, the main contribution of this paper is to analyse three quality frameworks (CDIO, EFQM, and ISO-SPICE) and compare them in the context of quality enhancement. By analysing their respective reference models and assessment processes, it permits to sketch the broad lines of a multimodal and adaptive system to flexibly manage quality in engineering education. This paper will permit readers (i) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different models for engineering education quality assessment, (ii) to benefit from a global comparison of assessment models and processes and (iii) to grasp an overview of some possible ways of improvement of the CDIO self-assessment approach.

International audience; Sustainability efforts of higher educational institutions in engineering have today a strong influence on their accountability and on continuous improvements of their programs and organization. Following the recent ISO 26000 guidelines promoted for the all types of organizations, accreditation or quality assurance systems for engineering education start to consider sustainability dimensions. In Europe, various initiatives have recently proposed specific dimensions and criteria for evaluation of universities or schools, e.g. the QUESTE-SI LLP Erasmus European project (QUality system of European Scientific and Technical Education - Sustainable Industry), or the Plan Vert validated by the French Ministry of sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the evaluation process for a campus sustainability audit. Based on experienced reporting and evaluations, both from an audited engineering school (i.e. quality referents) and auditor perspectives, the quantitative and quantitative results drawn in the paper should permit institution stakeholders to regularly collect internal sustainability initiatives, track records, in a way to better prepare self-evaluation reports and manage future audit visits. After an overview of some existing international accreditation procedures for higher educational institutions, both in engineering and business, the proposed analysis relies on four 2012 audits, two of them conducted in a French engineering school, and two other conducted in two different European technical universities. Several sustainability dimensions, linked to criteria, are considered and discussed. As an example for the QUESTE-SI label, the audit relied on (i) institution policy and strategy, (ii) social responsibility & sustainable engineering education (SRSE) and curriculum, (iii) student involvement & cultural development in SRSE, and (iv) research & innovation. As findings, apart from the score and ranking results thanks to the evaluations, the audit preparation, reporting and process permits to engage in an internal reflection that should contribute to coherently enhance the research & educational missions and strategies of the institution, so as to favour a national and international recognition of its politics and dynamicity in the area of sustainability issues. Thanks to a clear referential, framework, and guidelines for evaluation based on a systemic interdisciplinary approach, an integrated governance of sustainability dimensions at institutional level can be more flexibility formalized. Based on those results, the paper claims for possible cross-evaluations between institutions as a complement to external evaluations to better organize and institutionalize continuous improvement processes, so as implicate to students as key actors in the change process.

International audience; Within the higher education system, criteria for promotion based on research quality and contribution are well established and widely accepted. For teaching, on the other hand, such criteria have generally not been developed and implemented to the same degree. This poses a challenge for the implementation of the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) standards 9 and 10, which deal with the enhancement of faculty CDIO skills and faculty teaching skills. To be able to implement these standards successfully, universities need to have in place effective ways of evaluating teaching contribution and professional engineering experience. To support the implementation of CDIO standards 9 and 10, excellence in teaching and progressive educational development based on engineering experience must be acknowledged and rewarded. This paper compares hiring and promotion policies and criteria for the evaluation of teaching contribution and educational development in four selected universities in Europe and North America. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the CDIO standards 9 and 10 and perspectives for future development of such criteria discussed.

International audience; More and more, educational frameworks and accreditation bodies recommend implementing a system to evaluate and improve the quality of higher education institutions. This paper describes a student self-evaluation of a French engineering school which was carried out with an external institution as client. It describes the methodology and standards adopted by the students in order to conduct the evaluation, interview stakeholders, and rate compliance with maturity levels. An analysis of the quantitative and qualitative results of this evaluation is drawn, both from the quality assurance and student perspectives. The benefits, bias, and difficulties of this student-led institution evaluation are discussed. Finally, in this paper, the authors identify the skills specific to quality assurance engineers which this project allowed students to develop. They conclude on possible future issues concerning evaluation, such as student-led cross-evaluations among institutions. This paper will permit readers (i) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a student-led evaluation, (ii) to validate or not the opportunity of dedicated student projects within their programs to facilitate the continuous improvement loop, and (iii) to underline specific student skills developed in such projects.

National audience; La préparation à l'emploi devient un élément de différenciation pour les écoles du supérieur. Ce papier analyse plusieurs expérimentations dans le cadre de la maturation du projet professionnel d'étudiants. Il préconise d'aborder de manière agile les problématiques liées aux carrières professionnelles et de mettre à disposition des étudiants une boite à outils durable et "à la carte" selon le niveau de maturité.

National audience; Dans le cadre de la journée CEFI (Comité d'Etudes sur les Formations d'Ingénieurs) sur l'évaluation des acquis du 13 février 2013 à Chimie ParisTech, ce papier s'intéresse à l'autoévaluation, à visée formative, des élèves ingénieurs. A travers trois modalités d'autoévaluation mises en place à Telecom Bretagne (grande école d'ingénieur, membre de l'Institut Mines-Télécom et accréditée CTI), il porte l'attention sur (i) les acquis liés au travail en groupe et aux phases de l'ingénierie dans le cadre de la pédagogie par projets, sur (ii) la reconnaissance des apprentissages non formels dans le cadre d'actes d'engagement personnel d'étudiants et, (iii) de manière orthogonale aux acquis, aux traits de personnalités. Dans le cadre de la formation tout au long de la vie et pour faire face à la complexité croissante des référentiels d'ingénieurs et des situations et métiers associés, les modalités présentées s'attachent à accompagner l'étudiant vers la construction d'une stratégie d'apprentissage. Chacune des modalités d'évaluation est présentée ici selon trois axes : (i) le contexte et les objectifs de l'évaluation, (ii) l'approche et les outils mis en place et (iii) une première analyse des résultats de la modalité appliquée. Une discussion en fin de papier permet de s'interroger sur les spécificités des nouvelles générations d'étudiants et dans quelles mesures les référentiels et modalités d'évaluation pourraient être adaptés pour développer plus encore les capacités réflexives et la dimension métacognitive des étudiants.

International audience; It is often said that Generation Y students have little professional ideal, uncertainty and indecision dominating their professional future appraisal. Engineering program designers are now faced with such new student generations. They certainly must trust students to finally find their own way, but they must also give them a sense of responsibility so as to enable them to take care of their career, as soon as possible and at best, in accordance with their genuine wishes. In 2007, Telecom Bretagne (public French higher engineering institution) reformed its mandatory career preparation program and introduced a professional interest inventory test to help its students have a more objective self-perception, challenge stereotypes, question their own character traits and interests, and ultimately shape their future professional identity. After six years, qualitative and quantitative results permit to respond to three research questions: (1) Is there a specific profile for engineering students? (2) Does this profile significantly evolve between the first and the last year of the engineering program? (3) Do test credibility and acceptance depend on the year when they are taken? In light of this analysis and student feedbacks, it is possible to state that, while sometimes initially reluctant to tests due to misconceptions, some students can develop a true interest and expectancy for their personal and professional project thanks to this formative and reflective tool.

International audience; On the one hand, no one international model for quality assurance evaluation of higher education has emerged. On the other hand, as a reference model rather than a prescription, the CDIO initiative proposes a mature integrated framework for creation or continuous improvement of engineering programs. However, institutions developing and managing educational programs have to juggle the expectation of various accreditation and evaluation bodies, which may create consistency and interoperability problems. A need exists to unambiguously specify relations among quality assurance concepts to enable more transparent and comparable descriptions of quality frameworks for educational programs. Following constructive alignment principles, this article creates structural models using some of the CDIO Standards. In doing so it lays the foundations of an architectural meta-model for describing complex educational systems, which will contribute to consistency and interoperability among quality frameworks.

National audience; Les transformations d'un programme de formation d'ingénieur jouent un rôle récurrent et majeur dans l'avenir d'une institution. Une réforme de la formation et de ses pédagogies est une question délicate et stratégique impliquant de l'ingénierie. C'est aussi un défi managérial complexe qui doit surmonter possible de conflits et forces contradictoires. Afin d'être plus réactif et proréactif face aux accréditations nationales et internationales, et pour plus facilement faire face à la résistance aux changements induits par les réformes, Telecom Bretagne, une grande école d'ingénieurs française, a délibérément choisie d'utiliser le cadre CDIO et ses 12 standards comme un outil dynamique d'abord sous un cycle en cascade incrémental. Depuis 2008, notre politique de s'inspirer des standards une étape à la fois, fondée sur un modèle de processus à un rythme supportable, permet de soutenir plus durablement la paix entre les reponsables de programmes, les concepteurs de ces programmes et le personnel enseignant. Nous sommes maintenant en mesure de partager notre expérience sur l'utilisation de certains standards CDIO afin d'améliorer continument la qualité des programmes et mieux répondre aux attentes des organismes d'accréditation, où les partenaires industriels et les étudiants sont des agents forts. Notre approche, instanciés dans deux programmes différents niveaux du master, (i) une taille moyenne sur un programme généraliste à temps plein (650 élèves) et (ii) un programme par apprentissage (120 étudiants), est décrite et analysée. Pour les établissements rencontrant quelques difficultés avec la résistance au changement, nos résultats et les leçons que nous en retirons donneront des conseils pour mieux préparer une amélioration continue basée sur un cycle itératif - plus agile - afin de s'aligner plus régulièrement avec les exigences d'accréditation et les besoins des entreprises en terme d'acquis d'apprentissage.

International audience; Incoming students in post-secondary education often perceive Computer Science (CS) under a series of stereotypes. While it is certainly difficult to define CS, it seems still possible to grasp its scope through comprehensive points of view, addressing for example its foundations, technologies, and uses. This paper proposes a retrospective analysis of a 21-hour course trial realized in a French engineering school for six consecutive years; its aim was to help recent K12 graded students to have a more objective vision of CS. We start by discussing freshmen’s CS dominant conceptions, and the role they think it plays for their future career. We then give some statistical elements concerning student perception of such a course; in particular, we analyze the obtained feedbacks and the limits of intended learning outcomes. In the light of this analysis, it is possible to state that, although initially reluctant to CS due to misconceptions, some students can develop interest and expectancy for this discipline as applied to engineering. A clarified vision of CS seems moreover to contribute to better adjusting choices of minors and majors and facilitate reasoned career plans. We finally conclude on some possible future issues in this subject for our society.

International audience; La perspective des carrières nomades amène le futur diplômé à être acteur de son projet professionnel. Acquérir des méthodes, techniques et outils en amont de son insertion pour choisir ses orientations professionnelles devient primordial. Ce papier s'attache à présenter et analyser un module de formation visant de tels objectifs. Il est intégré dans les trois années du curriculum d'une école d'ingénieurs.

International audience; Engineering educational programs increasingly rely on project-based learning. Within, it is crucial to early present to students intended learning outcomes from the outset of large projects. However, even if well formulated, many outcome-related project learning objectives are not properly understood by students out of experiences. Thus, some students struggled to identify objectives throughout activities and tended to distance themselves from acquisitions. Short concrete activities could advantageously help student self-recognize learning objectives. For such, we propose a systematic insertion of authentic starter activities in the front-end of large projects, so as to give students a better insight and deeper understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities they are expected to acquire. Properly designed starter activities promote enthusiasm, motivation, and increase project involvement. For program developments, this paper proposes a three-phase process, from design to improvement, for integrating starter activities and to favor a coherent treatment throughout a curriculum. This process is based on our six years of experiences with large semester projects.

International audience; Les modalités pédagogiques calquées sur des situations professionnelles abordent parfois difficilement certaines exigences d?acquisition orientées compétences. Fort vecteur motivationnel, les missions en entreprise d?une formation d?ingénieurs par alternance sont des expériences à exploiter régulièrement face aux objectifs d?autonomie et d?opérationnalité des nouveaux apprenants.

International audience; Our institution trains highly skilled engineers in the field of information and communication sciences and technologies . Due to a geographical relocation on two separate sites, it needed to integrate distant learning in its curricula. This migration to a blended learning environment was made through several simulation-based lessons developed by us within the framework of a European project. In order to induce the student-learner to initiate an active and constructive distant learning process, our on-line lessons are integrated INTO data_ds.tmp_pub_a collaborative learning platform. This article aims at describing our approach to guarantee the quality of our Web-based education system and at presenting a course which was recently reengineered for purposes of blended learning, followed by quantified feedbacks from students and teacher?s validations.

National audience; Un élève apprend mieux s'il perçoit, comprend et accepte les objectifs de formation. Inclure des projets dans son dispositif pédagogique est un moyen d'atteindre des objectifs professionnalisants. Les séances de démarrage de projet permettent de mettre en exergue ces objectifs auprès des élèves.

International audience; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can be used in order to induce student-engineers to initiate an active and constructive learning process for the electronic discipline in distant learning. To achieve this, the ICT model must include a systematic usage of really interactives simulations. These simulations improve students' attention, develop their know-how, autonomy and competences. However, in order to have a real pedagogical impact, simulations must be integrated INTO data_ds.tmp_pub_a global pedagogical canvas. In this article are exposed lessons: analogue-digital conversion and polarization of amplifier.

National audience; Cette journée d'études vise à mettre en commun et à dynamiser la réflexion pédagogique des enseignants des établissements d'enseignement supérieur brestois. La réflexion sera axée sur les objectifs pédagogiques des enseignements scientifiques et leurs conditions d'application en écoles d'ingénieurs, en intégrant notamment la nature professionnalisante de ces formations.

International audience; Our institution is a French “Grande Ecole” (MSc level) which trains numerous engineers. It has adopted, years ago, a project-based learning method (i.e. PBL), considering that it was essential to place our students in situations similar to those they will face in their professional careers. However, PBLis not ideally sufficient for our new incoming students. They lack autonomy in their learning process and are not used to working in groups or share knowledge. Therefore, they cannot collect the full benefits associated with PBL efficiently.A prior experience of active pedagogy is of great interest as it favors the students’ autonomy in the learning process and stresses the members’importance in the project realization. Also, it allows students to develop a global view on their project and a better understanding of the combination of several disciplines. Active pedagogy was implemented in our curriculum in 2003. In our practice, active pedagogy relies on long-term project-based sessions. The project itself becomes the context for an active learning environment preparing for future large-scale projects during the rest of the curriculum. The competences highlighted in our new active learning project now induce a new competence referential in all the curricula.

International audience; Engineering curricula have to prepare the students to many competences, particularly technical and human competences. In the technical domain, it is not possible to cover the whole knowledge corpus. So, self-training capacities have to be developed thanks to project based learning and active learning. In our school, each student takes part to two pro jects per year and the first of it is a large scale project called “introduction to complex systems”. Entirely based on active pedagogy, the main objectives of this project are the management of groups, the discovery of a complex telecommunication system and oral presentations. At the end of this project the students should be able to understand better the organization and the contents of the training. They are more sensitive to the questions how learn and how work in a group and with the help of the group. For the teaching team, it is a new and rich experiment. Lecturers are in fact tutors of a group of seven or eight students. Thus, they are not specialists in the field but they give some help in term of management of the group (definition of the role and responsibilities of everyone inside the group).

International audience; La mise en place d'un changement complet de curriculum dans notre établissement a été l'occasion de remettre en perspective une longue pratique de la pédagogie par projets et de catalyser une logique de progression dans la séquence des projets proposée aux élèves (100h de projet par élève par semestres). Pour cette rentrée, le nouveau projet du premier semestre est devenu l'occasion de proposer un apprentissage à la démarche projet autour d'une pédagogie active en groupe. Une longue pratique du projet dans notre institution a démontré sa pertinence pour l'acquisition des compétences de type techniques. La pédagogie par projets (Colloque PFI - Brest 2001 et 2003) est une activité ayant montré son intérêt pour la motivation des étudiants et l'apprentissage autour de la résolution de problèmes d'ingénierie. Le projet en groupe d'étudiants nous paraît notamment le support idéal pour le développement des compétences suivantes : C1 : apprendre en utilisant un projet comme moteur à l'acquisition de nouvelles compétences. C2 : comprendre l'apport et l'articulation de différentes disciplines s'intégrant dans un grand système. C3 : travailler en groupe. C4 : analyser de manière réflexive son travail. C5 : rechercher et utiliser de manière autonome des informations auprès d'experts et de médias appropriés (p. ex. bibliothèque, Web, multimédia). C6 : synthétiser et communiquer des résultats de travaux. Pour définir une démarche pédagogique permettant de contribuer notamment au développement de ces compétences, dans une progression tout au long des projets semestriels proposés aux étudiants, notre premier projet dit d' " introduction aux grands systèmes " (à forte composante technologique) sert de vecteur au travers des caractéristiques principales suivantes : •Projet pluridisciplinaire, basé sur l'extension d'un système complexe existant, n'ayant pas une solution unique (C1, C4) suivant les dimensions techniques et économiques explorées. (C2, C6), •Projet inductif, se déroulant en début de cycle ingénieur ; l'accent est ainsi mis sur l'analyse réflexive des activités menées (C4) et des comportements de groupe rencontrés (C3) ; ceci est réalisé par une démarche pédagogique active (C5) assistée de tutorat, fortement inspirée de celle appliquée à l'Université Catholique de Louvain avec qui nous collaborons, •Clarification des rôles au sein d'un groupe (p.ex. donneur d'ordres, experts, animateur, gestion de projet) qui permet de piloter pour les enseignants les différentes progressions et de faciliter pour les élèves l'analyse selon les différentes compétences (C2, C4, C5), •Groupes de 7 à 8 élèves imposé, pour développer l'apprentissage au travail en groupe (C3). Cette communication est ainsi dédiée à décrire notre pratique autour du développement de compétences dans la pédagogie par projets.

International audience; Le Web est une source de connaissance de plus en plus utilisée par les étudiants. De nombreux tutoriaux et supports de cours y sont disponibles, souvent gratuitement. Ils permettent aux étudiants de consolider leurs connaissances mais sont malheureusement trop souvent limités au regard de l'acquisition de savoir-faire relatifs à une discipline. Cette communication défend l'apport de simulations en ligne où l'apprenant devient actif (p.ex. simulateurs graphiques illustrant des concepts disciplinaires). Des simulations réellement dynamiques et interactives (p.ex. applet Java) permettent par exemple de changer les comportements des modèles à travers une modification de paramètres tels que la vitesse, les données en entrée, etc. Afin de favoriser le développement de certaines compétences trop peu mise en avant dans les contenus actuellement disponibles en ligne, nous proposons d'intégrer des simulations dans un canevas pédagogique. Nos leçons en ligne, axées simulations, se basent sur un projet Européen Leonardo da Vinci auquel nous participons actuellement (INVOCOM) et sont pour l'instant validés à l'usage dans nos cursus standards. Dans le cadre de curriculum en ingénierie (télécommunications en ce qui nous concerne), différents paradigmes pédagogiques peuvent profiter de simulations accessibles en ligne pour développer (de manière autonome ou associé à du présentiel) les savoirs et savoir-faire des apprenants. Toutefois, les simulations ne sont pas pour autant auto-suffisantes pour être liées à des objectifs d'apprentissages. Nous proposons donc un canevas pédagogique, avec comme pierre angulaire l'usage de simulations, composé de leçons accessibles en ligne et s'appuyant sur une démarche active de l'apprenant. Ces leçons reposent sur des informations descriptives (p.ex. pré-requis) et complémentaires au niveau matière (p.ex. rappels théoriques), des exercices d'auto validation probatoires des acquis théoriques avant l'utilisation d'une simulation et des exercices de validation formative après une simulation et sur la base de cette simulation.

International audience; This paper focuses on the use of real interactive simulations in order to improve student's knowledge, and to increase their autonomy for know-how acquisitions in engineering curricula. Simulations favor active manipulation but are not sufficient per se. Our simulations are integrated together with exercises and contextual information in a pedagogical canvas to constitute on-line accessible lessons. Those short lessons facilitate the implication of teachers for design and integration in their classrooms, and will allow future integration INTO data_ds.tmp_pub_more complete curricula, including distant project-based learning.

International audience; Le génie logiciel constitue un enseignement difficile à faire passer auprès des étudiants sous forme magistrale. Les activités projet de programmation sont bien plus pertinentes pour son assimilation. Cet article décrit une articulation particulière de projets de développement logiciel, basée sur une succession de phases de modification de code. Outre les avantages habituels de la formation à l?ingénierie logicielle par projet, cette approche innovante permet d?une part de sérier les difficultés conceptuelles et techniques, et d?autre part d?aborder la partie aval du cycle de vie du logiciel - maintenance, évolutions - qui n?est traditionnellement pas expérimentée par les étudiants. En outre, cette mise en perspective renforce la sensibilisation aux impératifs de qualité logicielle des phases amont - modélisation, conception et codage. Différents aspects de cette forme originale de projet sont présentés, et un premier bilan d?expérience est tiré.

International audience; Quality in higher educational programmes is acquired over a long period. Depending on their location, history, tradition, management style or culture, institutions have their own strengths, but also constraints and priorities for quality enhancement. Analysing or even just seeing how programme leaders and developers are managing educational quality in partner countries may provide an opportunity to learn from them and transfer some of their good practices to one´s own context. As a constructivist complement to accreditation to foster quality, a 2015 pilot study showed the strong potential of a large self-evaluation model including maturity scale to shed light on priorities. The focus of this paper is to critically examine the self-evaluation model and a cross-sparring process, and to assess which parts of the process proved beneficial. Even if very valuable, via short but prepared visits to learn from each other, it shows that (i) the number of criteria in focus should be limited to ensure a deep collaborative analysis and actionable plans, and that (ii) the forms used to report must remain simple and flexible so as to be delivered under time constraints. Thanks to the cross-sparring process, the study validated a flexible and non-competitive approach to stimulate thought and discussion about collaborative quality enhancement at international levels, even without dedicated quality referents in the institutions or a formal quality assurance framework in place. Given the large numbers and nature of higher educational institutions, this practical model reveals an excellent approach to institutions in need of continuous improvement.

International audience; Educational program transformation plays a recurrent and key role in the future of an institution. An educational reform is a tricky strategic and engineering issue. It is also a complex management challenge which has to overcome possible conflicting and restraining forces. In order to be continuously prepared for national or international formal accreditations, and more easily face resistance to the changes induced by educational reforms, Telecom Bretagne, a French graduate engineering school, has deliberatively chosen to use the CDIO standards as a dynamic tool first under a cascade incremental cycle. Since 2008, our policy of taking standards one step at a time, based on a process model at a slow pace, allows to support peace among educational managers, program developers and teaching staff, so that our approach results in an effective adoption of the CDIO principles. We are now able to share our experience of using some of the CDIO standards to improve program quality and meet accreditation expectations, where industrial partners and students are strong change agents. Our approach instanced in two different programs at Master levels, a medium size full-time generalist program (650 students) and a small size specialized apprenticeship program (120 students), is described and analyzed in this paper. For institutions expecting or encountering some difficulties with staff resistance to changes, our results and the lessons learned will give advice to foster durably the adoption of the CDIO standards and to be prepared for a deeper continuous improvement based on a more agile iterative cycle in order to align more regularly with accreditation requirements.

International audience; L’ENST Bretagne est une « grande école » d’ingénieur française qui recrute après 2 ans de classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles et diplôme environ une centaine d’ingénieurs pluridisciplinaires teintés télécoms par an. Elle comprend environ 130 enseignants-chercheurs, de profils assez différents, tant au niveau disciplinaire (p.ex. langues, communication, sciences dures) que de la provenance (p.ex. docteur d’université, ingénieurs, fonctionnaires, …). Pour plusieurs raisons (p.ex. demande de professionnels de nouvelles compétences, plus d’adaptabilité de nos ingénieurs, internationalisation avec les ETCS), une refonte globale du curriculum était nécessaire. Le nouveau projet de formation est mis en place depuis la rentrée 2003/04. Ce projet a nécessité une réflexion de près de 3 ans dans une institution ne disposant de cellule pédagogique a proprement dire, comme c’est le cas dans beaucoup d’écoles de ce type.L’institution a plus de 20 ans d’expérience autour de la pédagogie par projet et est d’ailleurs à l’origine d’un colloque national sur la pédagogie par projets dans l’enseignement supérieur . Toutefois, dans l’ancien cursus, bien que les projets – qui y tenaient déjà une place importante – aient été voués à renforcer ou mettre en lumière les compétences de nos élèves, celles-ci étaient souvent diffuses au regard des enseignements plus classiques et n’étaient pas assez mise en valeur, tant auprès de nos élèves qu’en interne auprès du personnel enseignant.Le nouveau curriculum prend la forme de blocs de 84h ou 168h (mineures/majeures) avec optionnalités, crédits, projets contextualisés (dont, au premier semestre, un projet pluridisciplinaire de 108h/élève, projet où la pédagogie active est mise en œuvre). La gestion du changement ------------------------* L’institution comme pilote de la reforme L’institution organise des groupes de travail, délègue, impose des volumes horaires mais laisse la liberté de la démarche et des thématiques d’enseignement. Donc, une cellule d’enseignants motivés – qui laisse temporairement en suspens ses activités de recherche - se lance dans l’aventure de la refonte de la pédagogie par projets, des apprentissages pluridisciplinaires et transversaux sur la base d’une approche par compétences. Il est parfois difficile de faire passer ce message auprès de collègues partisans d’une approche plus classique, mais l’institution agit pour que les innovations pédagogiques soient reconnues au même titre que les activités de recherche.* Les compétences nouvelles « à faire » acquérir aux enseignantsOn n’impose pas un paradigme à un enseignant, encore moins quand il est enseignant-chercheur. Nous rappelons ici que peu de nos enseignants ont suivis des formations en pédagogie et se forgent la plupart du temps par eux-mêmes leur convictions intimes suite à leur pratiques. C’est grâce à la veille pédagogique effectuée par un groupe de volontaires que l’approche par compétences est insufflée dans l’enseignement (en misant sur sa diffusion progressive). Concrètement, les tuteurs des projets sont constitués d’une trentaine d’enseignants motivés formés à la pédagogie active par des professionnels de l’Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgique). A la différence du cursus précédent, les compétences projets sont détaillées aux élèves comme aux tuteurs et un suivi des compétences est proposé sur tout le cycle de formation. Après six mois de mise en œuvre de la réforme, on constate déjà la diffusion de ces nouvelles pratiques auprès du corps enseignant ainsi que des comportements nouveaux de la part des étudiants.

International audience; Nowadays, there are several program criteria that are proposed for accreditation. However, up to represent various accreditation bodies’ requirements, diversity of disciplines, and specific national contexts, no global and unified framework for higher education has emerged. As such, the ability of educational organizations to work together is often hard to ensure. Following constructive alignment principles, an educational program relies on three main pillars: (i) an intended curriculum, (ii) a taught curriculum, and (iii) a validated learned curriculum. At the core of program descriptions, those three views share concepts, such as learning outcomes. To enable interoperability among existing programs and frameworks, and sustain flexibility and evolution of standards, it is relevant to clarify common core concepts belonging to various frameworks. A system modeling approach is obvious for meeting such interoperability challenges, since it makes it possible to meaningfully, unambiguously, and accurately specify concepts, relations, and viewpoints among stakeholders. The CDIO Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary by proposing today a mature integrated framework for engineering programs. Structured in twelve standards, it permits to create, to reform, or to continuously improve engineering educational programs. It encourages introducing appropriate pedagogical methods and also addresses student workspaces and staff workforce. Based on the CDIO standards as a proof of concept, this paper proposes to model three views based on structural diagrams. Significant relations between educational concepts are then defined. Furthermore, getting its inspiration from an architectural approach, this paper significantly contributes to lay the foundations of an architectural meta-model for describing complex educational systems, which will contribute to tackling interoperability and flexibility issues.

International audience; Ce papier capitalise sur l'expérience d'une prestation d'accompagnement en validation des acquis de l'expérience. Il propose et analyse un processus à même de favoriser l'autonomie et la posture réflexive d'un candidat.