EPICES or ‘European Platform for Innovation and Collaboration between Engineer Students’ was an Erasmus plus strategic partnership project (September 2014 – January 2017) co-funded by the EU. The purpose of EPICES was to develop a European collaboration on at-a-distance problem- and project-based learning (PBL) frameworks and methods, based on already existing and still developing technical platforms, i.e. collaborative and engineering tools. A special focus was made on teachers’ role and students’ coaching, from the analysis of what a coach should be in PBL to training packages for teachers and the development of an accompanying assessment tool.

Please visit the project website for more information and the accompanying tools.

1. Coaching Tool

An interactive web application developed to facilitate the use of the coaching model in the educational practice.

This EPICES Coaching Tool helps you with defining the optimal coaching method for your specific project:

• Provides the coach with the optimal coaching method based on the characteristics of his project.
• Provides the coach with the accompanying guidelines and tips.

2. ASSESSMENT TOOL

An interactive assessment tool developed to help the coach with evaluating the students' learning results, the acquired skills and performance of the group in the educational practice.

There are two versions of the Assessment Tool:

• EPICES: Specifically created for the PBL-based EPICES projects with a predefined set of 29 main skills for engineering students.
• EDITABLE: Generic template with macros that allows you to create your own set of skills adapted to your course and curriculum.

3. DISCUSSION

A discussion platform set up to encourage communication between the coaches during their projects and with the development team on:

• How to use the coaching platform and tools during your project.
• Questions, tips, suggestions, ... regarding the (development of the) coaching platform and tools.