Throughout this period of crisis, UNIL regularly sends you a newsletter containing information on the progress of the teaching as well as advice on how to organize your distance learning.
Message of the Rector to the UNIL community
Hello everyone, it's the beginning of week 2!
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well and that you have gone into "corona mode", a mode that will last for some time to come.
For many of us (myself included), the challenge is to concentrate. You worry about your loved ones, in Switzerland or elsewhere, you worry about the future. And yet, it's now a matter of completing this semester successfully. And we're on the right track! Thanks to the incredible work of the teachers, the Teaching Support Centre (Centre de soutien à l’enseignement), the IT Service and other departments, the vast majority of courses have resumed in various forms, but all of them allow learning to take place under the best possible conditions in these unprecedented circumstances.
For students, the idea of studying at home is something to get used to. When you are used to going to the library, which is a good place to work because away from the distractions of home, it is not easy. And you worry, of course, about the big question of exams. In what form, when, how? The faculties and the Teaching and Student Affairs dicastery of the Rectorate are working to give concrete answers and you will of course be informed as soon as possible.
For researchers who need a laboratory, or who have to do field work, there is no other option than to wait. So, this is your chance to read all these pending articles (an effective way to generate new ideas!), and maybe even work on a review?
As for the people working in the administrative and technical entities, I hope they will have the opportunity to catch their breath (a little). And, little by little, for most of you who are teleworking, to return to a certain normality by taking up the thread of priority files and sessions in digital mode.
And the final words. First of all, we can be proud! Proud of what has been accomplished, proud of our ability to adapt, proud of our colleagues, proud of us!
And then, of course, you've seen the numbers: for the moment, the number of infected people continues to rise, doubling every three days, even faster. So stay at home, and when you go out, stay away from others!
Covid 19: solidarity means avoiding getting infected, to avoid infecting others!
Nouria Hernandez, Rector
A promising start for distance learning
Throughout this period of crisis, UNIL regularly sends you a newsletter containing information on the progress of the teaching as well as advice on how to organize your distance learning.
Last week you were able to find out about the solutions implemented in our institution to put your courses online and it is clear that they have been quickly mobilized since the creation of more than 200 additional Moodles spaces has been recorded, bringing the number of new spaces created to more than 500 for this semester. The overall total of active Moodle spaces this semester is over 1600.
Our UNIL-UBICAST media server has also recorded the upload of more than 900 videos for a total of around 400 hours of lessons and 700 GB of data. Finally, the use of Moodle, which is already very strong at UNIL in normal times, has also increased significantly. This weekend, for example, we recorded the same number of visitors as during a normal week.
Since the implementation of the Webex UNIL system, more than 1500 accounts have been created, more than 3000 meetings have been opened, 1079 video webinars launched by 636 hosts for a total of 82,000 minutes of work. The instance has registered more than 11'000 participants during this period.
Instances monitored daily
As we pointed out last week, the unique situation we find ourselves in in terms of the overall traffic recorded on all the networks does not allow us to guarantee with certainty that the solutions will work at all times.
The IT teams and the RISET coordination within the Centre de soutien à l’enseignement (CSE) monitor MyUNIL, Moodle and Ubicast at all times and are in permanent contact with Webex to monitor the dimensioning of the offer made available to us.
The processing time of the videos on UBICAST has been strongly reduced by doubling the CPUs of our cloud and we have also, by anticipatory measure, pushed our storage size to 5 TB.
Our Webex instance is also more stable than at the beginning of last week and we continue to be in daily dialogue with our host to further improve its reliability.
Our Moodle platform had already been strengthened in anticipation of this crisis and is under continuous analysis to ensure its stability. In order not to load the system and to ensure that it works well in this high usage environment, we have limited the maximum size of files that can be uploaded to 100MB. We remind you that all media files must be placed on the Ubicast-UNIL mediaserver and that it is not recommended that you put them as a file on Moodle. If this limit prevents you from placing large files needed for your courses, you can write to us via elearning@unil.ch and we will suggest suitable solutions.
Webinars to go further in using distance learning tools
The first webinars on how to use the tools offered by the institution to carry out your distance learning have been attended by more than 350 people. In order to continue our support, we are offering a new series of webinars aimed at deepening the use of these tools and the pedagogical reflections they entail. These webinars will be held from Tuesday, March 24 to Friday, April 3 (excluding Saturday and Sunday).
Program
Moodle
● Les bases de Moodle : Construire sa page de cours
Tuesdays and Thursdays – 8:30 to 9:15
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=m67cd3730a4ea2f89da6414f2440ac32b
● Moodle : Communiquer avec ses étudiant·e·s
Tuesdays and Thursdays – 11:00 to 11:45
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=m1f027f16052f95c63ee91d926ea521fd
● Moodle : Capter l'attention & motiver ses étudiant·e·s
Tuesdays and Thursdays – 17:00 to 17:45
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=m321a4da293f2ab6f4cdd985beed12822
● Moodle : Guider ses étudiant·e·s dans leurs apprentissages
Wednesdays and Fridays – 8:30 to 9:15
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=mf869ff56a94aaaef8b31c9f46702f23f
● Moodle : Permettre à ses étudiant·e·s d'appliquer leurs nouvelles connaissances
Wednesdays and Fridays – 11:00 to 11:45
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=m40fbb350d9051272215f0d7240432c8c
● Moodle : Évaluer la performance de ses étudiant·e·s & transmettre un feedback
Wednesdays and Fridays – 17:00 to 17:45
https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=medbd82f36b765f1f7c93329053549a83
Webex et UBICAST
● Session Webex : 9:15-9:45
Meeting link : https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=mcf42e1f9c252fe70495fbb747cdb6e3f
● Session UBICAST : 10:15-10:45
Meeting link : https://unil.webex.com/unil-fr/j.php?MTID=mf67e82aba2cdbaad4fc4821d788e6e6c
Following the first webinars and exchanges we had with the participants, we produced some totorials to show you how to get started on Webex and UbiCast.
Webex: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMn8MvVsX6LPzDTIE0vqqK3qZZ608C0kv
Ubicast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMn8MvVsX6LOQMrW2JSywfLzIQsKOB8aY
Resources to complete your courses
The FUN platform has announced the opening of its entire Moocs archive.
The Coursera platform opens its Moocs as part of the "Coursera for Campus" project. An official request has been made by the UNIL Rectorate in order to benefit from these contents. We will keep you informed through this newsletter of the effective access to these resources.
The School of Biology informs us that the BCU library is working on making available the catalogue of the JoVe platform: video of experimental techniques in particular.
Do not hesitate to share with us the information you discover by writing to us on elearning@unil.ch.
Accompanying students
Distance learning can be confusing for your students. In order to accompany them in this new form of learning, short videos have been produced by the SOC and the CSE.
The first 3 videos deal with the following themes:
- How to organise yourself and manage your time according to the modalities chosen by the teacher?
- How to keep in touch with colleagues and teachers?
- How to manage stress in a distance learning context?
It should be noted that the central services (SOC, SASME and SII) and the Faculties remain available to answer students' questions during this period. Do not hesitate to inform your students under stress about the current crisis that they can consult the Nostress page.
Reviews and validations: where we stand
After the closure of the campus to its community, the University of Lausanne, its Rectorate and the services concerned have established and implemented various procedures to ensure its main missions remotely. For a week now, the efforts provided have made it possible to launch learning very widely through various digital solutions.
This being well under way, UNIL's management now considers as a priority the evaluation (review and validate) of the lessons learnt within its institution.
The Management and the Faculties are working intensively to provide the most adequate response to this most important issue. Further details will be provided in the coming days. In an unprecedented and challenging context for a large part of the UNIL community, an adaptation of the validation modalities and dates will be necessary in many cases.
We will keep you all informed of the evolution of the situation as soon as possible.
University Sports is thinking of you
While we are all confined or almost all at home, the opportunities to move around, to play sports with friends have disappeared. And yet, movement is essential for keeping fit both physically and mentally. Suggestions of all kinds are flooding the net: challenges, serious strengt training, chair work, floor work... How do you choose? What to really do?
On the University Sports Lausanne website, experts choose for you the most trustworthy pages, or share with you their own videos that will guide you safely through your sessions. Several times a week they post images, videos or links relating to fitness, relaxation, stretching, nutrition, in short, everything you need to take into account to maintain a good physical condition in this period of confinement.
Go to sports.unil.ch or centresportetsante.ch