The fifth newsletter "Teach" opens with an interview with Cyrille Piguet, President of the Société Académique vaudoise, about the donation of 200,000 francs for students. Then you will find information on digital tools and finally a status report on fixed-term research contracts.
Urgent action of the Société Académique Vaudoise (Vaud Academic Society)
President of the Société Académique Vaudoise (SAV), a specialist in inheritance law, lawyer Cyrille Piguet answers our questions about a donation of 200,000 francs in favour of UNIL students. This fund will be managed by the Service des affaires sociales et de la mobilité étudiante (SASME).
How did you come up with the idea of this donation in favour of students affected by financial difficulties in connection with Covid-19?
It started from a discussion with the members of the Geneva Association of Academic Foundations, where I sit as President of the SAV. Another foundation offered to support students from UNIGE, so it was natural for me to support those from UNIL, some of whom are affected by the cessation of a professional activity which was necessary for them to live and study. Every year the SAV provides 500,000 francs to various UNIL actors in the form of grants and support for publications, we also award prizes, and I thought it was important that we should also be present to support students when they need it most.
How is this support different from the usual support?
Precisely because it is exceptional due to an exceptional situation, which has serious consequences for many students. In this respect, I would like to stress that the usual support will in no way be compromised, despite the catastrophic scholarship results linked to the current crisis. Initially, we had imagined that this emergency aid could be used, for example, to help needy students acquire a computer, and then we decided to rely on the Department of Social Affairs and Student Mobility for the distribution of this money; they are in contact with the students and know better than we do what the needs are and how to meet them. Our only requirement was to be able to obtain a feedback on the people and the amounts distributed, which was granted to us.
The visibility of your actions is important to you...
It is essential because we want to be recognized for what we are, an important partner of the academic world in the canton de Vaud. This visibility allows us to make our actions better known and thus encourage the donations, bequests and legacies that we receive and which allow us to be present and generous when necessary. On the other hand, we also want to make ourselves better known to the potential beneficiaries of our actions so that they can send us their requests. At the moment, we are thinking of those young people who are suffering most from the situation and to whom we can offer this support.
Interview by Nadine Richon
More info on https://unil.ch/sasme/home/menuinst/soutien-aux-etudiantes/aide-durgence-covid-19.html
Information on digital tools
The "Teaching" page has been redesigned.
From Tuesday, discover the redesign of the "Teach" page of the UNIL Coronavirus site. The growing amount of information we had to offer has led us to rethink the structure of this page. We have therefore decided to restructure it so that you can find more quickly the information you need.
The Portfolio of Digital Tools for Teaching at UNIL
A precision on this Portfolio
As part of the implementation of its digital strategy, the Rectorate of our institution is responsible for making available and maintaining a portfolio of digital tools for teaching.
Initially composed of Moodle and its specific plugins, Mahara, Speakup and Wooclap, this portfolio has been expanded in recent weeks with Webex, UbiCast, Camtasia and Zoom due to the crisis we are currently experiencing. You will sometimes find two tools, very similar but with unique specificities, because of our will to provide the most adequate answer to your pedagogical needs. It is up to each teacher to choose among the offered tools the one(s) that best corresponds to his or her teaching.
Concerning the use of these tools, we advise you to follow the instructions and guidelines set up in your faculties and schools as a matter of priority.
Availability of Zoom
In order to offer a range of solutions that can meet the various pedagogical needs of teachers, our institution has decided to expand its offer with Zoom. This videoconferencing application allows you to organize synchronous sessions with your students, to record them and to broadcast them on a delayed basis. It also allows you to divide your students into sub-groups during your webinar sessions. Find out how to use it. The WebEx service is still available for those who wish to continue using it.
Training for these new tools
The Teaching Support Centre continues to deliver weekly webinars for teachers and assistants. More than 450 of you attended these webinars during the first three weeks of online teaching, and we hope that many more will continue to come.
You will find the program valid until Friday, April 17 inclusive on the "Teach" page.
A few statistics on the use of the solutions implemented
We are entering the 4th week of online teaching and we continue to see a strong use of the solutions implemented for our community. Over 1700 Moodle spaces are open this semester and we are averaging 9000 unique users each day. Our UNIL-UBICAST media-server now hosts over 2100 videos or 1.8TB of data and has a current total of over 120,000 views. Webex for its part has recorded since the beginning of the crisis more than 3500 webinars or meetings with an average of 45 minutes per session for a total of more than 32'000 participants.
Meetings to exchange practices on distance learning
Many of you have implemented pedagogical and technological solutions to move your teaching to an online modality. After three weeks of lessons in this new form, we offer you the opportunity to come and exchange with your colleagues in a weekly session that we offer you.
Would you like to take part in these meetings? Go to the "Teach" page for all practical information.
A precision on the Matlab license
The University of Lausanne provides its students with several licenses of Matlab, a software for numerical calculation and data visualization. This will allow you to develop algorithms and create mathematical models. This tool is also a programming environment allowing to solve problems in a simple language. You can find more information about it on ch.mathworks.com.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that this solution is only available until 30 June 2020. Please plan your usage and requests carefully so that they do not exceed this date.
New collaborative tools: MS Teams
To work in a group and communicate, UNIL offers you a new application: Microsoft Teams. This complete solution, integrated with Office365, allows you to carry out videoconferences with many participants, to chat, to work in teams on documents, to create virtual communities and to share files. Installation and Getting Started Information.
To choose the applications that meet your needs, see the complete list of available tools and their respective features.
Personal data and privacy
In order to protect your private and sensitive data when using these digital applications, UNIL has taken measures and reminds you of the good practices to respect as a user. Please refer to UNIL's position paper on the protection of personal data in the age of COVID-19.
Digital security: pay attention!
For several days now, ill-intentioned people have been taking advantage of the crisis situation linked to the coronavirus to carry out scam attempts by email, telephone or on the Internet. That is why the IT Centre asks you to exercise extra caution, critical thinking and attention before clicking on a link. It thanks you for your valuable help and strongly encourages you to consult :
In case of problems or doubts, contact helpdesk@unil.ch or 021 692 22 11. If you need us to call you back, please leave your number.
Situation of researchers at UNIL: Mid-April clarification
The coronavirus crisis brought the scientific community to an abrupt halt, in particular due to the inaccessibility of libraries, laboratories or the field. In many cases, these obstacles were aggravated by working conditions made difficult by family imperatives and material or environmental aspects.
A key issue at UNIL, as at all Swiss universities, is the extension of fixed-term research contracts, especially for graduate assistants, first assistants, assistant professors, doctoral and post-doctoral students with external funding (SNSF, EU or other foundations). This crucial issue also affects anyone whose salary is linked to services offered to third parties (e.g. technicians of analytical platforms, survey or project managers, etc.).
In view of the suddenness and novelty of the situation, UNIL has undertaken important work to find solutions to the most diverse individual situations, in many cases having to take into account or still waiting to find out what arrangements will be made by research funding agencies.
UNIL's Rectorate coordinates in this task with the "Direction générale de l'enseignement supérieur et le Conseil d'Etat vaudois". Its priority objective is to ensure appropriate and fair compensation as soon as possible for researchers whose current income and project implementation are put into question by the crisis.
Starting in mid-April and in coordination with the deanates, the Rectorate will gradually communicate the procedures to be followed and the conditions that it will be able to offer to researchers in accordance with the provisions and timetable specific to each source of funding.