MOOC and practices in electrical and information engineering: Complementary approaches

The new tools invading our digital world, such as tablets, smart phones are connected to the data centers through the internet and allows the introduction of new pedagogical tools. Among them, the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), available on internet sites, is inducing worldwide changes in the educative strategies. These tools are particularly well-suited to learn a good background, which is mainly theoretical in this case. However, the training of engineers and doctors in electrical engineering requires practices and know-how that are mandatory for designing new and innovative objects that are today highly complex, covering several domains of expertise, and also very frequently connected. The main challenge is to give to our future engineers both methodology and know-how that cannot be provided by the online lectures. New pedagogical approaches, such as flipped classrooms, project-based learning, labworks and internships, must be setup in order to prepare the graduates to the new industrial environment and to the evolution of our technological society.