| Abstract |
European countries are facing potential shortage of scientific professionals in the coming years. Major reasons behind such crisis include the perception amongst students that science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects are difficult, less rewarding than some other subjects and, most importantly, the ineffectiveness of traditional STEM teaching paradigm in invoking students' motivation and maintaining their interests. To tackle the crisis, NEWTON1, a large-scale initiative funded by Horizon 20202, propose to develop, integrate and disseminate innovative technologyenhanced learning (TEL) methods and tools, and build a pan-European learning network platform that supports fast dissemination of learning content to a wide audience in a ubiquitous manner. NEWTON focuses on employing novel technologies, such as serious games, AR/VR, Fab lab, virtual lab, gamification, in order to enrich the learning process, enhance learner quality of experience and potentially improve learning outcomes. In this paper, a brief overview of the NEWTON project and an insight of its key components are presented. To reveal the impacts of the NEWTON offerings, three large-scale pilots, namely, Earth Course, Programming, and GAM-LAB, are described. These pilots are deployed in four countries across Europe, utilize the NEWTON Project Platform (NEWTELP) as well as various NEWTON technologies, and cover audience from different education levels. To effectively evaluate these pilots, a comprehensive evaluation methodology which consists of surveys, knowledge tests, and interviews is employed. |
| Keywords |
STEM, LMS, gamification, serious games, virtual lab, Fab lab, AR/VR, Virtual Lab, personalization, adaptation |
