Researches at MOBOTS pursuit developing innovative educational robots technologies and investigating their impact in learning activities.
The MOBOTS team has a long tradition of development of mobile robots for education, starting with the Khepera robot, through platforms like the MarxBot and up to the more recent Thymio and e-puck robots.
Because the policy of bringing these tools to the market, these robot have reached thousands of schools, from primary to university level. These results have been reached with the help of companies or association manufacturing and distributing these tools, but also with the help of government that supported their introduction in schools.
In the recent years, synergies have been created with the EPFL Center for Learning Sciences LEARN, merging the robotics effort with a more broad effort in education about computational thinking, computer science, and digital literacy.
The studies conducted in MOBOTS realated to Education were mainly founded by the National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCRs), more especifically in the Grand Challenge of Educational Robotics.
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2024
Book Chapters
How to Support Students to Cultivate Psychological Safety in their Teams
Teaching Transversal Skills for Engineering Students: A Practical Handbook of Activities with Tangibles; EPFL, 2024.DOI : 10.5281/zenodo.11192095
2023
Journal Articles
Correction: How are primary school computer science curricular reforms contributing to equity? Impact on student learning, perception of the discipline, and gender gaps (vol 10, 60, 2023)
International Journal Of Stem Education
2023-11-02
Vol. 10 , num. 1, p. 63.DOI : 10.1186/s40594-023-00456-1
Un modèle pluraliste d’éducation numérique, l’expérience du canton de Vaud en Suisse
Distances et Médiations des savoirs
2023-10-13
Vol. 43/2023 .DOI : 10.4000/dms.9344
A Research-Practice Partnership to Introduce Computer Science in Secondary School: Lessons from a Pilot Program
ACM Transactions on Computing Education
2023-02-15
DOI : 10.1145/3583779
An Adapted Cascade Model to Scale Primary School Digital Education Curricular Reforms and Teacher Professional Development Programs
2023
DOI : 10.48550/arxiv.2306.02751
How are primary school computer science curricular reforms contributing to equity? Impact on student learning, perception of the discipline, and gender gaps
International Journal of STEM Education
2023
Vol. 10 , num. 1.DOI : 10.1186/s40594-023-00438-3
An adapted cascade model to scale primary school digital education curricular reforms and teacher professional development programs
Education and Information Technologies
2023
DOI : 10.1007/s10639-023-12043-6
Modelling the sustainability of a primary school digital education curricular reform and professional development program
Education and Information Technologies
2023
DOI : 10.1007/s10639-023-11653-4
From teacher to teacher-trainer: A qualitative study exploring factors contributing to a successful train-the-trainer digital education program
Social Sciences & Humanities Open
2023
Vol. 8 , num. 1, p. 100518.DOI : 10.1016/j.ssaho.2023.100518
Datasets
Dataset for the evaluation of student-level outcomes of a primary school Computer Science curricular reform
2023
Dataset for the evaluation of the scalability of a primary school Digital Education curricular reform
2023
2022
Journal Articles
The TACS Model: Understanding Primary School Teachers’ Adoption of Computer Science Pedagogical Content
ACM Transactions on Computing Education
2022-10-26
DOI : 10.1145/3569587
The role of feedback and guidance as intervention methods to foster computational thinking in educational robotics learning activities for primary school
Computers & Education
2022-01-07
Vol. 180 , p. 104431.DOI : 10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104431
The CT-cube: A framework for the design and the assessment of computational thinking activities
Computers in Human Behavior Reports
2022-01-06
p. 100166.DOI : 10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100166
The competent Computational Thinking Test: Development and Validation of an Unplugged Computational Thinking Test for Upper Primary School
Journal of Educational Computing Research
2022
p. 073563312210817.DOI : 10.1177/07356331221081753
Conference Papers
A case for co-construction with teachers in curricular reform: Introducing computer science in primary school
ACE ’22: Australasian Computing Education Conference
2022-02-14
Australasian Computing Education Conference, Virtual, February 14-18, 2022.p. 56-65
DOI : 10.1145/3511861.3511883
Reports
Projet EduNum – obligatoire et postobligatoire. Rapport sur la quatrième année.
2022
p. 106.Datasets
Dataset for the publication “The TACS Model: Understanding Teachers’ Adoption of Computer Science Pedagogical Content in Primary School”
2022
Dataset for the validation of a Computational Thinking test for upper primary school (grades 3-4)
2022
2021
Journal Articles
Accessible Maker-based Approaches to Educational Robotics in Online Learning
IEEE Access
2021-07-02
Vol. 10 , p. 1-15.DOI : 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3094158
The symbiotic relationship between educational robotics and computer science in formal education
Education and Information Technologies
2021-04-04
Vol. 26 , p. 5077–5107.DOI : 10.1007/s10639-021-10494-3
A computer science and robotics integration model for primary school: evaluation of a large-scale in-service K-4 teacher-training program
Education and Information Technologies
2021
Vol. 26 , p. 2445–2475.DOI : 10.1007/s10639-020-10355-5
Conference Papers
Exploring a Handwriting Programming Language for Educational Robots
Robotics in Education
2021-08-01
12th International Conference on Robotics in Education (Rie 2021), Bratislava, Slovakia, April 28-30, 2021.p. 268-275
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-82544-7_25
Developing STEM and Team-working Skills Through Collaborative Space Robotics Missions
AFRICON Conference Proceedings 2021
2021
2021 IEEE AFRICON, Arusha, Tanzania, 13-15 Sept. 2021.p. 1-6
DOI : 10.1109/AFRICON51333.2021.9570851
Investigating the Role of Educational Robotics in Formal Mathematics Education: The Case of Geometry for 15-Year-Old Students
Technology-Enhanced Learning for a Free, Safe, and Sustainable World
2021
European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2021), Virtual, Septembre 20-24, 2021.p. 67-81
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-86436-1_6
Teachers’ Perspective on Fostering Computational Thinking Through Educational Robotics
Robotics in Education
2021
International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE 2021), Bratislava, Slovakia, April 28-30, 2021.p. 177-185
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-82544-7_17
Book Chapters
Aligning the Design of Educational Robotics Tools With Classroom Activities
Designing, Constructing, and Programming Robots for Learning; IGI Global, 2021-11-01. p. 368.ISBN : 978-1-799874-43-0
DOI : 10.4018/978-1-7998-7443-0.ch001
Reports
Projet EduNum — Obligatoire: Rapport sur la troisième année En Collaboration avec la HEP Vaud, l’UNIL et le DFJC
2021-11-15
p. 159.Datasets
Dataset for the evaluation of a large-scale in-service K-4 teacher-training program for computer science and robotics
2021
2020
Journal Articles
Fostering computational thinking through educational robotics: a model for creative computational problem solving
International Journal of STEM Education
2020-08-03
Vol. (2020) 7:39 , p. 1-18.DOI : 10.1186/s40594-020-00238-z
Conference Papers
Introducing a Paper-Based Programming Language for Computing Education in Classrooms
Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
2020
2020 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, Trondheim, Norway, June 15-19, 2020.DOI : 10.1145/3341525.3387402
Learning Symmetry with Tangible Robots
Robotics In Education: Current Research And Innovations
2020-01-01
10th International Conference on Robotics in Education (RiE), Vienna, AUSTRIA, Apr 10-12, 2019.p. 270-283
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-26945-6_24
Reports
Formation des enseignant·e·s au numérique Rapport sur la deuxième année de formation à l’Education Numérique aux Cycles 1 et 2A en Collaboration avec la HEP Vaud, l’UNIL et le DFJC
2020
p. 105.2019
Conference Papers
A Tangible Programming Language for the Educational Robot Thymio
[Proceedings of the IISA 2019 The 10th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications]
2019-08-18
IISA 2019 The 10th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, Patras, Greece, July 15-17, 2019.Augmented Robotics for Learners: A Case Study on Optics
2019 28th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN)
2019
IEEE RoMan 2019 – The 28th IEEE International Conference on Robot & Human Interactive Communication, New Delhi, India, October 14 – 18, 2019.DOI : 10.1109/RO-MAN46459.2019.8956363
Reports
Formation des Enseignant·e·s au Numérique: Rapport sur la Première Année de Formation à la Science Informatique au Cycle 1 en Collaboration avec la HEP Vaud, l’Unil et le DFJC
2019-04-20
p. 99.Patents
Magnet-assisted ball drive
Patent number(s) :
- US10377231 (B2)
- US2019016213 (A1)
2019
2018
Conference Papers
Declarative Physicomimetics for Tangible Swarm Application Development
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, ANTS 2018
2018-10-29
11th International Conference on Swarm Intelligence, ANTS 2018, Rome, Italy, October 29-31, 2018.DOI : 10.1007/978-3-030-00533-7
Iterative Design of an Upper Limb Rehabilitation Game with Tangible Robots
Proceedings of 2018 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2018-03-05
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Chicago, IL, USA, March 5-8, 2018.p. 241-250
DOI : 10.1145/3171221.3171262
2017
Conference Papers
Windfield: Demonstrating Wind Meteorology with Handheld Haptic Robots
HRI ’17 Proceedings of the Companion of the 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
2017
HRI ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Vienna, Austria, March 6-9, 2017.p. 48-49
DOI : 10.1145/3029798.3036664
Haptic-Enabled Handheld Mobile Robots: Design and Analysis
Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
2017
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Denver, Colorado, USA, May 6-11, 2017.p. 2449-2461
DOI : 10.1145/3025453.3025994
Cellulo: Versatile Handheld Robots for Education
HRI ’17: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Proceedings
2017
ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), Vienna, Austria, March 6-9, 2017.p. 119-127
DOI : 10.1145/2909824.3020247
2016
Journal Articles
R2T2 : Robotics to Integrate Educational Efforts in South Africa and Europe
International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems
2016
Vol. 13 , num. 5, p. 1-13.DOI : 10.1177/1729881416658165
Pedagogical Uses of Thymio II: How Do Teachers Perceive Educational Robots in Formal Education?
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
2016
Vol. 23 , num. 2, p. 16-23.DOI : 10.1109/MRA.2016.2535080
2015
Conference Papers
You’re Doing It Wrong! Studying Unexpected Behaviors in Child-Robot Interaction
Social Robotics, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference, ICSR 2015
2015
International Conference on Social Robotics, Paris, France, October 26-30, 2015.p. 390-400
DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_39
IniRobot : a pedagogical kit to initiate children to concepts of robotics and computer science
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Robotics in Education
2015
6th International Conference on Robotics in Education, Yverdon, Switzerland, May 20-22, 2015.p. 28-34
2014
Conference Papers
Which Robot Behavior Can Motivate Children to Tidy up Their Toys? Design and Evaluation of “Ranger”
Proceedings of the 2014 ACM/IEEE international conference on Human-robot interaction
2014
9th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI’14), Bielefeld, Germany, March 3-6, 2014.p. 439-446
DOI : 10.1145/2559636.2559659
2013
Journal Articles
Upgrade Your Robot Competition, Make a Festival!
IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine
2013
Vol. 20 , num. 3, p. 12-14.DOI : 10.1109/MRA.2013.2272203
Conference Papers
Thymio II, a robot that grows wiser with children
Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO), 2013 IEEE Workshop on
2013
The 2013 IEEE Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts (ARSO), Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, November 7-9, 2013.p. 187-193
DOI : 10.1109/ARSO.2013.6705527
2012
Conference Papers
Analysis of Impact of an Annual Robotics Festival
Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts
2012
The IEEE International Workshop on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts, Munich, Germany, May 21-23, 2012.p. 30-35
DOI : 10.1109/ARSO.2012.6213394