Research Projects

Principal Investigator (PI)	Research Project
	2022-2023 . PI of the CreaComp project “Effects of wartime stress on creative problem-solving. A comparative study of children in Kyiv and Ukrainian refugees in France” funded by the IdEx UCAJedi Advanced Research Program. CreaComp supports the technological development of CreaCube and a 12 months visiting professorship for prof. Oksana Strutynska, full professor in the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Physics (NPDU, Kyiv, Ukraine). The project engages Ukranian and French participants for the study of computational thinking.
	2018-2023. PI CreaMaker “Evaluation de la co-créativité dans une activité de fabrication physico-numérique de type maker” funded by the ANR (Agence nationale de la recherche), the French National Research Agency within the Révolution Numérique (Digital Revolution) scheme (ANR-18-CE38-0001). The CreaMaker project has been a key project for the consolidation of the LINE research lab during my mandate supporting the funding of 3 graduate students (PhD and postdocs) and permit to develop a strategic collaboration with the INRIA Mnemosyne team.
	2022. MOVETIA Grant funded by the Swiss-European Mobility Programme (SEMP) for a joint study and two mobilities with HEP Vaud Lausanne & EPFL colleagues working on computational thinking modeling through Markov chains. This mobility is a synergistic action with the ANR CreaMaker project.
	2020-2023. PI of the Groupe de Travail Numérique (GTnum), “Scol_IA : Renouvellement des pratiques numériques et usages créatifs du numérique et intelligence artificielle” (Scol_IA), in co-direction with my LINE colleagues Dr. Heiser and Dr. Rafalska, funded by the Direction du Numérique Educatif (DNE), the Department of Digital Learning of the French Government. The project has reunited 26 researchers in France, Canada and Belgium for the study of the creative uses of AI in education both in formal and informal contexts. The GTnum is a funding scheme of the DNE with the double objective of advancing research but also policymaking in the field of AI in education in France.
	2015-2018. PI of the CoCreaTIC «Étude du développement de la compétence professionnelle d’intégration des TIC de futurs enseignants par le biais de la programmation de robots et de jeux éducatifs : recherche-action” (Study of the development of pre-teachers’ digital competence through the programming of robots and educational games: an action-research in Québec schools) project funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Agency of Quebec) (ID FRQSC 192090). This action research project has permitted advancement in the study of computational thinking in digital game based learning (DGBL) and educational robotics. #SmartCityMaker : Présentation et ressources
	2016.2021. Co-investigator of the project “Design for Better Health: User-Centred Design and Evaluation of Interactive Media for Health Education, Communication and Decision-Making”, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The project consists of developing and evaluating novel, needed tools to support evidence-informed, values-congruent decisions in primary care. These tools will be used in modules (mobile-enabled web applications) to support six common decisions in primary care. Emotional and cognitive effects of these tools will be evaluated to ensure they evoke desired responses (e.g., reduced confusion, increased rates of evidence-informed, values-congruent decisions). The modules’ usability and user experience will also be evaluated to ensure they are useful, easy to use and engaging, as these are critical predictors of future use, and collect pilot data to inform plans for further evaluation beyond this program.
	2014-2015. PI of the project “Révision d’articles et réalisation d’une taxonomie sur l’usage pédagogique des jeux sérieux dans l’enseignement primaire” (Litterature review and taxonomy development of educational uses of serious games in primary education) funded by the Développement De La Recherche (BDR), Faculté des Sciences de l’Éducation at Université Laval. This starting grant was an excellent way to be familiarised with the research project management in Université Laval and permitted me to develop the literature review and taxonomy for preparing the CoCreaTIC FRQSC project.
	2008-2012. PI of the Euro-CAT-CSCL project, a Marie Curie Action Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (457 K€, IAPP, ID grant 218306). I obtained my first funded project as principal investigator (PI) in 2008 during my PhD. My research motivation was to further develop the widget prototype I designed for my PhD: a group awareness tool (Groupware Widget integrated in Moodle) supporting Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities and promoting a better co-regulation of CSCL (Romero et al. 2009; Romero & Wareham, 2009; Romero, 2010). https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/88834/factsheet/fr

	Partner leadership in international project lead by other institutions
	2023-2025, UCA leader & WP4 leader within the AugMentor project. “Augmented Intelligence for Pedagogically Sustained Training and Education” (HORIZON-CL2-2021 ID Grant 101061509) project aiming to build an AI-supported toolkit for supporting teachers in generating adaptive learning activities.
	2021-2023, UCA leader within the KA2 Erasmus+ Unplugged Quest. The Unplugged Quest has permitted our team at UCA to advance in collaboration with our partners in the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model, based on the large opportunities for evaluation of the CPS model, not only in HRI activities such as those developed in the ANR CreaMaker project but also in unplugged computing activities.
	*2019-2022, UCA leader within the Erasmus+ Communauté d’Apprentissage de l’Informatique* (CAI), Computer Science Learning Community** (KA201-11ED27B1). The CAI project has permitted reuniting the CS teachers in the European French speaking European countries to join efforts in the development of a community for supporting K16 CS education. The project permitted to advance the study of Computational Thinking (CT) activities through Human Robot Interaction (HRI) activities including a diversity of educational robots.
	2019-2022, UCA leader within the KA2 Erasmus+ Let’s STEAM! .This European project has allowed the consolidation of templates of Open Educational Resources (OER) and assessment methodologies for CPS activities in STEAM. Within the Let’s STEAM! Workshops, the Spanish (URV) and Belgian (La Scientothèque) partners have collected CreaCube experimentations and participated in the comparative studies developed in the ANR CreaMaker project.
	2014-2021. Université Laval leader within the “Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT): experiencing a digital world in later life” SSHRC-CRSH Partnership Grant (ID SSHRC Grant 690766). Within the ACT project, I co-lead the Silver Gaming research team, developing studies on Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL) for older players but also in intergenerational settings.
	2011-2013. Partner within the eSG project “Stimulating entrepreneurship through Serious Games” (ID Grant: FP7 518742-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-ERASMUS-FEXI). The eSG project has developed and assessed three SGs aiming to stimulate students’ entrepreneurship mindset and competencies.
	2011-2013. Partner within the CoCreat project “CoCreat, Enabling Creative Collaboration through Supportive Technologies” (ID Grant: 511733 LLP-1-2010-1-FI-KA3 KA3MP). The CoCreat project has been an excellent opportunity to study creative processes assessment in learning activities mediated by digital technologies.In CoCreat project I have contributed to studies on creativity in contexts using ICT throughout life (from childhood to the third age). One of the studies developed in the CoCreat framework allowed me to participate in the ‘Aging-Communications-Media’ seminar in October 2012 and to establish the collaboration that led to my participation as co-researcher of the SSHRC partnership project Ageing + Communications + Technology (ACT). https://cocreat.wordpress.com/
	2010-2014, Co-applicant, FP7-ICT-Call 5 Network of Excellence (NoE) Games and Learning Alliance (ID Grant 258169). The GaLA NoE has been a key lever for organising the serious game research in Europe, creating a yearly conference (GALA) and a peer reviewed journal in the field (IJSG). After the GALA network most of the partners continue their collaboration through the Serious Game Society (SGS).
	2010-2014. Associate research to ANR COMPETENCES project “Processus global de réingénierie pour l’acquisition et le développement de compétences” (Global re-engineering process for competency development). The COMPETENCES project is funded by the ANR Contenus et Interactions Call (CONTINT). This project was an excellent opportunity to improve my expertise in the assessment of problem solving and creativity competencies.
	2010-2013. Associate researcher to FI_PANIC project “Formación de la identidad profesional del profesor universitario a través del anàlisis de Incidentes Críticos”led by Prof. Monereo (SINTE, UAB). FI_PANIC is funded by the Dirección General de Investigación y gestión del Plan Nacional I+D+i (ID Grant: EDU2010-15211). Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (SP). The FI_PANIC projects has permitted to identify critical incidents destabilising the teaching task of faculty and to evaluate a formative proposal based on a pattern for the analysis of critical incidents (PANIC) and applied with and without peer tutoring.
	*2010-2012. Associate researcher to the “Gestión estratégica de la docencia en el marco de una formación con enfoque en competencias” project* (Strategic management of teaching within the framework of training with a focus on competencies) led by Prof. Castello. The project is funded by the Universidad de Magallanes. Ministerio de Educación. (Chile).