AFAM: Hello Thierry and thank you for this interview. You are a Digital Strategy & Educational Innovation Executive Advisor at Arts & Métiers. What does this role involve?
Thierry:
My role is to serve as executive advisor on digital strategy and educational innovation, with a mandate to provide project management support to the Director General. Practically, that means: aligning our Evolutive Learning Factories (ELF) across campuses with the institution’s digital strategy; orchestrating strategic watch and engagement across key networks (France Immersive Learning -FIL, CSIESR, EUNIS, EDUCAUSE, ENHANCE+); and ensuring our information system governance supports pedagogical innovation at scale. I also represent Arts et Métiers in VPNUM association and sit on the COSI (strategic IS committee), to keep decision-making tight between academic priorities and digital capabilities. Finally, I work on staff-development programmes so that colleagues can confidently adopt generative AI and XR in teaching and student services.
AFAM: Could you share recent projects and concrete actions across Arts et Métiers and its campuses?
Thierry:
Three concrete thrusts:
1. ELF pilots and scaling – We prioritise and track campus pilots that embed XR and GenAI into hybrid learning, lab practice and work-based projects; we document tested solutions, prioritise next steps, and measure adoption.
2. Capability-building – We run targeted upskilling pathways (JENII and CAIRE projects) to help faculty and professional staff integrate emerging tech into curricula with confidence and safeguards.
3. European contribution & foresight – I co-authored the European Digital Education Hub guide on immersive learning and contributed to EU-level futures work; this ensures our projects align with European trends and the Digital Education Action Plan.
At my instigation, Arts et Metiers and FIL have joined the response coalition to the Digital Europe call: Virtual World Skills Academy.
I am involved in two Erasmus/KA2020HED projects that began at the end of 2025: IDT4EU, for which I am the coordinator for the school, and DIGIREADY2, for which Arts et Metiers is one of the deployment pilots. Arts et Metiers and France Immersive Learning -FIL are members of the VR-AR Industrial Coalition and Arts et Metiers has just joined the Virtual World Association.
I am also co-leader of the Learning Tech Special Interest Group of the European association EUNIS, of which I am a former VP of the BoD.
At the international level, I participate in the work of the XR Community Group of the US association EDUCAUSE and I am co-leader of the French university delegation to the annual EDUCAUSE conference.
AFAM: You attended ASU’s “Agentic AI and the Student Experience” and spoke at EDUCAUSE 2025 in Nashville. What are the key takeaways?
Thierry:
From ASU (Tempe, 22–24 October 2025): the centre of gravity is shifting from “assistive” to agentic AI—systems that proactively make decisions and solve problems in service of the student journey (advising, tutoring, support). The event underscored ethics, safety, and human-in-the-loop design, with hands-on workshops and cases showing how to enhance personalisation while protecting privacy and equity.
From EDUCAUSE 2025 (Nashville): I contributed three sessions:
• The JENII Project (breakout): on integrating immersive virtual environments and digital twins into hybrid learning, with emphasis on the teacher–learner benefit balance and the technical-pedagogical continuum.
• (Digital) Education Reimagined for 2040 (poster): presenting four future scenarios from the European Digital Education Hub—continuing, constraining, declining, transforming—to stress strategic optionality and preparedness for 2030–2040.
• Keeping It (Virtually) Real (breakout): pragmatic XR project management in the classroom—framing, resourcing, ethics, and realistic deliverables—so teams can ship impactful experiences without overreach.
Across both events, three cross-cutting messages emerged: (1) pair agile pedagogy with robust data governance and cost/benefit discipline; (2) invest in staff capability and change management as much as in tools; (3) design student-centred services—personalised, ethical, and measurable—for impact and trust. (These emphases echo recent EDUCAUSE trendlines around GenAI, student success, learning spaces and leadership.)
Photo: courtesy of Thierry Koscielniak
Sessions with Thierry Koscielniak during EDUCAUSE 2025:
The JENII Project: Integrating Immersive and Interactive Virtual Environments into Hybrid Learning
(Digital) Education Reimagined for 2040: A European Insight on Possible Futures of Digital Education
Keeping It (Virtually) Real: XR Project Management in the Classroom
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