Introduction
The 1st Cyber-Physical Learning Alliance Summit (CPLAS 2024) is an event that brings together researchers, faculty members, industry professionals, and decision makers from around the world to explore the diverse approaches employed by universities in implementing cyber-physical learning (CPL) scenarios. This summit aims to promote international collaboration, share current practices, and advance the field of CPL, focusing on topics such as Artificial Intelligence in CPL, Hackathons for CPL, CPL Educational Models, Learning Analytics in CPL, Applications of CPL, and Ethics in CPL.
CPL extends beyond hybrid learning where face-to-face learning experiences are simply combined with online learning experiences (Garrison and Kanuka, 2004). Instead, CPL seeks to establish an integrated and seamless learning for both cyber and physical students, that would give flexibility and accessibility without sacrificing the joy, fun and intimacy of the classroom (Pey, 2022). CPL does so by including additional key factors within learning environments, such as information and educational technologies, learning analytics, pedagogical architectures, assessment methodologies, educational models, institutional policies, and data management (SUTD’s Office of Digital Learning, 2022).
In essence, CPL can be understood as the holistic design, implementation, and analysis of learning environments, seeking to transform and optimize education by combining pedagogy and technology in disruptive, yet efficient ways (Oliveira, and de Souza, 2022; Kopp, 2019). Therefore, applications such as tele-presence, immersive learning environments, intelligent tutors, personalized learning, multimodal learning analytics, artificial intelligence applications, among others, are CPL approaches.
CPLAS 2024 is organized by the Cyber-Physical Learning Alliance (CPLA), founded in 2023 by decision makers and researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD, Singapore), Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC, Mexico), Aalto University (Finland), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST, Hong Kong), and Zhejiang University (ZJU, China).