«Initiative to transform French higher education through digital technologies»

Abstract

In 2012, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research included a digital strategy for higher education among her top priorities. The ambitious digital agenda called “France Université Numérique” structured in 18 actions aims to support French universities to develop online education and promote innovative teaching and learning methods using digital and online tools. The agenda covers aspects from state-of-the-art infrastructure, efficient information systems to the innovative use of digital technologies in curricula, the promotion of digital educational content and the development of online titles.

The first action of this agenda is a platform of MOOCs deployed by the Ministry for French universities and their international academic partners. This decision was made in June 2013 and materialized in October 2013. To achieve this ambitious goal, the Ministry chose an open source solution, Open edX, and relied on public institutions to install and run the platform.

The platform was launched on October 28, 2013 (www.france-universite-numerique-mooc.fr) and courses started in January 2014. 25 MOOCs from 10 French higher education institutions were launched; more courses will come in 2014: about 50 MOOCs will be online in September 2014. The first 25 MOOCs cover various topics: history, philosophy, mathematics, biology, technologies, health, sustainable development, physics, administration, law, etc. Some of these courses are Masters level courses, but many of them are open to lifelong learning. Although most of the courses are in French, one is taught in English and 4 of them will be accessible in 3 languages, namely French, German and English. Cooperation with French-speaking universities around the world has been considered from the beginning.

Bio

Catherine Mongenet has been Professor of Informatics at the University of Strasbourg since 1999. From 2009 to 2012 she was Vice-Rector for ICT Strategy at the University of Strasbourg. As such, she was responsible for defining the digital policy. This policy was the result of a process that lasted a year in which more than 50 projects were defined and structured into 7 programs, which covered a wide range of topics from infrastructures to information systems, from virtual learning environments to web 2.0 internet platforms, from the production of electronic content to editorial policy.