Innovation: France Digital University (FUN) MOOC
France
AAI Domains:
Independent, healthy and secure living (educational attainment, lifelong learning).
Capacity and enabling environment (use of ICT).
Improving educational attainment across society is likely to have positive economic and social effects and the quest for knowledge and putting it to purposeful use is an important part of the challenges that face European societies.
In the last decade there has been a rapid growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) predominantly from American universities in partnership with a number of foundations and private corporations that have enhanced the dominant position of English as the international language of academic life. However, there are many people who do not speak English and there is a large French speaking population around the world who can benefit from access to short courses of higher education.
In response to the rise of MOOCs that use English, the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research committed an initial €20 million to a national digital education strategy that included the development of France Universite Numerique (FUN). It is a partnership of INRIA (a public sector institute for digital research), CINES (a public sector institute for ICT) and RENATER (a public interest group for telecommunications infrastructure) that is the national platform presented via a web portal. It also serves as an international portal for the Francophone world as MOOCs have been pioneered on a large scale in the English speaking world.
FUN was launched in October 2013 and now has more than 750,000 registered users who have participated more than a million times in courses. There are nearly 200 courses from more than 60 partner institutions.
The short courses cover a broad range of subjects and are all in French with some also offered in English to cater for the Anglophone world. FUN is part of a wider movement to promote a French-language international academic community and there is a broad mixture of users with the majority (61%) in the 25–50 age range, 13% are retired, 11% unemployed people and 9% are students showing the broad appeal of MOOCs.
To register and take courses is free for users with modest fees for certification of completion and achievement. There are also plans for the development of MOOCs for vocational training to complement the academic and technical short courses that are currently on offer. As with all MOOC providers, the emphasis is on students interacting and learning from the presented sessions and from each other as well as completing the tasks that are required as part of the course.
In relation to active ageing, FUN offers the MOOC experience to the French speaking population and should contribute to increasing educational attainment over the life course. It is interesting to note that it is used by a wide range of people showing that there is an enthusiasm for gaining knowledge for people of all ages. It is relevant to the active ageing index’s domain for the use of ICT and provides a powerful example of how learning is being transformed through the use of technology.
While there are always risks of social innovations that rely on the use of ICT deepening the digital divide, the potential of MOOCs such as FUN to contribute to increasing educational attainment across the life course is very promising. There is a link between the level of educational attainment and employability over the life course so it is plausible that FUN can contribute to extending working lives as people learn new skills over their life course.