MOOCs (Massive open online courses), initiated six years ago in the United States, are online courses open to all and free of charge that offer new perspectives of professional training. The platforms that host them are diverse, can be public or private, and may or may not be for profit.
Presented five years ago as an educational revolution, have these online courses lived up to their promise?
In October 2017, under the provocative headline, "MOOCs make pschitt") the newspaper Monde pointed out the first disillusionments: poverty in terms of innovation (" online videos of courses with quizzes to check that learners don't drop out") and dizzying dropout rates (" half of the enrollees consult only one session of the course and only 4% of them go all the way to the end") .
15% of French Internet users have taken an online course
The Capacity survey (supported by the Agence du Numérique) highlighted the proportion of Internet users (15%) who said they had participated in a distance learning course in 2016: for training or to obtain a degree or certificate. They are on the whole younger, more educated and wealthier than Internet users as a whole. Thus, the authors concluded, "those who take the most advantage of the Internet to broaden their range of knowledge and skills in formal learning arrangements are those whose skills are already recognized through diplomas, while, among Internet users whose level of education is less than or equal to CAP/BEP, only a handful have ever taken an online course." The wording of the question in the Capacity survey does not isolate MOOCs from other forms of online training. To get a clearer picture, one can visit the website my-mooc.com/en/ , a specialized platform that lists MOOCs in France as well as the actors in the MOOC ecosystem.500,000 French people registered in (at least) one MOOC
By cross-checking various sources, we can estimate that nearly half a million French people have registered and taken at least one MOOC.According to MyMooc, 313 MOOCs had been launched throughout 2016, 62% of which were designed by Universities or Grandes Ecoles. For the year 2016, MyMooc estimated 2.4 Million French people registered on MOOCs (a person can be registered to several of them).
For its part, the Fun-Mooc platform announced in April 2017 that it had crossed the threshold of the first million registrants (70% of which are in France, i.e. around 700,000). According to FUN-Mooc, 28,000 new registrants register each month (nearly 20,000 in France).
37,000 registrants in the "Project Management" MOOC in 2017
The Project Management MOOC launched in 2013 by Centrale Lille, hosted by the Unow platform, has registered 167426 registrants since its creation: 37000 in 2017 alone.The objective of this MOOC is to enable learners to design and manage a project from A to Z. It is aimed at students, professionals in employment or those wishing to retrain. Followed by all first-year Centrale students, this MOOC allows them to manage a project in all its facets and to give constructive feedback to other students through peer evaluation of deliverables. The GDP MOOC has made a breakthrough in the French-speaking world: North Africa, Africa and Haiti. It has one of the highest success rates with almost 33,000 authenticated attestations and certificates issued.
100,000 registrants in 4 years for the MOOC "Digital Manufacturing
Launched in 2014 the Institut Mines-Télécom, theDigital Manufacturing MOOC has reached 100,000 registrants this year and generated 12,000 certificates.This MOOC offers a complete training in FabLab technologies. No specific theoretical background is required, this course is aimed at the curious and the digital enthusiast of all ages. The course " Digital Manufacturing: from idea to prototype " is divided into four steps, spread over the year: "Getting started in digital manufacturing", "Programming an object with Arduino", "Making a connected object", "Designing and modeling in a FabLab".
17,000 registrants in the "Sustainable Building" MOOC in 2017
In November 2016, ADEME in collaboration with the Sustainable Building Plan and FUN launched the MOOC Sustainable Building" platform. The objective was to develop skills on this subject both for professionals in the sector, but also for the general public.The first two MOOCs at the end of 2016 had captured 8,700 registrants for 12,000 registrations (7,500 registrations on the "High Performance Renovation" MOOC and 4,500 registrations on the MOOC " A method to succeed in your renovation operations and sites "). The MOOC "Rénovation performante" had a rather high success rate of 31%. On these two courses, 60% of the registrants were professionals of the sector.
A second wave of MOOCs was launched in September 2017. The platform now has a dozen new MOOCs and 17,000 registrants. About 90% of the participants in this MOOC said they were satisfied or very satisfied with both the content and the form.
15,000 registrants on Class'Code
Launched at the start of the 2016 school year and supported by Inria, the Class'Code program aims to train teachers in computational thinking so that they in turn can train their students. Supported by a Future Investment Program, the project aims to support 300,000 educators in five years.By the end of April 2017, 15,000 people had registered for the elementary and middle school related Class'Code trainings (over 50% took advantage of the trainings). 7,500 people had signed up for the ICN MOOC online training (with over 750 completing the training after two months)
47.53% of the registrants were teachers. Among them, 46% teach mathematics, 15% physics, 11% ITS and 8% technology.
22,513 registered for the Mooc "Modern and contemporary art in 5 steps".
The Centre Pompidou and Orange, with the support of the ERDF (European Fund for Economic and Regional Development) and the Universities of Paris Lumières and Paris Nanterre, have joined forces to offer a MOOC devoted to modern and contemporary art. Organized around five sequences, five gestures (assemble, destroy, reproduce, reduce, criticize), this course involves curators, specialists and artists. It counts 22513 registered students since its first session.330 Mooc hosted by France Université Numérique
Launched by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in October 2013, the GIP France Université Numérique (Fun) aims to federate the projects of French universities and schools and give them, if necessary, international visibility, via the Mooc FUN platform. In 2013, 10 institutions offered 25 online courses. In 2017, 104 of them have designed more than 340 training capsules. FUN-Mooc now has 3.4 million subscribers since its creation (one million in 2017) and 330 hosted Mooc.France Université Numérique has recently undertaken to diversify its offer (and its sources of financing) by allowing, for example, higher education institutions to certify training courses, with an average cost of 60 euros for the learner. France Université Numérique has opened a new platform, FUN Corporate, which is aimed at companies wishing to train their staff.
Afpa launches a MOOC "French as a foreign language
Through this new MOOC, which opened on February 1, Afpa (Association for Adult Vocational Training) is setting up a tool for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers attending its centers - 1,345 people to date - but also for a much wider audience. This MOOC, open to all, includes 30 hours of courses organized over 6 weeks. It is the first MOOC FLE for beginners partially translated into 4 languages: English, Arabic, Pashto and Dari, which are the languages most commonly spoken by the people welcomed at Afpa. A discussion forum completes the 15 pedagogical and thematic videos, and translators will be able to intervene regularly to help learners. This tool will also be useful for companies employing employees with a poor command of French, particularly in the construction and temporary work sectors. This program can be followed in the Afpa centers which will provide computers connected to the Internet.Some lessons learned from the 25 MOOCs of theInstitut Mines-Télécom
Since 2013, the Institut Mines Télécom (IMT) has launched 25 MOOCs "played" on the FUN platform but also Coursera and edX. A few weeks ago, the Institute published its first activity report on the development of MOOCs within its schools.ITM has 340,000 registrants in 170 countries. Among them, 75% are men: 34% are between 25 and 34 years old. 47% of the people who participated in ITM MOOCs had a bachelor's degree and 17% a bachelor's degree.
Of the 340,000 learners, 22,500 went all the way.Eight percent of registered learners successfully complete the MOOC.A learner who completes at least one activity in the second week of the MOOC has a 60 percent chance of reaching the set success threshold. The progress report looked at the factors of engagement and success.
- "The greater the workload and the longer it is spread out over time, the more learners drop out. MOOC users say they can spend an average of two hours per week over a period of 4 to 5 weeks maximum.
- The implementation of interactive learning activities helps to sustain learner involvement.
- Opportunities to practice and receive feedback on your work are fundamental to moving forward.
- Being able to successfully complete a follow-up certification is also a factor in
- motivation for learners.
- Finally, the level of tutoring and follow-up by the teaching team influences the involvement of the learners.
While the vast majority of MOOC registrants do not finish the course, due to a lack of involvement but also due to a choice to only pick up a few contents, the platforms are no longer satisfied with awarding certificates (which distinguish the most assiduous users who appreciate seeing their acquired skills recognized) and are moving towards certifications, which can be valued on the job market.
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