The MOOCs

1. What is a MOOC?

MOOC is an acronym which means Massive Online Open Courses, translated into French as Cours en Ligne Ouverts et Massifs, CLOM, or more elegantly, Formations Libres Ouvertes à Tous, FLOT.

Many articles are published about these MOOCs that have recently appeared in the higher education landscape and are now supported by the Ministry in the framework of its FUN project, France Université Numérique. But what is a MOOC?

• Course: this is a course with pedagogical objectives, not just resources that are distributed online.
• Online: the course is only followed at a distance.
• Open: accessible to the general public
• Massive: large number of registrants, unlimited number of participants

2. the MOOC AMU on FUN

They can be consulted on the FUN website.

• Improved rehabilitation after surgery
  • Improving the surgical management of our patients, speeding up the resumption of independent activity, limiting complications related to surgery, and thus reducing the length of hospital stay, these are the benefits of Improved Rehabilitation After Surgery (RAAC). The aim of the RAAC is to speed up the patient's recovery process after surgery by a "mini-invasive" route (conventional laparoscopy or robot-assisted laparoscopy) whenever possible or by an open route (laparotomy). These programs optimize perioperative management by standardizing coordinated care pathways, from the surgical consultation to the return home.
  • Project leaders: Jean Louis Blache - Eric Lambaudie
• Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology, How Neurons Communicate
  • Basic principles of neurophysiology: ion gradients, membrane potential, ion currents, voltage-sensitive channels, receptor-channels opened by neurotransmitters.
  • Project initiator: Constance Hammond, Project leader: Isabelle Virard - Carried by project teachers Brain Master Program.
  • Supported by A*MIDEX
• Malaria
  • The aim of this MOOC is to present the disease, both in tropical areas and in returning travellers, through the history of the patients, the means of diagnosis and treatment, the means of control and research developments. This MOOC, presented by world-renowned French-speaking experts, is intended for a post-baccalaureate level audience.
  • Project leaders: Philippe Parola / Eric Chabriere
  • Supported by A*MIDEX
• The language between nature and culture
  • The general objective of this MOOC is to discover some key elements of what we know today about human language, conceived both as a natural phenomenon, because it is linked to our biological history, and as a cultural phenomenon, because it is linked to the development and transmission of culture in our societies.
  • Project Initiator: Marie Amount
  • A version is available on AMeTICE.
  • Supported by A*MIDEX
• Astrophysics - From the Solar System to the Big Bang
  • The objective of this MOOC is to provide people with a scientific background with information to understand the universe in which we live. This "generalist" MOOC will deal with the major essential themes of modern astrophysics: the solar system and the planets outside the solar system, the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies containing hundreds of billions of stars and planets, and cosmology in an attempt to understand the formation and evolution of the universe.
  • Project owner: Denis Burgarella
• Around neurons: focus on myelin
  • The objective of this MOOC is to know everything about myelin in 8 weeks.
    This course covers a number of topics including: myelin function in the central and peripheral nervous system; myelin formation during development and its regulation in adults; the impact of aging on myelin; and myelin-related diseases.
  • Target audience: students in biological sciences at bac+3/4 level (end of bachelor's or master's degree), doctoral students, engineers and researchers.
  • Designed by a team of researchers from the Institute of Developmental Biology of Marseille (IBDM - CNRS/AMU) and the Institute of Neurobiology of the Mediterranean (Inmed - Inserm/AMU)/,
  • Supported by A*MIDEX and Future Investment Program to the Brain Master Program and nEURo*AMU projects.

3. the MOOC AMU outside FUN

• Climate change: the school of interdisciplinarity > more information
  Produced as part of the mission to disseminate scientific knowledge by the LabEx OT-Med laboratory of excellence, specializing in environmental sciences, and supported by Aix Marseille University, in partnership with the Aix-Marseille Academy.
  • Innovative M@gistère training course, of national diffusion,
  • The objective of this MOOC is to provide the basis for Climate Science and to demonstrate the power of an interdisciplinary approach. It thus accompanies the implementation in high schools of Supervised Personal Work (TPE) and Exploration Teaching (EDE) and the development in middle schools of new teaching methods such as Interdisciplinary Practical Teaching (EPI). It is structured around 7 themes: the measurement of climate change, the extreme events that result from it, the impact on the oceans, the urban environment,
  • This initiative brings the world of university and research closer to that of the secondary level, the sciences taught in the establishments with those practised by the actors of the scientific world. This training is thus a key factor in meeting societal challenges in terms of the environment, climate change and associated risks.
  • Target audience: Secondary school teachers, in employment or in training (INSPÉ) - national level.
  • Supported by A*MIDEX

4. You want to create a MOOC

You must first contact, and this before the beginning of your project, the MOOC FUN correspondent for the University of Aix-Marseille who is Mr. Thierry RUISSY. You will find in the documents below the steps to follow in order to submit a MOOC project to the FUN team, as well as the check-list for the constitution of the presentation file of your MOOC project.

• Submit a MOOC project
• Constitution of the presentation file

4 The steps to follow to design a MOOC

Thinking about the preliminary project

• Define the educational objectives of MOOC
• Identify the target audience
• To complete the course script
• Study the feasibility

Recruiting the project team :

• Identify the people to be mobilized (project management, pedagogical, technical, community management, communication)
• Define the modes of collaboration within the project team

Designing the MOOC:

• Organizing the team's work
• Designing the materials while taking care to harmonize the whole (making videos, designing activities and exams ...)
• Choosing the environment to shoot the videos
• Choose the spaces of interaction and their modalities of operation (forum, social networks, chat room ...)
• Put the content online on the platform (post the videos, set up the activities ...)

Namely: According to some estimates, the recording of a one-hour lecture may require half a dozen hours of work for the teacher and more than 30 hours of editing.

Conducting a beta test:

• Carry out a beta test by associating people with various profiles in order to check the overall coherence, the quality of the course, the quality of the support resources, the clarity of the instructions.

Promoting MOOC :

• Develop a media plan
• Disseminating information on the widest possible network
• Launch the promotion as soon as possible to ensure a sufficient audience (about 3 months before the start of the course).

Piloting the MOOC :

• Animating the community
• Moderate interaction spaces
• Communicate regularly with participants
• Establish rules for interaction with the teacher
• Identify useful indicators and monitor them on a regular basis (number of participants viewing videos, number of active participants on social networks, etc.).

Analyze and draw up a balance sheet:

• Taking stock
• Enhance the value of your MOOC and provide feedback.