by Camila Monge Pizarro, UOH University & Alyson Kocher, L’Université Numérique, France.
L’Université Numérique and Université Ouverte des Humanités (UOH) participated in the annual Media and Learning Association conference titled “Back to the Future,” held from 20 to 21 June in Leuven, Belgium. This event provided an opportunity to present L’Université Numérique‘s initiatives in open educational resources and highlight the fruitful collaborations with various Thematic Digital Universities.
Image 1: Photo of the Media and Learning Conference
L’Université Numérique and l’Université Ouverte des Humanités
L’Université Numérique is a consortium of six French digital universities specialising in key fields such as engineering sciences, environment and ecological transition, humanities, economics and management, technological education, health, and sports.
Université Ouverte des Humanités offers a catalogue of open educational resources in the fields of humanities, social sciences, literature, languages, and arts. These digital resources are scientifically, pedagogically, and technically validated by higher education experts and are mostly freely accessible on various documentary portals.
“Les Parcours Types” – A Solution by L’Université Numérique to Guide the Search for Open Educational Resources by Level and Speciality
The “Parcours Types” initiative provides free digital educational resources classified by program and level (Bachelor’s and University Technology Diploma (BUT)). These pathways are inspired by the curricula of French universities. There are 44 pathways from Bachelor’s to BUT, as well as pathways in transversal skills.
Approximately 2,000 resources are offered in these pathways, including 600 in Moodle format, allowing restoration, adaptation, and reuse. These resources are available at various levels of granularity, from full courses to modules, practical work, tutorials, and even course elements.
Image 2: Parcours Types, L’Université Numérique website
Each teaching unit presents resources in a table format, indicating the resource name, link, format, estimated learning time, and open license used.
Image 3: Parcours Types, transversal skills – foreign language – English
All pathways are validated by domain specialists and continuously updated with new content from Thematic Digital Universities or partner universities.
L’Université Numérique‘s Moodle
Recently, L’Université Numérique created a repository for open educational resources on the open-source Moodle platform. This space allows Thematic Digital Universities to offer content in a new format that is fully downloadable and editable by users.
Many resources produced through projects funded by the French Ministry of Higher Education were created using the open-source software H5P, enabling the creation of infinitely modifiable interactive content. These resources adhere to Creative Commons licenses, promoting an open and collaborative approach to education. Last year, 7,500 content downloads were recorded.
L’Université Numérique strongly encourages universities interested in open education to collaborate for the sharing of even more freely available content. As a key promoter of open education in higher education, L’Université Numérique aims to support teachers and students across various fields.
Collaboration between L’Université Numérique and Université Ouverte des Humanités through the PUNCHy Project
L’Université Numérique and UOH have recently engaged in various projects related to the hybridization of training content, particularly the design and creation of micro-resources, interactive videos, and educational scenarios.
L’Université Numérique highlighted its valuable collaboration with UOH through the “PUNCHy Langues” project, which was featured in a presentation by the UOH team at Media & Learning.
The teachers and designers of the PUNCHy Langues project have created 240 interactive micro-content pieces in German, English, Spanish, and Italian. The targeted skills are listening and reading comprehension, as well as interculturality.
Example of Using Educational Resources in an English Teaching Unit
As an author and designer of PUNCHy Langues resources in English, Laurence Matthys, an English teacher in pharmacy at the University of Grenoble, decided to adapt the interactive resources she had created to constitute an optional fully online Teaching Unit (UE) worth three ECTS at her institution. The Teaching Unit called “English for research” consists of six sequences of 1 hour each, interspersed with synchronous videoconference sessions, especially before the first sequence to establish the functioning of the UE and explain the training and examination methods.
Here is a diagram for resource implementation: the diagram shows the six sequences and the four synchronous remote work sessions.
Image 4 : Course sequence by teacher Laurence Matthys
Resources Used:
- Writing an article: How to properly formulate the title of a research paper (link)
- Writing an article: How to organize the introduction of a research article (link)
- Writing an article: How to develop your ideas logically in a research article (link)
- Writing an article: How to polish your writing skills on materials and methods in a research article (link)
- Writing an article: How to present your results (link)
- Writing an article: How to present your discussion (link)
Assessment:
Continuous assessment accounts for 70% of the final grade:
- Six final tasks for each sequence = 60% (10% per sequence)
- Participation during Zoom sessions = 10%
The implementation of this UE has been a success in terms of supporting teachers in hybridizing their courses, not only regarding the use of resources produced in PUNCHy but also in developing the teacher’s skills in e-learning module design and educational scenario development.
Conclusion
L’Université Numérique and UOH were delighted to share their experience in creating interactive educational content using new digital tools and open educational resources with the Media and Learning educational community. Exchanges within this European network help advance reflections and work towards better quality content sharing and open education.
Links to Our Portals:
- Université Numérique: https://luniversitenumerique.fr/
- Université Numérique Moodle: https://moodle.luniversitenumerique.fr/
- Université Ouverte des Humanités (UOH): https://uoh.fr/front/
Authors
Camila Monge Pizarro, UOH University (Université Ouverte des Humanités), France
Alyson Kocher, L’Université Numérique, France
