MOOC

Since their launch in 2017, Inalco's MOOCs have been very popular. These free courses, accessible online for a limited time (six to seven weeks), are available in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Malagasy, Hebrew and Turkish. In 2023, they will be joined by three new MOOCs dedicated to language didactics, Dongba writing and international economics.

This offering is fully in line with innovation, the renewal of teaching practices, and didactic reflection in higher education.
L’Inalco lance ses MOOCS
L’Inalco lance ses MOOCS‎

Oriental language contact kits

Accessible worldwide via the France Université Numérique (FUN), the contact kits offer beginners a few cultural reference points as well as an oral and written initiation centered around several tasks enabling initial contact in the language: introducing oneself, getting around, finding accommodation, eating, making a purchase...

The FUN platform is operated by the Groupement d'Intérêt Public (GIP) FUN-MOOC, co-financed by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, and member establishments. It aims to federate the online course projects of French universities and schools to give them international visibility and enable them to disseminate knowledge to as many people as possible.
It currently offers its two million users a vast catalog of more than 500 courses with varied, topical themes designed by 133 partner establishments.

Since 2018, a fee-paying certificate recognized to the value of 4 ECTS has been issued to students who have successfully passed a written exam validating their acquisition of the entire program. The exam is proctored remotely in a slot defined by the student. This certificate is valid in all training courses at international level, particularly in LANSAD (language teaching for specialists in other disciplines).

Developing the offering

Inalco is committed to the production of around ten other MOOCs. Two new contact kits (Hebrew and Malagasy) were launched in March 2022, followed by the Turkish-language contact kit the following year. Future MOOCs currently in production will enable learners to discover Mazatec, Indonesian, Burmese and Moorish with the support of the Inalco Foundation. Thanks to the financial support of the Thai Embassy in France, a MOOC of Thai is due to start work soon.
The extension of the Arabic MOOC to Moroccan, Tunisian, Lybian and Kuwaiti dialects is underway, with the collaboration of the UMIFRE of the French Research Center of the Arabian Peninsula (Kuwait) and the Institut de recherche sur le Maghreb contemporain (Tunis).

In 2023, the didactics MOOC "Décloisonner les langues : approches plurielles du français" joins the training offer proposed on the FUN platform.

In line with our commitment to the preservation and knowledge of indigenous languages and cultures, a series of "Indigenous Languages and Cultures" MOOCs is currently under development. Launched in March 2023, the MOOC for an introduction to the écriture dongba of the Naxi people of Yunnan (China) inaugurates this series, which will soon see the addition of a MOOC for Mazatec, an Amerindian language from Mexico.

In autumn 2023, Inalco is launching its first disciplinary MOOC specializing in international economics. This course aims to explain the mechanisms of free trade and understand the globalized world in which we live.

MOOCs devoted to literary translation, African literatures and Armenian writing are currently under development.

An offer inseparable from initial and continuing training

Further on, the MOOC is inserted into initial training courses or redeployed in the form of SPOC (Small Private Online Course), in order to offer distance continuing education for a restricted audience, within the institute itself.