EPFL, Active Player in the French-speaking Digital University Space
© 2019 MOOCs4Africa
Bucharest, 2019. The Meetings of the “Digital Development Initiative in the Francophone University Space”, IDNEUF4 took place on June 18 to 21. This year, IDNEUF was backed by the International Organisation of la Francophonie (OIF), the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the President of Romania.
The EPFL’s MOOCs4Dev program, together with a consortium of universities, presented the proposal of “FabEduc” at the IDNEUF4’s Conference for the Financing of Digital Development in the French-speaking University Space held in June 20.
The objective of the proposal of a structuring project is to create a network of co-creation spaces, the FabEducs, within the Francophonie to support the pedagogical and digital transformation of the universities' training offer, as well as to develop student entrepreneurship. The project partners are the universities of Abomey Calvi and Parakou (Benin), Abdou Moumouni (Niger) and Marien Ngouabi (République du Congo), the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and France Université Numérique (FUN MOOC).
The first component of FabEduc aims to:
- Encourage the evolution of pedagogical practices through the use of digital technologies,
- Strengthen teachers' techno-pedagogical skills,
- Train them in the production of digital content and its use in university curricula by developing innovative pedagogical practices.
The second part of the project is aimed at senior students and young graduates. The purpose is to develop entrepreneurship around educational technologies (edTech) and multimedia projects, thus encouraging the emergence of local start-ups that create jobs. Local socio-economic stakeholders will be mobilized to create synergies and facilitate entrepreneurial initiatives.
The FabEducs are therefore intended as spaces for experimentation, exchanges, sharing of good practices and training for universities, teachers and young entrepreneurs.