From 2 to 9 December 2024, Nantes Université organised its second Open Education Week. This year, 60 speakers came to inspire the university community on five themes: Open Educational Resources (OER) and their uses, generative artificial intelligence (AI), social openness, continuing education and the ecological transition for sustainable development. The programme included 20 events across 5 campuses in Nantes, Saint-Nazaire and La Roche-sur-Yon, attracting no fewer than 575 participants.
Workshops and roundtable discussions on Open Education and OER
This week was an opportunity to introduce the Fabrique REL. Created three months earlier, this service offers support to members of the Nantes university community interested in Open Education and the creation of OER. The Fabrique REL team ran a series of workshops aimed at raising awareness of Open Education and its challenges. Participants were able to hear from educators and students involved in creating OER during a round-table discussion in the presence of Christian Lachapelle, coordinator of Quebec’s fabriqueREL, a partner of the Nantes Fabrique REL. The Louvain Learning Lab of UCLain, another partner, also led an awareness workshop on Open Educaton in the form of sketch notes. These exchanges generated a great deal of interest and have already motivated some participants to become OER creators.
Two launches: NÉO and an AI community of practice
Nantes Université took the opportunity to unveil the NÉO platform, an acronym for Nantes Éducation Ouverte, a digital catalog of OER produced by the university community. This freely accessible platform is designed to facilitate the dissemination of OER to as many people as possible. Managed by the Fabrique REL, it will be regularly updated with new content.
Another initiative was launched during the week with the creation of a community of practice on the use of generative AI in teaching and learning activities. The aim of this community of practice is to help build Nantes Université’s position in order to guide the responsible use of generative AI in teaching, learning, production and scientific dissemination activities.
Conferences on higher education challenges
Three conferences also shaped the week, addressing key issues for the future of higher education. Agnès van Zanten, a sociologist and research director at CNRS, internationally recognized for her work on inequalities in the educational system, presented “The Major Challenges of Social Opening in Higher Education” (in French). Then, Colin de la Higuera, a computer science professor and researcher at Nantes University and holder of the UNESCO RELIA chair, discussed the link between AI and Open Education in his conference: “Open Education for an Artificial Intelligence at Our Service. Not the Other Way Around” (in French). Finally, biologist Olivier Hamant, a researcher at INRAE within ENS Lyon and director of the Michel Serres Institute, shared his plea for “A Third Path for the University, Drawing on Lessons from the Living World” (in French).
The week highlighted the challenges and benefits of Open Education, sparking debate and raising awareness. Through discussions on OER, AI, the ecological transition and social inclusion, the event highlighted the importance of making education more accessible, inclusive and collaborative in order to meet the challenges facing higher education today. Nantes Université has chosen to make a determined commitment to this and to contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: to ensure equitable, inclusive and quality education for all.
