Welcome to Universite Populaire Ouverte/Open Popular University

Considerations about the foundations of Open Popular University

Universite Populaire Ouverte/Open Popular University is created on the basis of the following concepts: informal education, popular education, alternative education, open educational resources, open courseware, open access, universite populaire, elearning, autodidactism, connectivism, networked learning and social learning. Education is given in two settings: formal and informal. In formal settings learning takes place in a physical building called school. However this situation doesn't always happen. The social environments such as the family, the community, the media, etc are also sources of education called informal education. Subjects taught in the formal educational sector are also taught informally in homeschool, tutoring centers, learning and adult education centers and also online. Learning can also take place by oneself (self-learning) or in groups outside of schools. The advent of the world wide web makes the informal learning easier. Different informations can be accessed through the internet. Many online and offline educational educational institutions, organizations and people created various educational websites available on the internet. In our days many of the leading institutions put their courses accessible freely on the web under the name of opencourseware. Different media such as books, videos, encyclopedias, repositories of learning etc, can be accessed freely through the internet. New concepts such as Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Courseware are very popular and many people use these resources to learn informally for their personal enrichment or to satisfy academic requirements. Students use open educational resources to supplement their learning or as references to learn concepts that they don't understand in class. Informal learners use different educational websites to learn subjects, concepts that can allow them to obtain a job, to develop themselves in their existing profession or for their personal enrichment. Educators use open educational ressources to prepare their lessons, supplement existing curricula, expand them further, etc. Some educational institutions and universities give credits for learning acquired informally. Open degrees (open masters and PhD) emerge from the educational and networking side of the web. Many web tools such as bookmarks, videos, podcasts, instant messages, blogs, wikis, discussion groups,forums, etc emerge as networks that can be used as personal learning networks. These tools make the web 2.0 to which succeeds learning 2.0.

Definition of some terms used in the open and free education field

Open Courseware

An Open Courseware (OCW) is a free and open digital publication and high quality university-level educational material. These matreials are organized as courses and often include course planning materials tools as well as thematic content

Open Courseware is free and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime via the internet.

Open Access

The term "open access" implies a lack of: formal entry requirements, prerequisite credentials and an entrance examination

Open Educational Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are offered freely and are openly available online for educators and learners , without an accompanying need to pay royalties or license fees

Popular University or Universite populaire.

A popular university or universite populaire is a popular education organism whose objective is the transmission of theoretical and/or practical knowledge for all.. In France most of the universite populaire have an associative status.

E-learning

E-learning encompasses all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. It refers to out-of-classroom and in-classroom learning via technology.

Featured Open Courses

Teaching and Learning Cross Cultural Perspectives
Mathematics for Computer Science
Introduction to Environmental Policy and Planning
Entrepreneurship Without Borders

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