AHFLO' project

The AHFLO' project is in line with the establishment's long-term policy of encouraging pedagogical innovation using digital technology and designing distance-learning degree courses in Oriental languages and civilizations geared towards national and international distribution. In addition, the allocated funding has made it possible to support the transition to hybrid teaching mode in view of the health crisis at the start of the September 2020 academic year.

The AHFLO' project is part of a strong desire to offer and share digital teaching resources developed for hybrid training courses, targeting a wide audience, and aims to boost the attractiveness of Inalco's initial and continuing training courses.

The AHFLO' project supports the hybridization of Inalco's training courses through three teaching modalities:

• in face-to-face teaching as the preferred means of pedagogical interaction for students who can regularly visit the institution's premises,
• at a distance for students who are far away or prevented from attending; in certain rare languages, sometimes taught only at Inalco on a national, European or even international level, this choice aims to reach audiences that are inaccessible today,
• in a free mix of distance and face-to-face courses to best meet students' needs and constraints in a logic of course flexibility.

Distance courses are implemented primarily by setting up courses accessible asynchronously with a variable proportion of synchronous sessions, accompanied by a student follow-up and tutoring system.

Since November 2020, three internal calls for projects in digital pedagogical innovation have been launched for Inalco teachers as part of the AHFLO' project:

• AAP 2020-2021: 29 projects selected out of 31 submitted
• APA 2021-2022: 20 projects selected out of 22 submitted
• APA 2022-2023: 10 projects selected out of 15 submitted
• APA 2023-2024: See the Internal call for projects in digital pedagogical innovation

Projects from AHFLO' calls, completed or in progress:

Degree courses:International Master in Armenian Studies; Diploma in Islamology; Initiation Diploma in Arabic; DL1 and 2 in Literal Arabic; DLC 1 and 2 in Malagasy; DLC 1 and 2 in Hebrew; DL1 Lithuanian.

MOOC: Armenian; Literary Continent: writings and literatures written in African languages; Didactics of languages ("Décloisonnons les langues"); International Economics; Quechua Méridional contact kit; Mooré language and culture with the Inalco Foundation; "Traduire les littératures du monde"; Open Science; International Economics; Contemporary China.

Specific modules (hybridization of a UE or development of a particular digital resource): Préparation commune à l'agrégation d'arabe ; Philosophie d'ailleurs ; Vocabulaire et texte chinois moderne L2, eTandem chinois ; eTandem coréen ; Projet Tandem L2L (communication interculturelle) ; Français Langues Étrangère " Bienvenue à Inal'FLE " ; Grammaire russe ; Ethnomusicology of Central and Eastern Europe; Hungarian civilization; Contemporary Japan; National and international politics in contemporary Japan; Vietnamese (COCI); PREPARM Armenian (baccalaureate preparation module); Hausa language and civilization; Egyptian Arabic module; Remote Oceania; Question bank : L2 Chinese listening comprehension; BadMac Chinese textbook database; Anthropology of Korea.

The resources whose production has been remunerated with AHFLO' funding are for the most part published under the Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license favoring mutualization between ESR establishments.

The aim is to build up and share mutualized training resources and deposit them, depending on formats and target audience, on different platforms: Inalco's Moddle, FUN-Campus, LaCAS platform (Inalco).

MOOCs on France Université Numérique

Since 2016, three Inalco MOOCs, licensed under Creative Commons, have been accessible on the France Université Numérique (FUN) platform in arabic, Chinese and Czech.

• The Arabic, Chinese and Czech MOOCs have had 124,070 registrants over six years, including 17,066 in 2021 and 11,075 in 2022 on AHFLO' funding. These MOOCs offer A1 European Framework certification with university recognition (4 ECTS).

In 2022, Inalco offered two new language MOOCs in Hebrew (3,427 registrants) and Malagasy (1,695 registrants).

• In total, the five MOOCs currently distributed by Inalco on FUN have attracted 129,192 registrants, including 33,263 in the last two years and on AHFLO' funding.

The MOOCs already published will be followed by others, currently under construction (Turkish, Armenian, Burmese, Quechua, Arabic dialects, Indonesian) or planned (Thai).

In addition to the MOOCs offering an introduction to an oriental language, there are disciplinary MOOCs (language didactics, international economics, literary translation, African literature) and MOOCs in the "Indigenous Languages and Cultures" series (mazatec, dongba, mooré).


Resources produced on FUN are also offered for inter-institutional sharing on the FUN-Campus platform.

Mutualization of digital resources with ASPC and ESR institutions

Mutualization is carried out through the publication of SPOCs on FUN Campus (Arabic, Czech, Chinese), the distribution of introductory and undergraduate training modules (Arabic, Chinese) and the distribution of introductory distance language modules via FUN for the Master TAL (Paris3 and Paris10).

The institutions benefiting from mutualized resources: Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès, Université de Paris 1, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris 8, Université de Lyon 2, Université de Lorraine, Sciences Po, Université de Paris 3 (Sorbonne nouvelle), Université de Nanterre (Sorbonne Paris Nord), École du Louvre; 2,500 students involved.

In the spirit of reciprocal mutualization, Sciences Po provides Inalco with digitized English resources that enable the hybridization of teaching. The resources have been integrated into Inalco's Moodle platform.

The "Préparation commune nationale à l'agrégation d'arabe en enseignement à distance" project is being developed jointly with Sorbonne université, Lyon2, ENS de Lyon and Aix-Marseille Université.
The Diploma in Islamology is being set up in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg, Aix-Marseille université and Lyon 3.

Creation of B2-level training modules on rare languages for the baccalauréat

These modules will be aimed at high-school students wishing to perfect their skills in rare languages not taught in secondary school and present them at the baccalauréat. Inalco will offer practical modules (written and oral comprehension and expression) designed to prepare students for these continuous assessment tests at the baccalauréat. The first module on offer, currently under development, will be devoted to the Armenian language.

Launch of an online conversation platform eTandem Inalco

The aim of this platform is to put language students in touch with native speakers through a guided educational activity based on thematic and cultural entries. This tool, already tested for Chinese, Korean and Swahili, will be extended to other languages and offered to all higher education and research establishments (ESR). It also aims to create international partnerships.

The continuing education department supported by AHFLO' is responding to growing demand by switching courses to hybrid and distance learning. To this end, it has upgraded its hardware and software solutions with a dedicated platform, and has embarked on training initiatives for trainers and staff to consolidate skills in this area. In order to validate this deployment and strategy, digital teaching engineers will be on hand at the start of the 2021 academic year.

AHFLO' will enable CF to make distance learning a permanent feature, structuring courses and enriching them both in terms of the content offered on the dedicated Moodle platform and the management of synchronous distance learning.

In evening classes, 22 out of 91 language courses, or 24%, are now offered entirely by distance learning. Since 2020, intensive language courses and summer internships have been offered by distance learning: 45% of those enrolled in intensive language courses take them by distance learning; 100% of the 72 enrolled in summer courses in Arabic dialects. The "East Asia" and "Arab World" courses for the University of Normandy are offered by distance learning. Since the start of the 2021 academic year, preparation for the agrégation in Chinese has been fully supported administratively by the FC and designed as a 100% distance learning course (synchronous zoom + Moodle FC platform).

Work in progress with FUN to open paying SPOCs managed by the FC based on MOOCs that have been played (Arabic, Chinese, Czech initially) following the example of the Arabic SPOC organized for the Rochefort Gendarmerie School.

The successful implementation of the AHFLO' project relies on a strengthening of the technological infrastructure and digital equipment to enable the production and mass distribution of training courses and modules. The design and production of training modules call for significant hardware, software, specific developments and licenses.

Teachers involved in AHFLO projects benefit from enhanced pedagogical engineering support. A training plan has been in place since 2020. Through hands-on workshops, online training (webinars and Zoom meetings), it aims to help teachers master digital tools, and above all, become self-sufficient in designing hybrid courses.

A complete overhaul of the Moodle tutorial spaces for consultation was also carried out in 2020 and contains guides on tools, but also advice on digital pedagogy in general, associated legislation and food for thought for any teacher wishing to embark on a hybrid training scheme.

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The AHFLO' project accelerates the deployment of the establishment's long- and medium-term digital pedagogy policy, as defined in Inalco's Multiannual Contract for the years 2019-2023. One of the five axes of this contract is to "promote student success and professional integration", with the aim of "reinforcing the development of digital training".

The internal calls for projects, launched thanks to AHFLO', are a mechanism that is now a permanent part of our establishment's operations. It will make a lasting contribution to the more effective management of digital pedagogy in terms of the establishment's strategy, budgetary possibilities/constraints, quality approach and the capabilities of the teams in pedagogical engineering and audio-visual.

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As part of the closure of the AHFLO' project, scheduled for the end of August 2023, a face-to-face and distance learning event was organized in the Inalco Auditorium on June 14 and 15, 2023.

These two days provided an opportunity for the holders of AHFLO'-funded projects to present their achievements and draw up an assessment, the challenges and the prospects for the hybridization of training in Oriental languages and civilizations.

During these days, Master 1 students from Inalco's Didactics of Languages (DDL) program exhibited the "scientific" posters they had produced on the theme of "One poster, a thousand words: digital issues in language teaching and learning".

Find out more: Les Journées AHFLO'