Continue distance learning

On Thursday 12 March, President Emmanuel Macron announced the shutdown of universities as a result of the COVID19 outbreak (since declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization).

In the spirit of pedagogical continuity, we offer you in this article a set of resources that will allow you to continue learning from home.

Online courses, videos, podcasts, dedicated platforms… Nowadays, the possibilities for online learning are endless. This is why this list will be updated regularly throughout the lockdown. Do not hesitate to come back and check it out!

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Aix-Marseille University offers two MOOCs dedicated to neuroscience:

• “Autour des neurones : focus sur la myéline” , with Myriam Cayre and Catherine Faivre-Sarrailh, is currently available in French on France Université Numérique (this MOOC has be renewed until June 2020 following the implementation of lockdown).
• Constance Hammond’s popular MOOC entitled “Cellular neurophysiology : how neurons communicate” has been reopened in French and English on the France Université Numérique platform.

Here is a list of other available MOOCs:

• “Reproducible research” on FUN (available in English and French). Discover the issues and challenges of reproducible research. At the end of this MOOC, you’ll learn more about reliable tools such as Markdown, DocFetcher, ExifTool, Gitlab and some computational netbooks (Jupyter, RStudio and Org-mode).
• “Writing in the sciences” on Coursera (only available in English). This online course teaches scientists how to become more effective writers, using examples and practical exercises.
• “Introduction to biomedical imaging” on edX (only available in English). Find out how medical imaging technologies complement each other and what information they provide to healthcare professionals.
• “Fundamentals of Neuroscience” offered by Harvard (available only in English). This three-part course is intended for newcomers to the neurosciences.

In general, many free online courses are available on dedicated platforms such as France Université Numérique (in French), Coursera and edX (in English).

Learning a foreign language

We have also identified MOOCs to improve your level in English and French for foreign students:

• improve your English: “Exploring English: language and culture” on FutureLearn.

FUN offers a series of 4 MOOCs to learn French as a foreign language:

• Vivre en France – niveau A1
• Vivre en France – niveau A2
• Vivre en France – niveau B1
• Travailler en France – niveau A2-B1

Levels A1, A2, B1 etc. refer to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Concerning language learning, we also recall that there is the AMUlangues service available to all university students via the ENT. Why not use it to prepare for the TOIEC?

Websites

• “The brain from top to bottom”: an interactive site offered by McGill University to learn all about the brain and human behaviour (available in English and French).
• “le blob, l’extra-média”: a digital platform developed by Universcience which offers daily videos mixing in-depth subjects and current news (content available in French and English). For example, you can find the videos of “Cerveau, l’expo neuroludique”.
• “NeuroHistory Cartoons”: a Canadian student project that creates portraits of neuroscientists as comics. As a bonus, you will find a comic by Paul Apicella, a neuroscientist at INT.
• The Université des sciences en ligne offers a set of complementary resources in neuroscience within its “La Licence Type” device (available in French).
• The Université des sciences en ligne also offers a module of Methodology of academic work, adapted to remote work, to learn how to manage this new situation and ensure pedagogical continuity (available in French).
• The undergraduate course “Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience” offered by University College Dublin is available online (available in English).

Podcasts

• “La Tête dans le Cerveau”: podcast created and hosted by Christophe Rodo, PhD student in neurosciences at AMU (available in French).
• “Max Planck Florida’s Neurotransmissions Podcast – Neuroscience Stories from the Lab and Life” (available in English).
• “Working Scientist”: podcast created by Nature on the life of scientists (available in English).

Other digital resources

• All content related to neuroscience produced by France Culture (available in French).
• Blog’n’Brain:A participatory blog project that offers neuroscience students the opportunity to popularize their knowledge (available in French).
• An interactive 3D model to represent the brain and the location of its different parts in space (available in English).
• 3D Brain: a phone application available on Android and iOS to discover the brain and its different parts (available in English).
• TED talks: online conferences on all subjects with the motto “Ideas worth spreading” (broadcasted internationally and therefore available with a range of subtitles).