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Belgian university launches online courses
Belgium’s Catholic University of Louvain has broken new ground Wednesday after launching the first version of its international Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOC. Students now have the opportunity to study at the university whether they are in the country or not. The university has joined the edX consortium of 30 institutions, which includes other prestigious schools, such as Harvard and MIT.
Not only is UCL the first Belgian university to offer the online courses, but the first in the world to offer them in French. So far a course in computer programming, the most popular, already has 21,746 students enrolled.
Other Belgian universities are preparing to follow in UCL’s footsteps to take advantage of the accessibility of online learning.
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The main body of the university (Leuven) packed out with a first MOOC program (on Artificial Intelligence) in 2011. More programs were put to the vote later, in the wake of a 'Production Fellowship Contest' for a MOOC grant (2013). Early applicants then had been the European University (Florence) , the KU Leuven and the University of Passau (Germany). A wide range of courses is available now, in a number of languages (including English).