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IÉSEG launches its first MOOC: a ‘gamified’ online course to master the fundamentals of infrastructure finance

MOOCIÉSEG School of Management in France is launching in April 2016 its first MOOC in collaboration with UNOW, a French start-up specializing in MOOCS.  The online course which focuses on the topic of Infrastructure finance is taught entirely in English and is based on “gamification” (the use of game elements and design to stimulate learning).

During the five-week MOOC, participants will be asked to act as a consultant in a fictive consultancy firm advising the project consortium team and dealing with an infrastructure finance project that they will take charge of. They are challenged (through a variety of tools including quizzes and different assignments) to progress through five levels to ultimately raise funds to finance the project. At the end of the MOOC, participants will master the fundamentals of infrastructure finance.

This ‘gamified’ approach has been designed to motivate participants as they advance through the course and develop their understanding of the key topics related to infrastructure finance. The course has been developed by the School’s Center for Educational and Technological Innovation (*CETI), in close collaboration with the course director and infrastructure finance expert Patrick Daguet (Professor of Finance at IÉSEG), and UNOW.

An innovative online course

Participants begin the course (level 1) at the level of an intern in a fictive consultancy firm. To progress through the different levels, and be promoted in the company, they must take up increasingly difficult challenges enabling them to discover the fundamentals and core concepts of infrastructure finance (in areas such as structuring finance, analysing risks etc).

fresque sans bordureA unique online course in the field of infrastructure finance, the new MOOC uses a diversity of learning resources including: e-learning; infographics; videos which have been filmed at a variety of external locations such as an airfield, metro station and construction site etc. and which have been selected to bring participants closer to the infrastructure projects. These are complemented by interviews with a number of experts in the field of infrastructure finance.

Loic Plé, Professor of Strategy and Organization at IÉSEG and head of the CETI, explains: “We are delighted to launch our first MOOC which is designed to provide anyone with an interest in infrastructure projects, finance and project finance with the opportunity to master the fundamentals of  infrastructure finance, thanks to an innovative approach combining theoretical and practical elements. We first developed this as an online course for our students here at IÉSEG, before adapting it and making it available to everyone from April 2016.

Practical information:

  • Registrations for the MOOC will be open until the 4 April via http://mooc.ieseg.fr
  • The course, which runs from the 4 April to 8 May, is completely free of charge and participants will be able to request a certificate of achievement.
  • A short video presenting the course is also available at: http://mooc.ieseg.fr
  • Potential audience includes: Students in finance, professionals interested in project finance, young bankers and investment advisors etc and the wider public interested in infrastructure finance/ financing of projects.
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