The brief history of

FRANEL

Franel was an e-learning platform for language teaching, offering activities based on original videos to anyone wanting to brush up his or her French or Dutch.
 
2004 Franel history
First signs of Franel

The first signs of Franel appeared during the lingu@tic project.

The InterregIII-project Lingu@tic is a cross-border cooperation between the KU Leuven Campus Kulak Kortrijk, UMons and the television channels WTV and Notélé on the Dutch side, and the Université Lille3 with the television channel C9 on the French side. The main objective of Lingu@tic is to familiarise the inhabitants of West-Flanders and Nord-Pas-de-Calais with the language and culture of the neighbouring region.

2006
Official launch of Franel

As part of the Lingu@tic project, an electronic learning environment for learning French and Dutch as a foreign language was launched in February 2006: Franel. Edumatic (now AssessmentQ) developed by Indie Education was used as the underlying technology.

2006
Franel wins the 'Access to Language Education' award

Franel wins the ‘Access to Language Education’ award at the international conference CALICO

2007
Franel reaches 5.000 users
2007 Franel launches a contest 'Franel les stars'
Franel launches 'Franel les stars'

Any user of the platform could participate in this competition. One of the evaluation criteria was the amount of completed activities. This way Franel encouraged the learning process of the users.

2007 ‘Studio Franel’ becomes an essential part of the platform
Studio Franel

In studio Franel, teachers gain access to the results of their students, are able to design their own learning environment and get to develop learning materials by themselves.

2007 The launch of 'Medi@tic'
Medi@tic

‘Medi@tic’ is a free database with authentic visual material  that is searchable according to didactic criteria. 

The Medi@tic database is there for all teachers who teach French or Dutch as a foreign language, and especially those who work in the French-Belgian border region of West-Flanders/Nord-Pas-de-Calais. 

2009
Franel to the research lab

Franel is not only an online language learning platform, but since 2009 it has also been a base for fundamental research within itec into how to learn best a foreign language using multimedia. This line of research has led to numerous publications and two doctorates. In 2013 Maribel Montero Perez defends her thesis on the effectiveness of subtitled video for French listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition (native Dutch). She uses Franel’s technology and learning content for this purpose. In 2020, Isabeau Fievez  submits a dissertation on the effectiveness of online learning environments based on video, such as Nedbox en Language Learning with Netflix.

2012
Franel reaches 24.000 users
2013
Franel wins the 'European Language Label' award

2020
Franel reaches 40.000 users
2021
Goodbye Franel

For many years Franel was a reference point in the field of electronic language learning environments in the border region between Flanders, Wallonia and France. After 15 years of intensive collaboration between the partners and many contacts with students and teachers, this beautiful adventure comes to an end. As of January 1, 2021, Franel will no longer available as Adobe no longer supports the Flash-Player-Plug-in. However, the videoclips that formed the basis of the electronic learning environment will remain available free.

Our sincere thanks go to everyone who made Franel possible, and to everyone who encouraged us with their interest and enthusiasm to explore new teaching methods and technological possibilities and make them available to the general public. We are convinced that Franel has contributed to improving the mastery of French and Dutch as foreign languages in our cross-border region, and has brought us closer to our neighbours.

Kind regards,
The Franel Team

Coordinating partners

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