Projects
Open-source tools and course series built to scale
WebLinux
A complete Linux system running inside the browser tab. Nothing to install, no account, no server. Try it right here.
The emulator weighs several megabytes, so nothing is downloaded until you press the button.
You can also open WebLinux in a new tab, or read the paper (ACM Learning@Scale 2018).
The problem
Teaching Linux online hits a wall before the teaching starts: onboarding. How do you make Linux and the GCC compiler available to learners who cannot download large files onto their own device, or who are not skilled enough to install an operating system themselves?
The usual answers do not hold at MOOC scale. Third-party web IDEs can change their interface, shell commands, compiler version or pricing without notice, and are not built for the load spike that precedes an assignment deadline. Giving every learner a container on a Linux server works, but carries hosting, maintenance and security costs that grow with each new enrolment.
The approach
WebLinux is a fork of Jor1k, Sebastian Macke’s JavaScript emulator of the OpenRISC 1000 processor, on which a standard Linux system boots inside the browser tab. Around it sit a terminal, a code editor based on ACE, and a file browser backed by BrowserFS, a filesystem deliberately confined to the browser for security. Work can be downloaded as a zip archive or pushed straight to a GitHub repository.
Choosing OpenRISC over the x86 emulators was deliberate: JSLinux is not open-source and cannot run GCC, V86 is slower and more complex to work with, and Browsix, which takes the WebAssembly route, cannot run GCC either.
Because everything executes client-side, WebLinux installs on any static HTTP server, GitHub Pages included. There is no server to keep running, so hosting, maintenance and security costs do not grow with the number of learners. And once the page has loaded it works offline, which matters for learners on weak or intermittent connections.
Where it is used
In production since 2016 on FUN-MOOC with Programmer en C, then across the seven MOOCs of the C Programming with Linux certificate on edX, for a total of several hundred thousand registrations. Also used on site at the Institut Villebon — Georges Charpak.
Presented at ACM Learning@Scale 2018 in London with Lawrence Angrave (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Ella Hamonic.
MOOC series
C Programming with Linux — edX and Coursera
A professional certificate of seven MOOCs, built with Dartmouth College (Petra Bonfert-Taylor, Michael Goudzwaard) and the IMT team in France, released on edX in October 2018 and on Coursera in 2020.
More than 400,000 registrations, with a completion rate between 10% and 20% depending on the month — and up to 89% among learners who purchase the certificate — where the usual figure for a MOOC is 3 to 4%. The series generated 600 k€ of certificate revenue, 150 k€ of which went to IMT, and won the edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning in 2019.
Le langage C de A à Z — FUN-MOOC
The French-language series that started it all: two MOOCs, ABC du langage C and Programmer en C sur Linux, released in spring 2016 after two years of design, tooling and intensive beta-testing with Télécom Paris students. It won the MOOC of the Year award for the most innovative MOOC in January 2017.
Python
A Python programming course series in French, built with the tooling produced by the TOUCAN and CALAO projects, in collaboration with the Institut Villebon — Georges Charpak, released in 2024 on the France-IOI platform. Several Télécom Paris students took part in the content creation, testing and final integration.
Open Source Masterclass
Built since 2021 with Marc Jeanmougin, research engineer and lead of the Inkscape open-source vector graphics project. I contribute the learning design, content creation and activity design, and I lead the project. Released in 2025.
Code ton futur
Funded by a French Programme d’investissements d’avenir grant (80 k€), this series targets Year-11 pupils taking the Sciences Numériques et Technologiques option, to help them understand the impact of digital technology on occupations. It is a set of interactive activities designed with Ella Hamonic and Mathias Hiron of France-IOI, adaptable for use by secondary school teachers in their own classrooms. We built dedicated simulators for the internet concepts in the syllabus: IP, ping, DNS, domains, routing and TCP. Released in 2025.
Earlier projects
TOUCAN (2019) and CALAO (2020) — winners of the Île-de-France digital innovation awards for higher education (58 k€ and 180 k€), to extend the teaching tools to other programming languages.
Wandida micro-lectures (EPFL) — a playlist of six videos on operating systems, virtualisation, autonomic computing and DNS, recorded with the EPFL portable micro-studio. One of them is among the most watched of the channel’s 600 videos, with more than 100,000 views. Watch the playlist
Scratch workshops for children — with Claude Terosier, founder of MagicMakers, the first Parisian Scratch programming workshops for 7 to 12 year olds, held in the Télécom Paris lab rooms. It also gave three Télécom Paris students the opportunity to present their Scratch extensions at MIT to Mitchel Resnick, the creator of the language.