The forest is the subject of a growing interest in the European civil society, while at the same time, less and less citizens have any concrete connection with forest management, nor with any productive activity based on living resources. This tension between great interest and concern, on the one hand, and capacities to understand the functioning, dynamics and management of the forest on the other, is problematic. Indeed, it leads to growing conflicts and misunderstanding between citizens, policy makers, local representatives, forest researchers, forest managers, or professional of the forest and wood sector in general, impairing our collective capacity to set up the new forest deal that is required by the ecological transition. There is a great need and demand for science education contents and tools for the general public, such as Massive Online Courses (MOOC). Citizen science is a promising approach for further addressing this demand for knowledge and involvement towards the forest, even for people without a formal background in the domain.

The MOOC “Comprendre la gestion forestière » (« Understanding forest management”) builded up on several years experience of Professor Meriem Fournier in providing basic knowledge about forest issues to the first year AgroParisTech students (bachelor level students in a master of engineering in life sciences). Indeed, students themselves suggested to derive a MOOC inspired from this introductory course. The MOOC is structured in 5 weeks, addressing the following issues: - S1: What is a forest? - S2: What does it mean to « sustainably manage » a forest? - S3: What is silviculture? - S4: Using wood sustainably - S5: Innovations and forest management Each week is composed of : - 5 to 7 lessons: a lesson = 1 video + training quizz + supplementary materials (internet links to videos, websites, documents…) - A weekly evaluation quiz - A forum, where students can ask questions and exchange between them. Thanks to VirtualForest, the lessons’contents (slides and speech) are now available for any English speaker student.

The lesson contents in English are available in the Virtual Forest LMS . The whole MOOC is free of charge on the French Government learning platform FunMOOC, after registration: https://www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/cours/comprendre-la-gestion-forestiere/ A yearly (or at least biennial) session is open from May to July (registration open from May), but access can be provided outside this opening period on demand to the professors (myriam.legay@agroparistech.fr or Meriem.fournier@inrae.fr). The MOOC can be recommended to any French speaking student or learner with a bachelor level in sciences interested in acquiring a basic knowledge on forestry. The lessons content in English are useful for any learner, interested in acquiring a structured basic knowledge on forest issues. While some lessons deal with global issues and information, the third week lessons about silviculture (and partly the second week) are more rooted in the French context, with its specificity in terms of species, forestry actors and practices. As such they are of particular interest for students, joining a forest cursus or preparing a traineeship in France These lessons contents in English would deeply benefit from additional information, examples, material from other European countries: collaborations are welcome (contact: myriam.legay@agroparistech.fr or Meriem.fournier@inrae.fr).