MOOCs has the ability to serve learners with specific professional needs and/or field-based knowledge and skill requirements. There are many constituencies, and purposes, that MOOCs can serve, including providing education to students living in rural places around the word. MOOCs allows independently motivated learners of any age to pursue academic interests in a self-guided manner, and learners who cannot afford traditional campus-based programs whether in the United States or internationally.
According to Harvard Review (2016), in the last three years alone, "over 25 million people from around the world have enrolled in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) offered by Coursera, EdX, and other platforms." And of those people, 60% of them came from developed countries ("Harvard Review," 2016). Clearly people are using MOOCs, so much so that it has gained popularity in developing nations. The next step is to broaden the horizon of MOOCs by bringing in computers and WIFI to rural places, so adult learners from all across the globe can gain access to higher-education through Coursera, EdX, and other platforms for free.
Several Western countries have developed MOOC initiatives including: UK (FutureLearn https://www.futurelearn.com/), Germany (iVersity), Spain (UniMOOC) and Australia (Open2Study), as well as from developing countries such as Brazil (Veduca) and China (XuetangX and Ewant). Kepler from GenerationRwanda is a Rwanda-based MOOC. Ireland-based ALISON is actually considered by some to be the first MOOC provider (predating the ‘big three’ American initiatives). These are great places to check out and begin sharing the vast amount of Open Educational Resources available to people around the world!
The large American MOOC platform providers currently reach students all around the world and are exploring potential link-ups with some of the leading higher education institutions in countries such as China, Brazil and Turkey. Initiatives such as Coursera’s Learning Hubs, physical spaces supported by partners where MOOC participants can gather, suggests a potential model to extend the reach of MOOCs to groups of learners in developing countries who may not be already accessing, or completing, MOOCs.
With the emergence of what essentially are ‘national champion MOOCs’ in many OECD countries, it is essential to gain international donor agencies to help support the expansion of such efforts as part of their developmental assistance program. In order to do this, we need your help! Check out our Get Involved page to learn how you can make an impact on providing accessible and equal educational access to people around the world!