By: Behrooz Sabet
Online education is an inevitable outcome of a larger social revolution that is spearheaded by information and communication technologies. The Internet. Wireless networks, and other communication mediums can be compared to printing revolution that contributed to significant social changes in Europe. Online education is an integral part of these profound technological, social, and educational changes. In the past few decades, online education has emerged from its pre-paradigm period. During this time, a broad debate over its legitimacy has occurred. There is evidence that this state of affairs is now setting the stage for online education to gain respectable consensus and emerge as a new paradigm for the 21st-century education. During the period of transition from traditional design and delivery of courses to an emerging, technology-driven educational culture, the primary challenges of the emerging paradigm seem to be focused on finding ways to depoliticize the distribution of knowledge, increase digital literacy, eliminate translation barriers, and create motivation in students and faculty.
Online education is considered to have reached a crescendo of maturity in facilitating the ideals of flexible quality education for all, lifelong learning, and the creation of inclusive knowledge societies. Online education can be especially useful for students in the Middle East. The Middle Eastern countries are manifesting increasing recognition that E-learning should be seriously considered in reforming education, combating educational inequality, and facilitating economic diversification.
One of the recent developments and highly promising innovations in online education is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). MOOCs are large-scale courses or programs that are aimed at providing free or inexpensive learning opportunities worldwide to any person who desires to learn. In recent years, major universities have made open access to their courses available and joined by the business sector to establish robust platforms to offer free and open online courses. K-12 institutions have followed the same suit. Currently, European and Australian universities are also in the process of creating consortia of institutions of higher learning in order to offer Massive Open Online Courses.
The MOOCs enterprise is in its embryonic stage, particularly in the Middle Eastern countries. Its academic and business models are still evolving. Its future, however, is promising. MOOCs are providing powerful tools and facilitative infrastructure for the ideals of global education. It is now common knowledge that a pattern of evolving interconnectivity comprised of academic, government, and business networks led to the formation of a megastructure called the Internet. Likewise, a similar pattern of collaboration has the potential to bring diverse online programs under evolving MOOCs and gradually shape a platform for a global approach to teaching and learning. This will be a quantum leap forward in the democratization of education and research, the universalization of access to knowledge, and the actualization of the right to education as an indispensable part of universal human rights.
It is essential for MOOCs to have a refined business model, collaborative learning communities, and global outreach. The emerging models for development and future direction of MOOCs should also find creative ways to make them complementary to the traditional mode of instructional delivery. MOOCs need to be supported through a strong alliance among government agencies, community resources, and businesses. Further shifts in cultural acceptance of MOOCs and ever increasing improvement in technology are critical factors that will also help MOOCs to become a means for transformative global learning. Finally, the ultimate success of MOOCs is tied to the degree the political economy of the world system will move toward increased cooperation and development.
It is highly desirable that the Middle Eastern countries increase their efforts to take advantage of the learning opportunities MOOCs provide for wider access to higher education. MOOCs can also be used as a powerful tool to achieve Goal 4 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Furthermore, there are significant opportunities across the Middle East to create a regional consortium of MOOC providers specifically focusing on the academic needs of the region and delivering courses in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages. Meanwhile, it is necessary to acknowledge the meritorious efforts made by the government and academic sectors in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan.
A comprehensive list of MOOCs providers or MOOC-related weblinks:
The Center for 21st Century Universities
Open Access
http://www.openaccessweek.org/
WORLD LIBRARY OF SCIENCE
UNESCO, NATURAL SCIENCES
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/wls
UNESCO, Social and Human Sciences
http://en.unesco.org/themes/learning-live-together
Khan Academy
Open Learning Initiative
Open Yale Courses
Flatworld Knowledge
http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/
OpenCourseWare Consortium
The Promise and Peril of Ed-Tech Democratization
http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/the-promise-and-peril-of-ed-tech-democratization/29413
edX
TED-ED
http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation
Government to open up publicly funded research
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-open-up-publicly-funded-research
Purdue Kicks Off Global Online-Education Project
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/purdue-kicks-off-global-online-education-project/36339
What You Need to Know About MOOCs
http://chronicle.com/article/What-You-Need-to-Know-About/133475/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Course Builder
https://edu.google.com/openonline/index.html
New Group to Serve as Forum for Global Academic-Quality Issues
http://chronicle.com/article/New-Group-to-Serve-as-Forum/134400/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Coursera
Leading British Universities Join New MOOC Venture
OpenStax College
Open Library of Humanities
Nine Massive Open Online Courses to be Offered by The University of Texas at Austin
http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/02/11/nine-massive-open-online-courses-to-be-offered/
Open-Education Company Helps Develop Textbook-Free Associate Degree
Venture-Backed Enterprise Seeks to Satisfy Global Demand for an Elite Education, Online
Udacity
Penn State
Princeton
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S34/91/85O26/index.xml?section=topstories
Harvard Open Courses: Open Learning Initiative
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
UCLA Extension
https://www.uclaextension.edu/pages/Course.aspx?reg=Y1900
MIT Open Courseware
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/health-sciences-and-technology/
UMGA
http://globalacademy.miami.edu/
Open Learning
UK Open University
F/L
OpenUp Ed
OER
Open Educational Resources
http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education-program/open-educational-resources
Partnership Gives Students Access to a High-Price Text on a MOOC Budget
http://chronicle.com/article/Partnership-Gives-Students/139109/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Praxis Network
Georgia Tech to Offer a MOOC-Like Online Master’s Degree
http://chronicle.com/article/Ga-Tech-to-Offer-a-MOOC-Like/139245/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Coursera Translates MOOCs
http://blog.coursera.org/post/50452652317/coursera-partnering-with-top-global-organizations
In Deals With 10 Public Universities, Coursera Bids for Role in Credit Courses
http://chronicle.com/article/In-Deals-With-10-Public/139533/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Online College Courses Get A Big Boost, But Doubts Persist
Weekend Reading: the MOOC Catchup Edition
Inside a MOOC in Progress
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/
Survey Finds Only Limited Public Awareness of MOOCs
American MOOC Providers Face International Competition
Bill Gates Discusses MOOCs at Microsoft Research’s Faculty Summit
Clay Shirky Says MOOCs Will Matter, but Worries About Corporate Players
The MOOC ‘Revolution’ May Not Be as Disruptive as Some Had Imagined
Get Used to Sharing Digital Content, Says U. of Texas at Austin President
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/u-of-texas-at-austin-president-says-colleges-should-share-digital-content/45435?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
The Coming Big Data Education Revolution
‘A MOOC? What’s a MOOC?’ Now You Can Look It Up
MOOCs Meet the Zombie Apocalypse
Google and edX Create a MOOC Site for the Rest of Us
Lessons Learned From a Freshman-Composition MOOC
Wharton Puts First-Year MBA Courses Online for Free
Interesting development: MIT Will Offer MOOC Curricula, Not Just Single Courses, on edX
International Educators Debate the Future of Student Mobility
MOOCs Could Help 2-Year Colleges and Their Students, Says Bill Gates
http://chronicle.com/article/MOOCs-Could-Help-2-Year/142123/?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en
Vive la Révolution MOOC
Desire2Learn Enters MOOC Market as It Updates Its Platform
QuickWire: European MOOC Provider’s First Courses Go Online
Innovation Imperative: Change Everything- Online Education as an Agent of Transformation
Researchers Push MOOC Conversation Beyond ‘Tsunami’ Metaphors
Innovation in 2014: Welcome to the Evolution
George Siemens Gets Connected
Instead of calling MOOCs a failure, combine them with other pioneering ideas to help higher education evolve
QuickWire: For-Profit University Will Accept MOOC Credits
San Jose State U. Adopts More edX Content for outsourcing Trial
QuickWire: Coursera Joins Foundation to Offer MOOCs in Spanish
Clearly an experimental confirmation of the position of this blog on the potential power of MOOCs in internationalization:
MOOCs and the Promise of Internationalization
Harvard U. Will Offer Exclusive MOOCs to Alumni
Harvard and MIT Release Visualization Tools for Trove of MOOC Data
New Adjunct-Focused Venture Wins Approval to Offer Courses
Five Lessons for Online Teaching from Finishing a MOOC
QuickWire: Harvard and MIT Release Scrubbed MOOC Data
8 Things You Should Know About MOOCs
Can You Really Teach a MOOC in a Refugee Camp?
Open Course Library
Encyclopedia of Life
Darwin
The Collected Works of Albert Einstein
http://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/
Open Library of Humanities
Digital Public Library of America
The Internet Archive
