Invited @ Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries

OpeningupSlovenia was invited to the launch of a new UNESCO-COL publication, entitled “Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide to Policy Makers in Developing Countries”. The event was co-chaired by COL’s President and CEO, Professor Asha Kanwar and UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Dr Qian Tang at The Organization’s Headquarters in Paris. The audience consisted of representatives of Permanent Delegations of Member States to UNESCO, high-level experts (China, France, India, Malaysia, The Netherlands) and UNESCO staff.

— download publication here —

UNESCO and COL are deeply committed to making access to quality higher education affordable for all people, particularly for those from disadvantaged or vulnerable backgrounds. Both Organizations consider that, in today’s technology-driven world, open and online education, including MOOCs, play a critical role. This Guide is designed to raise general awareness amongst policymakers in developing countries as to how MOOCs might address their concerns and priorities, particularly in terms of access to quality higher education and preparation of secondary school leavers for academic as well as vocational education and training. With very few exceptions, many of the reports on MOOCs already published do not refer to the interest and experience of developing countries, although we are witnessing important initiatives in more and more countries around the world.

This Guide can be found here and was commissioned by UNESCO to the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU).