Summary of "MOOCs in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges" by Dr. Om Prakash Tiwari

 

Massive Open Online Courses(MOOCs) brought in a revolutionary change in the field of online education. Its innovative potential with regard to education in general and higher education in particular cannot be denied as it gives developing countries a hope to better education. Dr. Om Prakash Tiwari explores the opportunities and challenges in development and implementation of MOOCs in developing countries for widening equitable access to quality higher education.

The article delves into a number of opportunities provided by MOOCs in developing countries. Primely, MOOCs provide educational opportunities for youths and adults of developing countries. It also helps to learn with flexibility. Learners are given a chance to connect with people across the globe with similar interest and professional profiles which leads to further development of innovative ideas.

The author also explains how democratization of higher studies happen through the online learning platforms. Anyone can learn from an elite institution without the barriers of economy, social status or gender bias. MOOCs increased the number of courses offered by world renowned institutions and teachers.

MOOCs can contribute to the Return On Investment (ROI) of education in the view of the author. He further explains education as a highly valued good, that drives to the expanding of all other advancements, economical, cultural and social. Access to quality education offers citizens a better standard of living and ability to engage productively in all strata of societies. Author also comes up with a pertinent advantage of online education as it reduces the cost of education as colleges and universities serve a larger target and in long run cost per student decreases.

Second part of the paper deals with challenges faced by developing countries in the effective implementation of MOOCs. The comparatively poor ICT structure in developing countries makes it difficult to use the resources effectively. Lack of a stable internet connection hinders the access to online educational platforms as the most important part of these online classes are video classes and online interaction between fellow students.

In the opinion of the author, issues in pedagogical context, assessment and certification also are barriers to the wide spread access to MOOCs. The inability to integrate the course into current university education structure leading to a degree from college, or inability for timely feedback and individual attention also pushes people in developing countries away from MOOCs. Because of the same reasons there is a high drop out rate for each course as most of them join to get a specific piece of information and they discontinue after that. Language is also a frequently cited potential barrier as majority of the MOOCs are in English. Developing Countries have different regions languages and people with access to English education can only make use of such opportunities.

As discussed in the paper, MOOCs can only improve the quality and access to higher education in developing countries where majority of population already has the formal educational experience with well-developed learning skills. In the near future, there will be need to keep updating the pedagogy of MOOCs to find ways to define and explore, which would meet the needs of developing countries.

Article summarized:

“MOOCs in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges” written by Dr. Om Prakash Tiwari, Asst. Regional Director, IGNOU, Bhgalpur.

Published in Research and Reflections on Education;ISSN 0974-648X, Volume:17, No. 03, July-sept 2019. Published by St. Xavier’s College of education, Tamil Nadu.