MOOCs | News
EdX Partners with Saudi Arabia on MOOC Portal Women, Youth, Disabled and Rural Citizens
EdX has partnered with the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia's Ministry of Labor to create an open-platform massive open online course
(MOOC) portal powered by edX's open-source
platform, with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for people in
Saudi Arabia and throughout the Arab world.
The portal, which is expected to launch in September 2014, is intended to
"bridge the gap between education and employment" in Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries by providing women, youth, disabled people and those in rural
communities with access to high-quality educational opportunities. They will be
able to access "courses licensed from edX university members and translated into
Arabic, as well as original courses developed exclusively for Arabic-speaking
students," according to edX.
As part of the multi-year collaboration, Saudi Arabia will make a
"significant investment in Open edX" and edX's services team will provide
ongoing support to Saudi instructors. The initiative will also include "a
research component focused on learning through innovative technologies and R&D,"
according to edX.
EdX is a nonprofit, open source enterprise that was founded by Harvard
University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focused on expanding
education opportunities online and on-campus. EdX currently offers online
courses from more than 50 member institutions. According to Anant Agarwal, CEO
of edX, other countries including France, China, Jordan and Mexico have
expressed interest in similar partnerships with the edX open source platform.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].
