ABSTRACT

The massive online open course (MOOC) phenomenon has now arrived in Africa and many Africans have enrolled in the free online courses offered by American, European, and Indian universities. African Virtual University (AVU) will start by using a MOOC-type approach for focused faculty development activities as well as courses for the general public such as peace management and conflict resolution. The MOOC approach may be seen to be most appropriate when it enables the scalable delivery of courses at a distance and avoids access barriers imposed by on-campus delivery. Clearly, developing open educational resources (OER) for Africa not only builds capacity in the continent, but also provides a benefit to the rest of the world. Griff Richards has participated in several European research projects, was Foreign Research Fellow at the Open University of Japan, and has designed open education modules in Africa.