Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Green Economy Transition: Feasibility Assessment for African Higher Education

摘要

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a new phenomenon globallyand in Africa. MOOCS have attracted student registration in hundreds ofthousands per course in certain instances, as well as gaining acceptanceacross different societies. MOOCs present opportunities for learning ingeneral and specifically learning towards green economy transition in Africa.Many MOOCs are currently hosted by institutions of higher education inthe USA, with the first MOOC breakthrough entitled “Artificial Intelligence”having ‘exploded’ at Stanford University in California (USA) in summer 2011.The “Artificial Intelligence” enrolled 160,000 students, 23,000 of whichgraduated after 10 weeks. The question then is: are MOOCs feasible ineducating African masses in the field of green economy transition? Born in2008 and popularised throughout the years following the global financialcrisis, world leaders confirmed from Rio+20 that green economy transition isthe way to go if humanity is to remain sustainable on planet earth. This paperpresents MOOCs as an emerging area with opportunities to enhance learningfor green economy transition in general and specifically for Africa. The twinphenomena under discussion require massive roll outs of: firstly, learningmanagement systems like MOOCs, and, secondly, the dissemination ofmassive appropriate content, knowledge and skills related to green economytransition that current formal education systems will not manage given thedemand and urgency. The answer to the question raised is therefore a qualified‘yes’ mainly due to limited e-readiness in the continent.