Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

This session formed a part of e/merge Africa series on 'MOOCs in Africa'
Presenter: Rebecca Yvonne Bayeck, PhD candidate, Pennsylvania State University, United States
How can Africa maximize on MOOCs? This webinar engages participants in a discussion on how to make the most out of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Yet, while MOOCs are perceived as higher education democratizer in the sense that they break gender, economic, social status, and geographic barriers to high quality education (Argawal, 2016), MOOCs do not seem to fulfill the same promise for Africa and African learners. On a continent where only 18% of the population has access to the internet, taking advantage of MOOCs is challenging for most learners on the continent. Indeed, studies on MOOC learner demographics show very limited participation from Africa (Bayeck, 2016; Koutropoulos et al., 2012). Considering the sociocultural and technological development of Africa, this session will discuss ways of making MOOCs accessible to many.