The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Initiative of the National Open University of Nigeria
Keywords:
MOOCs, mooKIT, IITK, NOUN, CollaborationAbstract
At the Pan Commonwealth Forum (PCF 7) hosted by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) at Abuja in December 2013, the Vice Chancellor then, enthusiastically announced the commitment of NOUN to the Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) initiative. This necessitated the creation of an OER unit by August 2014 with a mandate to stimulate OER/MOOCs awareness in NOUN and beyond as well as offer high quality MOOCs and foster collaboration with other institutions. With MOOCs NOUN seeks to reach out to more learners without cost on their part, it is hoped that this will tackle the problem of access and equity in education as well as improve the quality and level of acceptance of online education in Nigeria. Hence amidst collaboration with UNESCO, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and the Institute of Technology Kampur, the mooKIT platform developed by NOUN was deployed it enabled the institution to launch its (MOOC) in June 2016. This article shares experiences of this collaboration, it dwells briefly on the NOUN and MOOC, the collaborative efforts with IIT Kampur, the mooKIT platform and NOUN’s MOOC on ‘History and Philosophy of Science’. A number of challenges were identified and suggestion towards ameliorating them are advanced. It is envisaged that this experience will catalyse further collaborative efforts amongst institutions.
Résumé : Lors du Forum de Commonwealth (PCF 7) organisé par l’Université Nationale Ouverte du Nigeria (NOUN) à Abuja en décembre 2013, le vice-chancelier a annoncé avec enthousiasme l'engagement de NOUN pour les Ressources de l’éducation ouverte (OER) et l’initiative des cours en ligne (MOOCs). Cela a nécessité la création d'une unité OER en août 2014 avec pour mandat de sensibiliser les OER/MOOCs à NOUN et au-delà, ainsi que d'offrir des MOOC de haute qualité et de favoriser la collaboration avec d'autres institutions. Avec les MOOCs, NOUN cherche à atteindre un plus grand nombre d'apprenants sans frais de leur part. Il est à espérer que cela s'attaquera au problème de l'accès et de l'équité dans l'éducation ainsi qu'à l'amélioration de la qualité et du niveau d'acceptation de la formation en ligne au Nigéria. Ainsi, en collaboration avec l'UNESCO, le Commonwealth of Learning (COL) et l'Institut de technologie Kampur, la plate-forme mooKIT développée par NOUN a été déployée, permettant à l'institution de lancer son (MOOC) en juin 2016. Cet article partage les expériences de cette collaboration. Il s'attèle brièvement sur NOUN et MOOC, les efforts de collaboration avec IITKampur, la plate-forme mooKIT et le MOOC de NOUN sur « Histoire et philosophie de la science ». Un certain nombre de défis ont été relevés et des suggestions ont été faites pour les améliorer. Il est prévu que cette expérience catalyse d'autres efforts de collaboration entre les institutions.
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