MOOCs Could Prove Disruptive to Latin America Higher Ed

By Julia Lawrence. Higher education systems in developing countries might find themselves under threat from the growing popularity of online education, according to the MIT Technology Review. It’s been less than two years since some of the most prominent American and international universities began offering free college-level courses over the internet, and already more than half of the students who sign up are located outside the United States. One of those who was instantly won over by the potential offered by these massive online open courses was University of El Salvador professor of electrical engineering Carlos Martinez. When edX, a MOOC consortium put together by MIT and Harvard University, started offering a course in electronic circuits, Martinez enrolled and henceforth considered himself a MOOC convert. His experience convinced him that online education offered by some of the best colleges and universities in the world could prove to be the future of higher education in his own country. Convinced of this, he started traveling around El Salvador to recruit converts and documenting his journey as a self-appointed “MOOC Advocate,” – the first one in El Salvador and Latin America. More...