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By Stephen Downes - Halfanhour. Please see my presentation and audio here: http://www.downes.ca/presentation/339
N.V. Varghese
- view from developing countries
    - largest expansion of the system in this century
    - did not rely on public resources at all - shows willingness to pay
    - GER (gross educational? resources) disparity worldwide
    - OECD countries universalized higher ed, but developing countries still in an elite system
    - social demand far outstrips brick-and-mortar solutions
- can MOOCs address this?
    - enormous potential
    - Tsinghua (#1 in BRICs) created a consortium of leading universities to teach Mandarin
    - IIT in India relies on MOOCs for skills in IT sector
    - 330 million in India will have Internet in 2015

Constraints
    - technology and infrastructure
    - language constraint - courses are in English
   
Who benefits?
    - mostly the elite - already have degrees (80%)
    - they are proficient in English, they are employed, they're not looking for a degree

So - MOOCs serve privileged students, not a reliable way to increase equivalent access to higher education
    - private institutions and commercial interest in MOOCs
    - are the MOOCs taking all the money?
    - MOOCs give them a way to feel like they are contributing even if they aren't
    - disparities in access are getting narrowed, but disparities in achievement are not
    - argument that MOOCs are widening the disparities
    - propose partnering with existing institutions as an initial step to make them more
      widespread in developing countries. More...

By Stephen Downes - Half an Hour. The Advent of MOOCs panel session
Abdul Wahid Khan IGNOU
    - MOOCs - recent, buzzword, etc - critics call it a fad, hype, etc.
    - my bias - MOOCs have a contribution to make, but there are reasons to be careful
        - MOOCs essentially a response to the emerging knowledge society - the value of knowledge increases
        - people used to value wealth but now they value knowledge
    - poor man's version of MOOCs
        - mssive - nobody has defined this;
        - open - a new phenomenon;
        - online - this is where I deviate - in my time we had 'on air' for farmers
            - eg. in support of Green Revolution in India - to address gap between the land and the lab
            - radio + printed support system - has been running for 35 years
            - what is the difference? It targeted a local problem, in a local language, multi-sakeholder, blended learning
    - it is not technology that should determine learning, it should be the learning that determines the tech
        - eg. MOOCs in Bengali, in Hindi, etc
        - you don't want to put a current evaluation against the potential of the technology
        - what made IGNOU possible?
            - massive unmet demand,
            - plus, we began to develop programs that meet the needs of industry
            - encouraged active partnership between public and private sector (eg. 3,500 private sector learning facilities)
        - technology can bring a multiplier effect, but the technology per se is not the action. More...