Welome to the ilmy blog. This is our first shot at interacting with ilmy learners and people interested in MOOCs and online learning. We, as founders of ilmy inc., realized that learning through MOOCs is a step towards future learning. EDx, Coursera and several other platforms are doing a great job providing high quality courses from credible universities in a new learning environment. They made quality education more accessible to people all over the world. We also realized that most of the courses come from top Universities in the Western hemisphere and some from Asia and Australia. We wanted to expand the interest in MOOCs, either from academic institutions or learners, to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We believe that academic institutions in this region have distinct contributions and diverse cultural perspectives that will enrich the learning experience of 'global online learning environments'. Therefore, we decided to support and encourage MOOCs development from academic institutions in the MENA region. It is not only an issue of language and translation because most of the top universities in this region offer their education in English or non-native languages. It is still more of a cultural difference, a whole different outlook to learning and implementation. We also decided to carry on this mission to help develop the skills and abilities of instructors and institutions to be able to cope with fast-paced development of online / hybrid learning models. Many instructors and some institutions try to experiment with MOOCs but we are try to bring in that MENA culture in one online learning environment, ilmy.
We are trying to take the first few steps. We will totally be lost without continuous interaction and feedback from day 1. This is why we consider this to be day 1. Feel free to comment, share ideas, give us recommendations, discuss philosophy, pedagogy and/ or your experiences around MOOCs and / or learning in the MENA region.
