Book Review: MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South: Challenges, Successes and Opportunities

MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South: Challenges, Successes, and Opportunities takes readers around the world to gather a deeper understanding of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and open education in an international milieu. With contributions from close to 70 authors and 50 countries, readers will find numerous examples of the ways in which MOOCs differ outside the global North. Content on open education is covered in fewer pages, suggesting more familiarity amongst the authors with the MOOC course type than the open education concept.

context, and both chapters demonstrate how a nationally-planned system of offering MOOCs may yield positive learning outcomes and serve particular purposes. Chapter 2 discusses the popularity of government-sponsored MOOCs in South Korea, where the authors cite that more than 44% of the population are registered members. The authors suggest that the legitimacy gained from the Korea MOOC system in the South may serve as a diplomatic tool to enhance relations with the North. China has created a large government-supported MOOC ecosystem (Zhang et al., 2019). In Chapter 3, the authors provide a brief overview of MOOCs in China from 2012 and describe MOOC providers, user profiles, and a summary of the research. This analysis will be useful to readers from less mature MOOC ecosystems. Amidst the volume of research discussed, the authors note that more empirical work on pedagogy, attrition, and learner behaviours is needed.
Section 2 explores the design and practices of MOOCs and centres on contextualisation, with input from Canada, Egypt, Fiji, Latin America, Nepal, and the United States. The eight chapters in this section discuss the impact of contextual issues on language and learning approaches, resources, and geography. In Chapter 4, which focuses on Egypt, the authors assert that MOOCs are routinely translated from English to another language, yet this is often done without the necessary cultural cues that would enable more "equitable experiences and outcomes" (p. 52). Another issue has been that MOOCs typically rely on a "banking model approach" (p. 49) or a "content-centric focus" (p. 72). Authors in this and other sections advocate for a more learner-centred rather than a didactic approach to MOOC design. A prevailing challenge discussed across the chapters in this section is lack of capacity, which is linked to financial and human resource limitations, another common theme found elsewhere in the book. In addition to pedagogical inputs, Section 2 provides important information on adapting, contextualising, and creating MOOCs. The Climate Change and Pacific Islands MOOC discussed in Chapter 8 is an example of an innovative MOOC that responds to a region beset by the recurrence of natural disasters.
In Section 3, the focus is on the use of open education and MOOCs for professional development, with case studies from Canada, South Africa, Thailand, and Turkey. Adult learners are central to this section, and readers will discover interesting findings on the market appeal and sustainability of MOOCs. An important theme discussed in this section is the centrality of instructors' active engagement and collaboration with learners to the success of MOOCs, reminding us that online learning may not be best characterised as independent learning. Furthermore, success in a MOOC is not necessarily defined as completion; in some cases, participation is, as the authors note in Chapter 14 (Canada). To mention a few, the authors predict that in 15 to 20 years, • MOOCs will primarily target working adults who are focused on up/re-skilling.

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• AI will update MOOCs and OERs, with the role of humans limited to quality assurance.
• MOOC design will become more learner-centred and enabled through authentic and interactive learning experiences.
The editors conclude with an outlook that is both ominous and optimistic. The world of work is changing, perhaps more rapidly than the average person realises, with the onset of AI and automation. The most likely outcome of the editors' predictions is that MOOCs will continue to appeal to working adults given the ongoing need to acquire or refine their skills. Connectivity issues around the world will persist; and MOOCs are not overly helpful in addressing this challenge given their great reliance on videos, which require large amounts of bandwidth and data. Indeed, the mooKIT learning management system (Chapter 25) presents a low-bandwidth alternative; but mainstreaming other aspects of open education should garner greater attention. Increased uptake of OER needs sectoral if not ministerial leadership. OER has proven to be cost effective in reducing textbook costs (Caldwell, 2020;Wiley et al., 2012), particularly as open textbooks. Yet, political will, comprehensive capacity building, and financial resources are key to moving such initiatives forward. Any interventions must also be located in identifying and understanding a given problem to which open education and MOOC interventions are the solution. One-off projects, in the absence of sound strategic considerations, offer little to address the problem of access to quality learning.
Instead, any intervention must be couched in a view to sustainability and, ultimately, impact for learners.