Partners in 11 countries have joined forces to launch the first pan-European ‘MOOCs’ (Massive Open Online Courses) initiative, with the support of the European Commission. MOOCs are online university courses which enable people to access quality education without having to leave their homes.
Around 40 courses, covering a wide variety of subjects, will be available free of charge and in 12 different languages. The initiative is led by the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) and mostly involves open universities. The partners are based in the following countries: France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, UK, Russia, Turkey and Israel.
Detailed information about the initiative and the courses on offer is available on the portal www.OpenupEd.eu. A press release about this initiative was published on April 23 by the European Commission and is available in 22 languages at http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-349_en.htm.
This initiative will officially be launched by an international online press event on Thursday, April 25.
You can view the event online at www.ou.nl/moocs.
At the start OpenupEd will offer around 40 courses, covering a wide variety of subjects, will be available free of charge and in 12 different languages.
Currently, the portal http://www.openuped.eu/ is already approachable providing some background information. The list of courses and other information will be available on April 25.
