Open Learning Scholars

Capacity Building in Contemporary Online Tools and Pedagogy and Advocating for Online Learning in the Arab World

Open Learning Scholars (OLS) is a collaboration between MIT and the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education aimed at expanding access to and use of digital learning environments in STEM for learners worldwide. Its intent is to make some of the best STEM education in the world available to Arab youth through innovative online and blended learning offerings. OLS supported educational transformation and capacity building through blended learning in Arab universities.

The MIT team developed professional development workshops to train and work with faculty at the American University in Cairo and the American University of Beirut. The faculty were encouraged to blend select MITx courses materials (6.00x, 7.00x and 18.03x) in their regularly offered residential courses.

For OLS, I served as project director and co-designed the project. I was responsible for overall project administration and MIT’s contributions to the project. I co-organized the professional development workshops and coordinated with other units in MIT Open Learning. I co-authored the white paper providing recommendations for multi-stakeholder collaborations for blended learning in the Arab World.

Cover of AGFE-MIT White Paper
Source: Brandon Muramatsu

Info

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Strategic Education Initiatives / MIT Open Learning Projects
2016-2019

Key Collaborators: Kirky DeLong* (MIT, Open Learning Projects), Samar Farah* (Al Ghurair Foundation for Education), Vijay Kumar* (MIT, J-WEL), Glenda Stump* (MIT, Open Learning Projects)

Funding Source: Al Ghurair Foundation for Education (United Arab Emirates)