ICT has facilitated numerous new forms of educational platforms, technologies, programs, and projects. MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is a new terminology that has been added to our dictionary. MOOC is an online course provided through a website, and which is open to a large number of students. Besides providing study aids like lecture videos, reading materials, and problem sets, it has interactive user forums to enable students to share and learn from each other.

Coursera is a successful MOOC platform which was only launched in April 2012. As of today, it has more than 5 million students registered worldwide. Coursera has signed collaborations with 108 leading universities – not only from the USA, but also from China, the UK, Singapore, etc. It offers more than 640 courses in various disciplines, including management, computer sciences, arts, education, social sciences, and more.

Coursera states that its vision is “a future where everyone has access to a world-class education that has so far been available to a select few. We aim to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.”

Under the Global Translation Partners Program, Coursera is partnering with translation companies, non-profits, philanthropic organizations, corporations, and universities from around the world to translate courses into other languages. This will enable non-English speaking citizens to benefit from these courses. At present, complete lectures of selected courses are translated into Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Kazakh, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

Another successful MOOC project is edX, which also offers various courses for free. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the two world leaders in higher education, have come together to develop this free online educational project. This initiative intends to educate 1 billion students.

The calls for free education are growing louder. Today in the US, the outstanding total student loan debt amounts to 1 trillion dollars, which is higher than both auto loan and credit card loan debt. More than 37 million US citizens are indebted with student loans. Some people will be paying off their education until the day they die. Even though there are a good number of community colleges which offer economic programs, many students opt to secure mainstream degrees in reputed colleges, despite the cost. The MOOCs that provide courses free of charge could revolutionize the way people are educated. In terms of real learning experience and exposure, the virtual system is no match for the conventional physical environment. But since human resources are limited, online courses can be valuable to a wide range of target groups. This new trend could bring a lot of socio-economic benefit to marginalized groups. Here are some economic values of free courses for both students and institutions:

1. Opportunity – This is probably the most important benefit of online learning. The student will be enabled to continue his or her day-to-day job and family duties while also pursuing an educational program. Our life is full of opportunities as well as duties; when we start having more duties, we start to sacrifice opportunities. If a person gets married, thinking about a full time Master’s degree becomes challenging. But engaging in online courses reduces this gap, putting forward a wide range of new prospects by bringing down the costs of opportunity.
2. Skill development – As our technology develops, new jobs are created – and these jobs require new skills. Acquiring knowledge from these classes will prepare students to be part of a changing workforce. There are classes available in mobile programming, web technologies, digital marketing, portfolio management, etc.
3. Flexibility – This is one of the distinct characteristics of online learning. Depending on availability, the student can easily track the lectures as he or she wishes. The examination and assignment pattern can be built around the student’s schedule.
4. Overcoming distance – Students can take courses and learn from the comfort of their own home. Students can even take classes from foreign universities. Imagine the costs of traveling to a foreign country! Now, the foreign country can come to you.
5. Saving time – “Time is money.” Online learning reduces the vast amount of time – and money – that is often spent acquiring knowledge. The student won’t need to commute to class, or miss school for an important work meeting. This is not only time saved, but earned. The student can study during holidays and other free time.  
6. Saving miscellaneous expenses – An online course eliminates petty expenses, such as transportation costs, lunch, books, and study materials. These small expenses create an added economic weight for students in a conventional educational environment. For people struggling financially, these seemingly “minor” costs can add up quickly.
7. Career shifts – Free classes are great for someone who feels stuck in their career. They can acquire the new skills necessary for a career shift.
8. No age limit – As people get older, it becomes harder to find the time for an education. They have responsibilities – whether financial, professional, or filial – that prevent them from taking classes. MOOCs enable older students to learn on their own schedules.
9. Taking rare courses – MOOCs enable students to enroll in rare courses. Not all colleges offer courses in Energy, Critical Thinking, or Designing Cities. Coursera offers a wide range of interesting multidisciplinary courses. Having access to such diverse fields of study is exciting for students.
10. Employment – MOOC platforms are also developing partnerships with HR representative at major companies, creating employment opportunities. Good students can be connected with good jobs.
11. Branding – Higher educational institutions collaborating with these MOOC platforms are also marketing themselves. Thousands of students are getting acquainted with these institutions through their eminent professors – and in turn, the students are realizing these are the best learning institutions in the world.
12. Virtual Infrastructure – Conventional institutions have spent millions of dollars for physical infrastructure, including buildings, libraries, laboratories, sports and recreational centers, etc. For online courses, the universities have to acquire technology to build virtual infrastructure. The basic physical infrastructure will be able to cater to thousands of students, as lectures from limited physical classrooms will be broadcast to thousands online.
13. Recorded lectures – When an institution records lectures delivered by professors, these recordings will remain an asset for the institution. These recorded lectures can be accessed at any time.
14. Vast number of enrolled students – The conventional classroom can accommodate a limited number of students. In virtual classrooms, thousands of students can follow an online lecture.

Conclusion

We have not discussed the shortcomings of MOOCs, as our focus is on bringing attention to the possibilities of this platform. The way we learn is changing, and these changes present real opportunities. It is probably too early to calculate the return on investment from MOOCs, as the technology is still developing and is not yet widespread. But the early returns suggest that these kinds of programs will have real economic and social benefits for both students and institutions.

I am not sure we will ever know the truth about the causes of this terrible tragedy. There are a lot of things we still do not know and may never know. I do not know what happened as far as who is responsible for Sept 11th. Since there is no evidence, all I can do is analyze the event

I do not believe in conspiracy theories. So I do not think the Bush administration engineered this whole thing. However, I can say this: the Bush administration has effectively utilized the tragedy of September 11th to advance an agenda which it already had and brought with it to power when it was selected in 2000.

In this sense, there is a close analogy to the Cold War. For one thing, it has silenced any opposition to the postwar political movement that sought to dismantle the state’s power to regulate the economy. For example, in 1947 there was considerable public political debate about the full employment bill that would guarantee full domestic employment in America. But in the 1950s, after the Greek civil war and the announcement of the Truman Doctrine that formalized the Cold War against communism, these discussions disappeared from the political horizon.

If there had been no September 11th, could you have imagined, with a nation tumbling headfirst into a severe economic recession as America appears to be doing, that there would not be a considerable mobilization of Democrats, workers, women, African-Americans, and otherpopular constituencies to pressure this Republican administration to make some accommodation, to begin to try to use the power of the government to help the nation out of the recession? These issues, which galvanized the population, disappeared from the radar screen in the aftermath of September 11th. No one is debating them right now.

It is also true that September 11th and the war on terrorism does give America something external that helps the government suppress internal dissent. But it is also a source of political capital that America can use to muscle its allies into doing things they might not otherwise do. I do not think America would have received the kind of cooperation that ti did in Afghanistan had it not been for September 11th.

In conclusion, the Bush administration has utilized this event for its benefit. Wars are excellent tools to draw people’s attention to something else especially one with no end in sight that has targeted America.

Fundamentalism

After September 11, discussions on Islamic fundamentalism began yet again. I think it is easier to understand fundamentalism in political, rather than religious, terms. What creates conflict is fundamentally contradictory interests. I think there are individuals in nations that have different political, economic, and cultural interests.

I do not think there is such a thing as Islamic fundamentalism any more than there is a Christian fundamentalism or a Jewish fundamentalism. That is what is going on here. I do not buy this argument that there is an Islamic fundamentalism whose interests are fundamentally contrary to those of the West, which I also think is an imagined community. What is the West? Are Japan and South Korea, Israel and Haiti, Finland and Spain part of it?