This is conceived as part of our E-Schools Initiative after its first five years of development. Possibly the best way to describe this is “MOOCs for Africa”. There are a lot of things to be learnt from Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in terms of improving the quality of teaching and learning and making education accessible to all. It is a medium for taking the school to people, not just to bring people to school.

Discussions and interviews with teachers, students, educational institutions and agencies reveal a number of ways to make MOOCs work better for Nigeria, and by extension in other parts of Africa. Second only to concerns about the prohibitive cost of internet access for streaming videos and multimedia content, most respondents felt that for impact, the content of MOOCs must be localised and understandable to the people without sacrificing quality.

Our Open University Hub seeks to fill this gap by leveraging on already existing MOOCs and local examples including the National Open University of Nigeria. In addition to facilitating access to existing MOOCs, the Open University Hub will add courses and modules that are wholly developed by Africans for Africans. EduTrust Foundation will deliver this as part of our mid-term plan in partnership with experienced and globally-certified MOOCs developers and providers. Delivery on mobile platforms will ensure wider accessibility.

Since the cost and conditions for entry into universities are prohibitive for millions of post-secondary students, the Open University Hub is in keeping with our mission of reaching communities underserved and unserved by the formal education sector. Schools and educational institutions will be free to sign up to the Hub as supplement for course content and for other purposes.