Pakistan Plans to Unify Free Online Courses from Top Global Universities

Free-online-courses

Pakistan is all set to offer top-quality online education to Pakistani students through an integrated online platform that will unify all sorts of online courses from top of the line universities around the world, claimed Dr. Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, the former chairman of the Higher Education Commission.

All these courses on the platform – which is yet to be named — are supposed to be free and will come with a search capability, i.e. students will be able to search their desired courses.

Platform, which is almost developed and will be launched by Hussain Ebrahim Jamal (HEJ) Institute of Chemistry with-in next two months, will offer best available free online courses like MIT open courseware, Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, Virtual University of Pakistan and courses from countless other universities from around the world.

Pakistan has over 30 million internet users with a notable growth rate. Emergence of 3G services will further boost this number many folds.

With such high internet penetration, online courses – that would be free as well – are set to play a pivotal role for the education system of the country. This can be especially wonderful when there’s a lack of trained faculty in Pakistan, which is a major hurdle in educating the masses.

According to Dr. Rehman, Pakistan will be the only country to have brought together the great wealth of educational material from around the world on one single platform.

Via Dawn


    • it remains to be seen. courses from MIT, etc. offer certificates of completion. that can be put on ur cv.
      what this project does remain to be seen. hope its a good result

    • Actually I did this story for dawn. the meta search engine is completed will be launch in November or December this year. Atta ur Rehman told that MIT open course ware, Khan Academy, Coursera and other leading courses to be included in a single unified search engine. Hopefully Virtual University courses will also introduce as well.

      Suhail Yusuf

  • BEST STEP FOR NON AFFORDABLE PERSONS LIKE ME AS WELL THANKS FOR THIS ONE HOPE WE WILL SHINE IN SHA ALLAH

  • Good but what’s the point to merge all the courses on one platform? I have taken a couple of these and as far as I know they don’t really work in the local market. Only good enough for learning, no market value though (at least so far).

  • I dont follow the earlier comment on what value these courses deliver? The good Dr. is making available courses from leading universities in the world under a single access URL. How is this not of value to the youth?

  • and Btw, youtube is banned and MIT COURSES are offered through youtube, how are we supposed to access them?

  • Bravo! This is a great step indeed towards education. It will save an individual the time spent in searching for online courses. As Pakistanis, we need to learn to appreciate things.

    • Yes it will save us like 10 min, and yes we Pakistanis should appreciate these steps taken by the government figures of a country that any blogger can undertake

  • websites like openculture do this already. I applaud the initiative but what’s the point in replicating?

  • Edx and canvas have already started charging (if you want a certificate) and others are also headed towards that direction, then youtube is banned. So, this initiative can be useful if a) it offers the videos through alternative platform b) makes certificates free of cost.
    Without certificates the worth of MOOCs (as they are known) becomes even less!

    • Talha, I agree. MOOCs are not worth without certificate if you are serious abt a course and not taking just for fun. In many cases however, pdf certif is free, you can print it on fancy paper from the market yourself.
      as far as charges are concerned, yes my one prof. at mcgill told me the whole education industry will revolutionize this way. first get all people onto moocs sites, then start charging cent by cent till these universities make massive profits.

  • wat a bunch of idiotic comments.this is indeed a very excellent step.i doubt that all they will do is jumble them up in a single url.there will b more features in the unified platform and dont forget hec is doing this so these free courses will have some value in pakistan.
    as for me,i m all about seeking knowledge where ever i find it whether i get a certificate for it or not.these kind of things r heaven send for life-long-learners like myself! so go away certificate seekers and let me become the grandfather-of-all-knowledge.

    • so you are one of those that like to do to others what they call ‘brain-rape’.nonetheless,i appreciate your thirst for knowledge and it is this kind of attitude that we need to develop in our illiterate nation.

  • Coursera is already doing and creating this content as well as Khan Academy. No need to replicate.


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