“The shimmery hope is that free courses can bring the best education in the world to the most remote corners of the planet, help people in their careers, and expand intellectual and personal networks” (Pappano, 2012).
An article by Kamenetz (2013) states that two-thirds of participants live outside of the USA, and that they are adapting the courses “to fit their local communities and cultures”. In some instances, these MOOCs are being used as part of a formal educational course, and are being delivered to groups as part of a blended learning experience, which allows third-world students to experience first-world educational resources.
It appears there are a majority of participants based within the USA and Europe on the Metaliteracy MOOC. However, there are also participants in Argentina, Ukraine, South Korea and Ghana to name a few countries.
The multinational participation does bring problems. For example, one forum thread raises the question of grammatical errors arising where English is a second language. The consensus of opinion was that as long as the message or intent is clear then the grammar should not affect the overall mark. However, one participant was keen that their grammar was corrected as this was part of their learning journey. Another participant remarked on how difficult it was for them to judge grammatical content as they did not feel fully confident to do so.
If confidence with the English language is an unspoken requirement of taking part in a MOOC then I do question how ‘open’ it is. The video material is spoken English with English captions only. The written material is English only. Although, it is possible to translate the written documents using Google Translate, or an alternative service, this often strips out the formatting which makes it harder to understand, even when the translation is accurate. The MOOC also requires you to complete written assignments each week.
“Another factor is language of course because had I no English as my second language I would not be able to discuss these issues with you but the fact that I can communicate in English opens up a whole digital world that would otherwise be a closed book to me” (Metaliteracy MOOC participant).
I do believe that a truly open MOOC would be delivered in several languages.
Another issue that has been raised is legislation,
“Just something that poked me in the eye: only the copyright law of the USA is discussed in the reading material and the quiz.
Do I understand right that the copyright law varies country by country? Because then that part of the material is kinda useless for learners in other countries (which I bet there are many of in a MOOC)” (Metaliteracy MOOC participant).