FREE ONLINE EDUCATION - THE FUTURE OF A BETTER WORLD?

Abstract

The paper focuses on the concept of free online education. It took over 100 years for courses sold in America from door to door to reach the stage they are today, but the evolution of the latest educational platforms, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) was much faster. MOOC are courses offered by various entities (teachers, departments of universities, museums, institutes) that can be attended online by an unlimited number of people. Most are free and in addition to video and other teaching materials (case studies, written explanations) they make available platforms for interaction between participants so that they can benefit from discussions with people worldwide. The idea of ​​open education has conquered hundreds of educational institutions, especially in higher education and adult education institutions worldwide. “Giving away knowledge for free” is a revolutionary idea that attracts students, scares publishing houses and challenges educational organizations that see knowledge as a product being their core business. A challenge for top universities is to offer the most interesting online courses for free, not only as a service to humanity, but also as a way of investigating how people learn. Some examples of such Romanian platforms are: Mooc.ro, Unicampus.ro. The paper also presents some foreign online initiatives that have the potential to transform life on Earth: Khan Academy, a platform founded by Salman Khan, one of the pioneers of online education; Udacity, the latest attempt to make quality education accessible to all; Coursera, OpenupEd, Europeanschoolnetacademy. The conclusion of the paper is that online education is not a new concept and is certainly not a completed process. The proportions reached in recent years, however, suggest that there is the chance of emerging economies, of many poor communities worldwide, but also the sustainable perspective for the future of global education. If a few years ago higher education offered by top universities of the planet was just a dream for the vast majority, now professors of these institutions teach for free on online platforms. Nowadays, education through online medium facilitates access to resources once reserved for the elite of the world, and also aims to prepare as many employees as possible for the labor market’ demands of the future.