Open Sourcing E-Learning for Developing Countries

Abstract

A critical success factor for developing countries is advancing their intellectual capacity. Nearly all aspects of economic development depend on the ability of individuals to extend their understanding of their business, suppliers, customers, laws and society from a local perspective to a broader, more international one that is able to assimilate change brought by new technologies and respond with innovations that bring competitive advantage. The Internet offers countries information access to the entire world — if only one can understand it. That same Internet also offers fantastic educational resources — effectively a global knowledge base. However, much of Internet content is oriented towards the needs and interests of industrialized countries. Here we propose an approach for developing countries to pool efforts to create a digital commons of e-learning resources that are appropriate and relevant to their specific needs.