No MOOC’s for Syrian academics

Syrian scientists are unable to participate in on-line courses because of sanctions against their country. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC’s) are also blocked in other countries like Iran and Sudan.

Coursera, a MOOC-platform, states that the American government doesn’t allow companies to deliver services to countries on the black list. Since giving people access to their content is a service, there’s not much that Coursera can do. Udacity, another platform, is dealing with the same problem.

Critics say that by blocking the content, America makes it easier for hardliners to force an extremist ideology onto the people of Syria. The countries on the black list don’t have free higher education so the internet would be a great place to get access to scientific knowledge.