Online Learning—Do MOOCs Contribute to the Goals of Agenda 21: “Education for Sustainable Development”?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to give insight into the fast development of free education offered on the internet. It specifically takes a look at the question of how free education and the use of Massive open online courses (MOOCs) worldwide can contribute to the goals of Agenda 21 of the United Nations in the context of “Education for Sustainable Development”. The free online courses are reaching large numbers of people worldwide, and especially people from non OECD countries with comparably less access to education are likely to report tangible benefits for education and career. First research results of this rather recent development claim that the use of free education provided on the internet does help to change the educational landscape and make a substantial contribution to the normative concept of ESD.