MOOCs changing lives of genocide victims

Tujiza Uwituze worked hard and ranked near the top of her class in her Rwandan secondary school, but her education was poor by international standards. She lives with a great-uncle in Kigali and has US$75 in savings. Despite hard work and an intense desire to succeed, her dreams appeared out of reach – and might have been if not for an innovative project that could radically change her life, writes Jeffrey Bartholet for Scientific American.

The goal of the experiment, called Kepler and conducted by a small nonprofit called Generation Rwanda, is to use massive open online courses (MOOCs) to deliver a top-tier education to young Rwandans who were born around the time of the 1994 genocide. The first test began in March with a ‘prepilot’ class called Critical Thinking in Global Challenges, an online offering from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Kepler received 2,696 applications for just 50 slots in the autumn programme. Six hundred students were invited to take an exam in April and 200, including Uwituze, made it to a final round of cuts. She will be able to study business and finance through Kepler. “Education is the only way I can survive,” she says, “the only way I can take care of my sisters, who need me.”
Full report on the Scientific American site