PUTRAJAYA, Sept 19 — Malaysia is the first country in the world to implement the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) initiative for public universities, said Second Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

He said the initiative was meant to ensure online learning was implemented by institutions of higher learning (IPTAs) as well as reduce class time.

“MOOCs is a learning and teaching method which is effective for IPTAs as students can access the subjects anywhere and anytime through the www.openlearning.com/Malaysianmoocs website.

“For the first semester in the 2014 session beginning on Sept 7 and 8, 16,000 used the MOOCs for compulsory subjects for first year students in the IPTA which are the Islamic Civilisation and Asian Civilisations (Titas), Ethnic Relations, Entrepreneurship, and ICT Competency,” he said after the pre-launch ceremony of the MOOCs at the Education Ministry here yesterday.

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Idris said the ministry estimated 15 per cent learning in IPTAs will be done through the MOOCs concept by next year, increasing to 30 per cent in 2020. — Bernama