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The World Economic Forum announced the launch of an own Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform at its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Scheduled for May 2014, the new MOOCs platform Forum Academy will offer professionals the opportunity to broaden their knowledge on topics related to global technological change and its reshaping effects on industries, innovation strategies for agricultural and food security, or transformative business models for the automotive sector. However, courses are not free of charge, somehow putting into question the ‘open’ part of MOOCs.
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss not-for profit foundation, composed of large global enterprises and mostly known for its annual flagship event meeting in Davos, which offers a discussion forum for business leaders as well as political and academic representatives. The World Economic Forum is not the first non-academic institution to join in the MOOCs mania, as the World Bank had announced to launch a MOOCs platform of its own, developed by MOOCs provider Coursera (see ACA Newsletter – Education Europe, October 2013). Forum Academy, however, will not be developed with and by Course, but by its main rival and second largest MOOCs provider edX.