This summer, the first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in Philanthropy will be offered by the Learning by Giving Foundation. It will be comprised of six compact classes and complemented by interviews with guest speakers such as Warren Buffett, Doris Buffett, Cal Ripken, Jr., Soledad O’Brien, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.
The class is hosted on Course Builder, an open source project led by Google.
Since many of the MOOCs currently offered focus on STEM, this is definitely a unique course offering. And even though many universities offer traditional online courses in nonprofit ethics, grant making and fundraising, none of them are MOOCs.
When I took the LearningbyGiving class at Tufts University, our class received a $10,000 grant to distribute to local nonprofit organizations. Each student was paired with a local nonprofit and wrote a grant proposal on behalf of the organization. Unfortunately, the organization I represented did not receive the grant. But overall the entire experience, from the the class discussion to deciding on the criteria to judge each organization was vivid and thought-provoking.
So, I’m curious to see how this model will work in a MOOC format. And, if you’re as curious as me, sign up!
Related articles
