The Delft University of Technology is launching a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Open Government through the open edX online platform.
The Delft University MOOC on Open Government is open to university students, professionals, government officials, policy advisers, researchers, and anyone interested in Open Government.
Delft University is contributing to the MOOC by showing how a range of Digital Government innovations, responding to pressures for more voice from citizens and more transparency from government, become institutionalized as Open Government at various stages of the Digital Government evolution.
The MOOC programme will help participants to learn basic concepts related to Open Government and Open Government Data; how to analyze and discuss benefits, barriers and potential negative effects of a particular Open Government case and an Open Government Data case; how to analyze public values and best practices related to Open Government; how to apply the open government principles in various situations; and how to understand potential negative and positive effects Open Government might bring to the workplace.
According to the institution, governments all over the world aim to become more open and transparent, but opening the government is a complex and challenging problem.
Questions arise including: How can governments become more open and transparent, while simultaneously dealing with various challenges, such as data sensitivity? How can open government data be made available to improve public policy making? Which technologies are available to make governments more open and to use open government data? The Delft University MOOC on open Government is meant to shed more light on these questions and help individuals take a position on them.
At the end of the course, applicants are expected to grasp the key principles of open government, and answer questions including: What are the best practices for opening governments? How do we give citizens access to governmental data to answer their questions?’ Most importantly, participants will apply the topics of the course to concrete cases.
The MOOC is scheduled to start on April 17, 2017 and run for five weeks.
Interested applicants can enroll via https://www.edx.org/course/open-government-delftx-og101x. An informative introductory video about the MOOC is also available for viewing and download at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93BzVj_-7vo&feature=youtu.be.
