COL is honoured to receive the 2015 Open Education Award for Excellence in the Open MOOC category for their work on Mobiles for Development. The Open Education Awards for Excellence are awarded on an annual basis to institutions that are committed to increasing access to high quality education for everyone. The awards are overseen by a Committee of the Open Education Consortium populated by educators and open education advocates from around the world.

Mobiles for Development was jointly launched by COL and IIT Kanpur in October 2013 as a massive open online course, and ran for 8 weeks. The course addressed the spread of mobile phones in developing countries, and the potential it presents for human development. The course was attended by 2,282 registrants from 116 countries across the Commonwealth and around the globe. COL’s Knowledge Management & Technology team continues to develop and deliver MOOCs in partnership with other institutions committed to leveraging new opportunities and tools for open and distance learning. A list of COL’s MOOCs on development topics is here.