In early 2016, the World Bank vitalized the revolution in development learning with the inauguration of its new Open Learning Campus (OLC). The OLC is designed to build the leadership and technical capabilities of development practitioners through practice-based, actionable learning.
The OLC Korea was launched in Seoul in June 2016. The event was attended by a diverse group of participants from 20 different organizations.
At the launch, World Bank Executive Director Heenam Choi said, “Learning is key to solving development challenges, and to meeting the World Bank’s twin goals of ending poverty and building shared prosperity. E-learning is an increasingly integral component to supporting these international development efforts.”
President of Ajou University Dong Yeon Kim stressed that while sharing knowledge and common values, the OLC must also embody a country-specific, culture-reflected approach in its learning platform at the same time. A former Project Manager and Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank Institute, he said we have learned the importance of taking this double approach through many World Bank projects, and it is still a valid lesson to this day. [Read Mr. Kim’s full speech here].
The OLC provides a dynamic ecosystem –open, interactive and networked – for people to learn at their own pace and access the knowledge they need to tackle the toughest development challenges.
The OLC benefits greatly from donor partners. The Government of Korea and Korean institutions have played a vital role in the development of the platform through their financial support and sharing of Korea’s own development experiences, which has enriched many courses.
Developed in technical collaboration with Korea Development Institute (KDI) , an OLC Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Korea’s development experience will be launched in early October. “Korea’s unique economic development experience have been developed into e-learning contents and will reach hundreds of thousands of people living in developing and developed countries through World Bank’s OLC platform,” said KDI President Joon-Kyung Kim.
The National Information Society Agency (NIA) announced that the OLC platform and content will be promoted and made available at NIA’s 46 Information Access Centers (IAC) in 43 developing countries worldwide. “NIA will provide a link to the OLC in its IAC webpage to enable use of various learning offerings of the Bank,” said NIA President Byung-jo Seo.
Special Representative of the Word Bank Group Korea Office, Joyce Msuya, in her closing remarks said that the office will play a pivotal role in working closely with its strong partners, who seek to collaborate on designing and delivering learning solutions for development.
For more information on the World Bank Group’s Open Learning Campus, visit www.olc.worldbank.org/
