I think it is possible and every citizen has the right to be educated. A university on site will be great but with our current goals and locations of all Asgardians, an MOOC is perfect. We have brilliant minds who will offer their service to Asgardia to teach their fellow brothers and sisters. It should be free cause I believe education to the citizens of a particular country should be free, except the person is not an Asgardian. It should not be limited, in terms of course, that is it should be only science or only maths but it should involve all possible courses but as one fellow asgardian said we should start with the science, math, languages and IT  which forms the bases of most of all caress in this modern age. I believe this should not be kicked somewhere but should be followed through till it is a reality.

Archamon,

Thank you for your opinion on the matter, I do agree that classroom environments are a great way to further knowledge, even online, for an educational experience. But I do have to disagree with a couple of the things you said. Mostly that for the most part online courses/sites are for lack of a better term pointless, as you said in your second to last paragraph. The fact that someone would spend their free time educating themselves, using whatever resources they have at their disposal is commendable. Depending on the certificate in question, many places actually look fondly on the prospective employee for taking the time to better educate themselves before applying for a position. Now this isn't to say they will take said certificate into consideration when reviewing at what level they wish to employ a person, but it can still be looked on positively that at least the person has some education in the proper field. Take, for example, the Alison courses I mentioned, they are provided by several other education authorities, including some from Khan Academy. Some of the certificates are "pay to receive", but what you are paying for is the documentation, not the learning experience itself. It is how the site itself can remain, for the most part, free. You can take the entire course, save your results, and come back to them later, or even leave them up for evaluation by others without purchasing the certificate. Now, granted, especially in this day and age, very little in life is truly "free", either you are spending money, time, both, or exchanging services in lieu of payment. Again, I believe that a classroom environment can help promote a better learning environment, but that doesn't mean that self taught students have any less of an education than those that chose to sit in a classroom. It's the way many online colleges operate anymore, the students are given the resources to teach themselves (for the most part), then evaluated on what they have learned, almost taking the teacher completely out of the equation. I am all for the implementation of an Asgardian University, but that doesn't mean that a free online education (taken from the right resources) has no merit. You say that free online education isn't equal to "real" education, having been self taught in many areas myself, I have to disagree. It boils down to what a student is most comfortable with. I never payed much attention in school, the other students tended to be a distraction for me (I have ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, basically I have a lot of energy and get distracted really easily), so teaching myself through books and online resources has allowed me to continue my education where a school system could not. 

Everyone learns differently, where as videos and lectures might work for some, hands on and book work might work better for others, depending on how they process and retain information best. During my time in High School (ages 14-18), I started a program called "Teach the Teachers." It focused on helping teachers learn new teaching methods, whereas before they were teaching students the way they were taught, the way their teachers were taught, the way their teachers' teachers were taught, and so on. They were confused as to why only part of their classes seemed to be grasping the lessons, and that the other part was having trouble with them. "Sally learns best from watching someone do something multiple times, Jack learns best by doing it himself multiple times, Fredrick learns best by seeing it broke down in a book in front of him to learn why they are doing it in the first place." Retention practices. How the student best grasps the subject at hand. Individual students have individual needs, something a large portion of the educational system is still having trouble grasping. By having multiple resources for the subject at hand, all needs can be tailored to accordingly.

I apologize for this becoming as lengthy as it has. My point is merely that online courses, even being free, have merit. They can, if utilized correctly, be a great source for learning, and that a proper education doesn't require a student to be engaged in a classroom setting to gain the same knowledge, nor does it require a physical teacher to be present (even an online presence). But, in time, I am still hoping to see an Asgardian University based in our own (Asgardia) community.

@leon No Leon, the US Military does not use Alison.com to my knowledge. The US Navy uses NKO, Navy Knowledge Online which are courses written by military and civillian instructors under government contract.

Will it have certification that can be  tranfared like other schools 

Gavriil Michas... really well explained. yes. I think there are a lot of free courses all around the world, but in Asgardia we need those necessaries for the performance of our functions and the development of our new Nation. I imagine they will be made according to the needs.

You should split it in two, reference and tutorials, then you can teach everything. I've made a project that I sent to you some time ago for this matter, that was my concept for this topic

And a good point, that for those that have trouble grasping the subject matter, or just for accurate testing of the students, a professor or teacher does still serve a purpose.

The MIT courses on youtube do set up a pretty good examples of what these course should be. It would be nice if its something similar to it

• What do you believe constitutes a MOOC?

Asgardian MOOCs should be a clear, concise, factual and progressive series of lessons designed to instill fundamental knowledge of a subject and then expand to specializations in the subject field. Educational tracks should begin with the foundations required to understand higher level concepts and provide a platform for users to access those concepts

• What will the end result look like?

The method of delivery at this point in time should resemble a section of the Asgardian website where our national log in will allow us entrance to all available courses. Courses could be arranged based on field then subject or perhaps by relevant ministry

• How will it benefit the community of Asgardia?

By providing a stable and understandable collection of Asgardian knowledge so that all Asgardians can become knowledgeable about theoretical and practical sciences

• When/how are we going to develop this?

So far Asgardian projects have been undertaken by volunteer teams and it makes sense to follow this initial version of employment. A team attached to the ministry of education should be inducted to map out, gather and deploy the courses required for the subjects essential to Asgardian space culture. They will then bring these courses online and maintain them. 

• Why do you believe this is being done?

The purpose of this central education system should be to provide the knowledge required and appreciated by Asgardians to Asgardians, enabling them to further and better themselves and our nation. 

• How will it be different from the other Online/free courses available today?

This initiative would mean that course content can be delivered factually and consistently to Asgardians without the clutter of competitive or alternative course providers. Current service providers are predicated on the requirement of knowledge to further ones career and/or financial aspirations, or sometimes just to have fun learning new skills. Asgardia's central education system would be predicated on providing relevant knowledge to all Asgardians so that they may assist with national and personal projects for the betterment of Asgardian society  

• How will it be run?

The knowledge base should be administered by the Ministry of Education, in whatever form that takes internally, some kind of directory with a team or a council of educators

• Will there be different levels of learning? i.e. grade school vs university/college

Contemporary educational boundaries can be ignored in this system. A user should be free to begin any track and follow it through to an area of specialization at their own pace. The content and it's complexity could be equated to primary, higher and unversity levels of education but this should not be restricted to people of a certain age or ability. Essentially any course should offer the knowledge of the subject from the very basics to the most recent areas of study that are quite possibly still ongoing. This also invites the question of certifications which we currently use to define the skill level of an academic. We could continue to do this with boundaries in the course content or we could structure the courses so that progression through them is tracked and a citizen only need demonstrate their ability during a project without need to show a piece of paper or badge. If we do wish to persue an employment style system where education to a certain point should be indicated then we could tie this in with specific course milestones which can be automatically checked, potentially by having tests on the education system or simply flags that state a certain subjects lesson has been completed

• Will it be free, or should there be a subscription per month/year that allows unlimited courses?

This will ultimately depend on the finality of Asgardia's economy. If there is one and the educational system requires funding then the central education system should be financed in a way similar to the NHS, in that every citizen contributes a percentage of income to the upkeep and availability of the service. If there is a different system we'd need to see what that entails but initially volunteering is working well so far since all Asgardians are eager to break the cycle of monetary instability

• What types of programs can we provide? Will it be purely scientific, or is there room for the development of arts, music, theology, marketing programs?

This system should be implemented for the distribution of fact and knowledge, real world applicable science. That is not to say that Arts, Music, etc are not important but they are subjective and personalised subjects, much more befitting of their own system. Certainly there will be some need for skills in these areas to better understand, illustrate and communicate but again this can be distilled to facts as opposed to the subjective creativity that the Arts are intended for. The arts should have their own system akin to youtube where citizens can share their interpretations of the content

• Is there a possibility for a mentorship program

If the central education system is designed carefully this may not be necessary, however the ministry of education should consider implementing a team aimed at assisting citizens through more complex subject matter if required. From answering questions to visiting for demonstrations, or in the least producing additional instructional content, possible video, to expand on course content when issues from learners arise 

Asgardia will be a nation as like as any other nation after being recognized by UN and we must have the right of education as like as any other nation.

University of Asgardia should be established as soon as Asgardia is recognized by UN and a campus for University of Asgardia should be found somewhere on Earth. University of Asgardia should also sign twiniing agreements with reputable universities worldwide so that asgardian students will attend courses in some universities but finally get their certificates from University of Asgardia. As citizens of Asgardia will be freed of the tuitions, they will not pay any applicable tuition for these universities where they attend courses even if they impose tuitions. Any way, the online courses should supersede the other similar programs of online courses worldwide.

I suggest that MOOCs constitutes of different levels of education (grade school vs university/college) and include all the educational levels of university such as BA, MA, and PhD because the graduates of MOOCs should be able to get job opportunities not only in Asgardia but also in any country.

MOOCs should be totally free of tuitions for asgardians (as like as in many countries such as Sweden) and the tuitions should be only applicable for non-asgardian students.

that is against the share-technology principle I suppose. May I suggest MOOCS free but lessons with teachers at payment (for non-asgardians I mean)?

I thank everyone for your comments. This topic is closing down. We are collecting your ideas to add to our proposal that will be sent to NGO Asgardia for approval.

Thank You,
Nikari Steve Miller
Administrative Coordinator
Civic.Asgardia