(MENAFNEditorial) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan announced today the creation of Edraak, an education initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development (QRF). Edraak, a partnership with non-profit online learning initiative edX, will be a MOOC portal for the Arab world and will bring quality education to millions of Arabic-speaking students around the globe. Her Majesty Queen Rania witnessed the historic signing of the agreement by QRF CEO Haifa Dia Al-Attia and edX president Anant Agarwal at edX's Cambridge offices.
"Using edX's technology and tapping the best talent from our region and the Arab diaspora, we're proud that we will be launching a MOOC platform for the Arab world," said Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. "Engaging, fresh, relevant – and, most importantly, in Arabic – MOOCs on Edraak will open up a world of possibility for intellectually hungry Arab youth."
"EdX was founded on the belief that education should be freely available for everyone, like the air we breathe. We share Her Majesty Queen Rania's vision to bring opportunity to those who need it most, through education, and are honored to join her in delivering the world's best and most accessible learning experiences to the Arab world," said Anant Agarwal, president of edX.
Powered by edX's open source platform, Edraak will offer Arabic translations of select courses from the 29 xConsortium partners to Arabic-speaking students at no cost. In addition, Edraak will develop its own courses in Arabic with leading Arab faculty members as well as world-renowned Arab professionals in a variety of fields.
These offerings will provide Arab students and professionals with a world-class educational experience with wide ranging courses, including courses that address contemporary issues and challenges in the Arab World through Arab perspectives.
The announcement of this Arabic-language portal follows the launch of two other global MOOC websites – XuetangX (China) and France Universite Numerique (France). Each of these portals uses Open edX, the open source platform supported by Stanford University and Google among other global partners, including the members of the xConsortium.
The Edraak initiative is an expansion of Her Majesty Queen Rania's education advocacy. Queen Rania is UNICEF's Eminent Advocate for Children. She is also a member of the United Nations Foundation (UNF) board, and a member of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's high-level advisory panel assigned to advise on the post 2015 development agenda. In Jordan, Her Majesty founded the Jordan River Foundation (JRF) dedicated to improving the livelihoods of families and communities and protecting children from abuse, as well as a number of education initiatives.
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