The main objective of ONLAAH is to offer the first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on African Archaeology and Heritage, accessible worldwide. This MOOC project will provide the possibility to a new generation of students, university teachers, administrative officials, and political decision makers from around the world to engage in the study of African Archaeology and protection of cultural heritage. DAI’s tradition and expertise in African Archaeology, due to decades of field research in many African countries, together with the digital resources resulting from those works will offer a unique vision of our research on the continent. The course will be accessible from anywhere with a simple internet connection and to those with a computer or mobile device (M-learning) and will allow our target audience of all ages from all over the world the chance to attain knowledge that was previously inaccessible to them. Capacity building is one of DAI’s major goals. Thus, our MOOC intends to empower its users by preparing them to work in their own countries for their own heritage. We also aim at creating a network of students and institutions (Universities, museums, research centers and others) in Africa and all over the world to establish new goals in African archaeology and heritage studies and protection. The focus will be on alternative non-European perspectives.
The project is scheduled to go online in the course of the year 2020. It consists of 4 modules with one hour of teaching material each. Each module is divided into several lessons consisting of videos, supplementary material and a quiz at the end. We very much hope that we will be able to keep to our schedule under the somewhat more difficult conditions of the pandemic.
