The MOOC “Portugal in the Middle Ages: A Kingdom with Democratic Municipalities but No Cities?”, the first course produced by the Institute for Medieval Studies (IEM, NOVA FCSH) and made available on the NAU Platform, ended just over a month ago.
The course had over 2,400 enrolled participants, spanning the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia, and coming from 25 different countries. The pass rate (28%) far exceeded the expected rate (5%) based on scientific studies about this type of training. Additionally, it is now the first MOOC in Portugal—and, to our knowledge, the first internationally—to be assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
While this achievement recognizes the quality of the work carried out and the IEM’s innovative capacity, it also enables us—and now other research institutions in the Portuguese-speaking world—to continue pursuing our mission: sharing and providing open, free, and Portuguese-language access to rigorous, certified, up-to-date, and original knowledge for diverse audiences. These elements are essential to building a more inclusive and informed society and, in the case of History, to countering anachronistic readings and misappropriations of the past.