# Post-Digital Learning for Rural Development: A Case Study of _Open Biotec_ MOOCs in Colombia
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Contribution of MOOCs to Closing Social Gaps and Economic Challenges  
Table 4 introduces the purposes of the different MOOCs and the socioeconomic facts associated with the courses coming from the previous diagnosis. It represents the alienation between the course's purposes and the respective socioeconomic fact. The platform offers an introductory module for students to level their knowledge and learn basic biotechnological concepts. Then, a course on agricultural residues where the student can identify and take advantage of all the biomass resulting from agricultural production systems. Colombia is a country with a vocation for agriculture, where more than 4 million rural workers, corresponding to 17% of the country's labor force oversee agricultural production systems [68]. Colombia has around 5,200,000 hectares destined for the sowing of crops. Its generation of agricultural residues represents high volumes that become environmental problems by not being used [69]. The course was designed to offer all this population the fundamentals and methodologies to value and transform waste, from biotechnological processes, into products with high added value. As mentioned above, the Uraba subregion has an eminently primary economy, mainly directed towards agriculture. It has a participation of 24.67% of the total added value of the agricultural sector in the department [58]. There is a potential for residual agricultural biomass that is quite promising to be transformed into valuable products. With biotech \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline MOOC & **Purpose of the Course** & **Socioeconomic Facts** \\ \hline Agricultural residues & Development of the student’s skills to recognize the concept of biomass as a substrate. Improvement in the selection of substrates and the majorization of agricultural wastes to generate value-added products. & There are 5,200,000 hectares of agricultural production. It generates 71 Mt tons of agricultural residues per year, which represents a potential substrate material for transformation through bioprocesses [65]. \\ \hline Bioprocesses & The development of the student’s skills to identify, describe, and implement a bioprocess. This course strengthens the students’ skills to carry out the conceptual design of biological transformation systems of matter. & There are 5,200,000 hectares of agricultural production. It generates 71 Mt tons of agricultural residues per year, which represents a potential substrate material for transformation through bioprocesses [65]. \\ \hline Environmental biotechnology & This course develops students’ competencies to take advantage of the potential of biotechnology in the remediation of environmental pollution generated, both in water and in soils, using different microorganisms. & In Colombia, more than 40 m\({}^{3}\)/s of wastewater is discharged without treatment, with more than 1300 bodies of water contaminated. More than 75\% of the country’s municipalities have no treatment plant or are poorly functioning [66]. \\ \hline Renewable energy & This course will present the potential of alternative energies to develop different processes efficiently and innovatively, making the most of natural resources. & The 71 Mt tons of agricultural residues per year represents an energy potential of about 331,000 TJ annually [65; 67]. \\ \hline Bio-entrepreneurship & This course develops the student’s skills to devise, design products, and establish the value proposition of a biotechological enterprise. Additionally, students will develop skills to communicate a value proposition and transfer it to the market. & There is a rural unemployment rate of 34\% in the Uraba Subregion [58; 59; 60]. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Purposes of the different MOOCs and the socioeconomic facts associated with the courses. nology applied in agriculture, the communities can access a wide variety of scientific approaches to improve their production systems to develop solutions to rural productivity and sustainability [70].