# Post-Digital Learning for Rural Development: A Case Study of _Open Biotec_ MOOCs in Colombia
## 4 Conclusions  
The results of this study show that rural education in Colombia, especially in areas like Uraba, could be strengthened with a training strategy for rural communities supported by MOOCs that are focused on the responsible use of local biodiversity from a biotechnological perspective.  
The Uraba Subregion exhibits an index of Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN) of 80.91% on average for the region, where only 47% of young people have access to high school and 16.2% of the population between 17 and 24 access technical or undergraduate programs. In addition to this, rural unemployment in the region is about 34% and rises to 45% for people between 16 and 29.  
A virtual training route was implemented to create learning communities around 5 MOOCs in biotechnology concerning waste management, environmental biotechnology, bioprocesses, alternative energies, and bio-entrepreneurship. Around 918 students from rural areas were trained, participating in an average of 10.86 sessions per user with an average duration of 48.7 min. Students presented an average score of 7.59 in a range of 0 to 10, showing good assimilation of the proposed topics.  
Instruments were designed to measure the student's performance in the MOOCs through a diagnostic test at the beginning of the course and a knowledge test at the end, whose internal consistency was determined by five experts. [PERSON]'s alpha coefficient obtained was 0.82 indicating high reliability.  
The statistical analysis carried out when comparing the results of the diagnostic and knowledge test in the MOOC on agricultural residues showed that the average grade of the students increased significantly from 6.13 to 7.53, and the medians from 6.15 to 8.00 in a sample of 262 complete students, Therefore, it is concluded that the learning experience designed in the _Open Biotec_ MOOC increases the degree of knowledge of students in this field of biotechnology.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; methodology, O.M.-B. and C.O.-L.; software, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; validation, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; formal analysis, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; investigation, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; resources, C.O.-L., M.R.-C.; data curation, O.M.-B.; writing--original draft preparation, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; writing--review and editing, O.M.-B., C.O.-L., M.R.-C. and L.R.-C.; visualization, O.M.-B. and C.O.-L.; supervision, C.O.-L.; project administration, C.O.-L.; funding acquisition, C.O.-L. and M.R.-C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by The Government of Antioquia and MINCIENCIAS, grant number CT 579-2019. The APC was funded by Universidad Pontificia Boliviana.  
Not applicable.  
The authors appreciate the technical support received from the master's in biotechnology: [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON]; the chemical engineering students: [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON].  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.