Coursera - now banned in selected countries

Coursera, like many of the massive open online courses provides free university education to the masses worldwide. This is an excellent concept allowing the world's top universities to share their learning materials online led by the top lecturers at their respective institutions. 

I was bewildered when I learnt the United States government banned online access to courses to selected countries of Cuba, Syria, Sudan and Iran - apparently, Syria has now resumed coverage. I feel this is a short sighted decision, the power of education to transform lives and attitudes providing the United States wonderful opportunity to engage people at a very personal level, some could even argue engaging in soft diplomacy. I fear people from countries who are unable to attend traditional bricks and mortar universities are being severely disadvantaged due to internal turmoil or government ideologues not aligning to American values.    

Ironically, I am undertaking a Coursera unit on Critical Perspectives on Management led by a Canadian professor from a Madrid based business school. Being fortunate enough to reside in a rich western country, I have unfettered access to their incredible array of online learning resources. 

The US based education provider fell foul of US export law subject to economic sanctions by the state department. Apparently, export controls have been interpreted in such a manner allowing access to controlled markets, one hopes sanity will prevail and students in blocked countries can resume their  learning experience. 

I understand Coursera is a US based enterprise, it is my hope that the many international universities offering services to Coursera can convince the powers to be to reverse their short sighted decision and return learning to everyone.