Open2Study Media | 28 October 2013 In just six months, Open Universities Australia has reached 100,000 enrolments in its free online learning platform with 53,000 students from more than 180 countries undertaking one or more of its massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Open2Study began by offering 10 free subjects in April, with each taking four weeks to complete. The platform currently offers 32 courses with Principles of Project Management, Food, Nutrition & Your Health, Writing for the Web, User Experience for the Web and Strategic Management attracting the highest enrolments. With new subjects added almost every month, the Open2Study team expects to have up to 50 … [Read more...]
La Trobe extends its reach with iTunes-U
09/08/2012 by
The Australian 8 August 2012 La Trobe University is the only Australian university offering courses through iTunes-U, which it views as a shop window to full online degrees. It's first-semester iTunes-U offering, which takes in the history, literature, art and architecture of ancient Greece to the end of the 5th century BC, has attracted a staggering 45,500 subscribers and still counting. La Trobe has six first-semester courses on iTunes-U with a total of 100,000 subscribers and 2.3 million downloads of lectures and materials. The university now is considering whether to offer a certificate of recognition for completing its courses as it looks to capitalise on the phenomenal … [Read more...]
The campus tsunami
10/05/2012 by
The campus tsunami The rising wave of online learning Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have announced the formation of edX, a transformational new partnership in online education. Through edX, the two institutions will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners. MIT and Harvard expect that over time other universities will join them in offering courses on the edX platform. The gathering together of many universities’ educational content on one site will enable learners worldwide to access the course content of any participating university from a single website, and to use a set of online … [Read more...]
29 March 2012
28/03/2012 by
Control and click headlines and highlights to link to articles Links may not work unless you or your organisation is a paid subscriber to the originating media outlet. Check with your communications people about subscriptions. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Synchnotron funding deal secures future Australia's synchrotron will be able to continue operating, under a joint funding agreement between the Victorian and Commonwealth governments. The facility was built after intense lobbying by the previous Victorian Labor government. The Baillieu Government had been reluctant to allocate funding … [Read more...]
University of the future is here
28/03/2012 by
3 June 2011 The way Bill Gates sees it, the university as we know it is an endangered species. Five years from now - on the web for free - you'll be able to find the best lectures in the world, the Microsoft billionaire said last year. And in Gates's opinion this constantly expanding digital smorgasbord of educational choices will be better than any single university in the world. Another giant of the global digital communications revolution has a different spin. In his blog, Sergey Brin, the 36-year-old co-founder of Google, proposes bypassing centuries of scientific epistemology to close the time lag between research breakthroughs in academe and their real-world application. … [Read more...]
The digital revolution
28/03/2012 by
28 March 2012 As we featured in a recent article – The social & learning revolution - all universities are now increasingly “online” institutions, introducing “flexible” provision, utilising a mix of traditional delivery and online resources, such as podcasts, study portals, interactive discussion boards, blogs and YouTube. But the digital revolution in higher education also threatens the traditional place of universities, which have proved remarkably durable institutions because of their virtual monopoly on credentials and formal qualifications. In recent months, that monopoly has begun to crumble, writes Kevin Carey in The New Republic. New organisations are being created to … [Read more...]
Disruptive technologies in higher education: adapt or get left behind
22/03/2012 by
The Guardian 22 March 2012 Disruptive technologies in higher education: adapt or get left behind. Although universities are currently adapting to many political, economic and social changes, they cannot afford to ignore technological transformations as well, says Matthew Draycott. It's not difficult to conceive of a world where the 'top' universities offer costed, automated online courses delivered through mobile platforms internationally, cutting out a whole range of providers. While these courses might not appeal to everyone, they could be of great interest to those struggling with the rising costs of higher education, international students or the growing sector of our society who … [Read more...]
“Free content” not the same as “free education”
08/02/2012 by
2 February 2012 Shirley Leitch addresses a common misconception: that “free content” equals “free education”. She writes that while there are a large number of providers - most notably the Open University in the UK - providing free content online, this is not the same as a free education. If it was, it would mean the existence of libraries equates to providing free education in a paper-based world. Neither the Open University nor MIT offer active teaching or assessment through their free portals. The Khan Academy does provide some teaching, but there are no assessments or feedback. It is the teaching and assessing that costs money and this is what students pay for. Undertaking … [Read more...]
