30 | NEWS | HIGHER EDUCATION
Why MOOCs won’t disrupt higher education (just yet)
But why they are changing lifelong learning already... By Frank Steiner, Sales & Marketing Manager, University of London Computer Centre (ULCC)
B ack in 2 0 1 1 / 1 2 MOOCs were the best thing since the inv ention of sliced bread, deemed to disrup t education on an unp recedented scale, making education accessible to the masses and turning
‘ traditional education’ on its head. So how come in G artner 2 0 1 4 H yp e
Cycle for E ducation, MOOCs are sliding down the ‘ Trough of Disillusionment’ ? As more and more institutions gather first-hand experience of developing and running MOOCs, the reality about the scale of inv estment hits home. Out of 9 5 ,0 0 0 students on a ‘ Creativ e
Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Ap p s’ course by G oldsmith’ s, U niv ersity of L ondon run on Coursera, the large majority had existing degrees with p ostgraduate degrees being the most
‘ p rominent’ . Arguably this can be due to the nature/ subj ect of the course but is in line with overall C figures showing these courses attract p eop le who hav e already gained a degree. I don’ t think there is anything wrong with that, yet it casts doubts ov er MOOCs as self-proclaimed saviours of education. I
p ersonally hav e always seen them as an excellent mareting tool for institutions to offer previews of paid-for course and showcase great research and lecturers to a worldwide audience. W ith that in mind average costs of 1-2 to produce a high-uality C are starting to loo much more attractiv e.
Read the SPECIAL REPORT on MOOCS on page 36
Universities struggle with IT
Research conducted by VMware shows that many UK universities are struggling to provide the technological environment undergraduates need to study effectively. Although the current millennial
generation arrives at university used to using social networks, mobile devices and consumer cloud services like Dropbox and Spotify, only 12% of universities said they could offer students the ability to use mobile devices for study, with even fewer offering the ability to attend lectures (6%) and connect with lecturers (7%) online. The study also suggested that change is not imminent: only 13% have plans in place to improve mobile study options. Despite a near-unanimous
recognition of the value of IT, 20% of university IT leaders said they didn’t think their institution was currently meeting student demands on IT and 27% of department heads agreed. The research, conducted in 2014 with
150 IT leaders and departmental heads within universities across England and Wales, also showed access to the internet in halls and across the campus still lags behind student expectations; only 13% of the institutions questioned said they offered wifi campus- wide and only 11% are planning to
introduce it over the next year. Respondents were almost unanimous
in recognising the importance of technology in attracting students: 95% of universities said it would help to enhance the overall student experience and 89% noted it would help to meet the needs of students. This supports a study VMware conducted among students
Social robot helps autistic children
KASPAR, the University of Hertfordshire’s social robot, has been recognised as one of the most important university science research projects in the UK. KASPAR, who is the size of a small
child, is a minimally-expressive humanoid robot designed as a therapeutic toy for children with autism. It has been designed by the University
of Hertfordshire’s Adaptive Systems Research Group (ASRG), a leading international robotics research team. The team, led by Professor Kerstin
AB OV E : K ASPAR the social robot
Dautenhahn, has been developing and researching robots for use as therapeutic ‘toys’ for children at the middle- to lower-end of the autistic spectrum who have litle ability to interact or communicate with the outside world.
36 | SPECIAL REPORT: MOOCS | HIGHER EDUCATION
T H E MO O C MI N D S E T
As FutureLearn, the UK’s largest massive open online course (MOOC) provider, signs up its one millionth learner, Rebecca Paddick examines the growth of the company, and takes a look at how MOOCs measure up around the world
I
AB OV E : FutureL earn’ s CE O Simon
N elson says the comp any' s success has surp assed all exp ectations
first met FutureLearn’s CEO, Simon Nelson, a year ago at the company's HQ based at the British Library. Back then, Nelson explained
the MOOC provider's business model, its goals for the future and the success it had achieved so far. When I caught up with him most recently, the story of the company reaching its one millionth sign- up was just about to break – quite an achievement for a business launched less than two years ago. “The engagement satisfaction received from our
learners is beyond anything we could have hoped for at this stage. It really feels like we’re onto something,
it feels that people love the courses we’re puting out and they are coming back for more,” said Nelson. During our first chat back in 2014, Nelson
explained that the platform was still in the ‘BETA’ phase, as it was still developing important features. Although it’s now advanced from those early, experimental stages, Nelson is adamant that the platform will continue to evolve. “We came out of BETA a few months ago, but we regarded that as version one of the platform, because it will never stop developing. Every day we develop some part of it.
Image © Freeimages - tomdavies
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64