W:
edtechnology.co.uk | T: @Educ_Technology Read a related story: htp://
universitybusiness.co.uk/Article/high_achievers
"UNIVERSITIES ARE STILL ABSOLUTELY AT THE HEART OF FUTURELEARN, BUT WE ARE LOOKING TO DEEPEN THAT RELATIONSHIP"
A balancing act “There’s a constant balance to be struck between maintaining the quality of the overall experience, and making sure that the foundations we’ve built are protected and nurtured, but then continuing to innovate,” he said, adding: “The quality is embedded in my product development team and my design team and I think it’s what’s making us stand out in the market.” The MOOC provider prides itself on its partnerships
with universities in the UK and around the world, and has worked closely with the institutions to develop its online course content, something which, as its CEO explained, hasn’t changed: “Universities are still absolutely at the heart of FutureLearn, but we are looking to deepen that relationship. A more interesting area of development for both us and universities is how we can partner to exploit the broad range of digital opportunities that they’re now being confronted by. So what we want to be seen as is an excellent collectible platform and product for their content and their academic, but also as a fantastic partner that understands the strategic drivers and helps them to deliver against them.”
A digital future FutureLearn’s growth and success is a testament to its hardworking team, which has demonstrated over the past year the importance of adapting to change and embracing the digital demands made on higher education. But what’s next for the company which develops at breakneck speed? “I think we all recognise that the HE sector is going digital and not necessarily in ways that the doom-mongers predicted a couple of years ago,” explained Nelson. “I think a lot of people now realise that a digital
transition can create the most incredible opportunity to reinvent your business and we want to be part of that conversation and part of that solution.” Simply put, FutureLearn’s aim is to create a broader
portfolio of courses that can atract even more learners. “Critically, it’s about ensuring that universities have a clear business driver for why they would do that,” he added. “So those drivers could be about international branding and reputation, it could be about deepening the research impact, it could be about recruiting new domestic or international students. “The fact is that FutureLearn is a number
of moving parts, or a number of plates that we need to keep spinning at once. What we’re trying to do is prety relentless, intense, and very complex, but we’re pulling it off.” ET
The MOOCs impact on UK HE Newcastle University
N ewcastle currently has a p rogramme of three free online courses on the FutureL earn p latform.
H adrian’ s W all: L ife on The R oman Frontier, Ageing W ell: Falls and The E nterp rise Shed: Making Ideas H ap p en. More than
1 8 ,0 0 0 p eop le from 1 0 7 countries signed up for the
H adrian’ s W all course, which ran 2 2 Sep tember – 3 N ov ember 2 0 1 4 . The age profile has been different with all three of the courses we
hav e dev elop ed so far, which is gratifying, as we designed them for different audiences explained Suanne ardy Senior Project fficer
L earning and Teaching Dev elop ment Serv ice, N ewcastle U niv ersity. She added: “ The H adrian’ s W all course was designed for p eop le
who had not p rev iously done any archaeology, but we had ev eryone from children doing the course with their p arents, to exp erienced
p rofessional archaeologists, who, from the feedback we receiv ed, all seemed to get something v aluable from taking p art. ” Given the success of ewcastles first suite of courses the University says that it would hop e to offer a new suite of courses soon.
H ardy continued: “ The next p hase of dev elop ment will undoubtedly focus
on ways that we can make MOOCs begin to work for us in other ways. There are new sp aces op ening up which will help us realise ambitions in learning and teaching more broadly, allowing us to try things in a different sp ace before we p ut them into p ractice with courses and p rogrammes which generate income. ”
University of Leeds Courses at L eeds cov er a range of discip lines from anatomy, natural resource management, and actor training, through to starting a business and business innov ation. All courses are short ( two– four weeks) and offer learners an introduction to a subj ect. To help imp lement
the online p latform, the U niv ersity established the Digital L earning Team; which has now grown and is a core comp onent of the U niv ersity. “ W ithin the team, we emp loy e- learning sp ecialists, p roduction sp ecialists, content creators, animators and learning technologists. W e work closely with FutureL earn to dev elop the v ery best online learning exp eriences in their p latform,” said Professor N eil Morris, Director of Digital L earning, at the U niv ersity of L eeds. H e added: “ U niv ersities are now seriously engaged with digital learning
initiativ es, including more blended learning, inv estment in digital technologies, and sup p ort for dev elop ing digital resources to sup p ort learning. ”
Newcastle University Image © Ultra7. University of Leeds Image © Maccat
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