After my post last week on the growing popularity of Open Education Resources, I was very much interested in the Saturday's Age article about how the number of people enrolled in free online subjects at Melbourne University has overtaken enrolments at its campuses.This is amazing as this service was only launched in September! Since then, more than 52,000 students have enrolled in the University's MOOCS.This is 5,000 more than students enrolled in undergraduate and post graduate courses!
Melbourne University has joined a host of institutions,like Harvard and Berkely who are offering free online courses,partnering with online course provider,Coursera.
The courses mostly run for about seven weeks and include lectures, videos, quizzes and the opportunity to discuss ideas in chat rooms.Although classes are not-for-credit and no academic awards are granted,certificates are received at the completion of the courses.
The article also mentioned that La Trobe University offers online lectures through the iTunes U service.
I was also alerted this week to the very interesting video below which is about the future of learning in a networked world.I hope you can find the time to watch it, as its ideas are very thought provoking,exciting and challenging.The video features well known eduational thinkers,Stephen Heppell,Sugata Mitra and Seth Godin who speak about how technology is impacting on learning. Also,the CEO of Coursera speaks about the growth of their online course platform.
For more information about MOOCS watch the video below
Fascinating stuff and a lot to think about, BUT
ReplyDeleteI doubt those obsessed with NAPLAN and education as marketing are even vaguely interested in these types of ideas and thinking.... as they point out, we are committed to structures that are based in a past view of society and the role of education in society. This kind of thinking was promulgated in the early 70's and nothing much has changed since then .. so now we know that education is controlled by vested interests for whom these kinds of ideas are anathema