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MOOCS again

April 15, 2014 / 2 / 0

There were some interesting thoughts from Professor Diana Laurillard at the UALL conference in April this year.  She noted that MOOCS usually had a completion rate of 10% or less and that the dominant users were people who had degrees already (70% in the case of Edinburgh, 85% in the case of Coursera).  As she said, ‘the main users of MOOCS are highly qualified professionals – MOOCS are parasitic on university teaching paid for by undergraduates’.

This all suggests to me that the OU’s ‘FutureLearn’ is not a game changer, but a diversion of the OU’s main business of giving fee-paying students the best possible support for their studies.  With OU registrations down by 18% and the graduation rate around 22%, it’s not the time for the VC to be hiring speechwriter and getting a 10% rise in salary to £400,000 pa.

 

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Ormond Simpson

I’m a consultant in distance and online education, specialising in student support and retention. I’ve worked in distance education for more than 40 years, at the UK Open University, London University International Programmes, and the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. I’ve given seminars, workshops and keynote lectures in 17 countries and I’m a Student Support Expert for the Empower project of the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities.

‘This website contains some of my most important articles and presentations, as well as helpful support advice for online tutors and students, all of which is freely available.’

 

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