Online learning revolution...

By Andrew Marszal, Education Digitial Editor

A student in Mauritius sitting an exam set by the University of London might not sound especially remarkable these days.
 

But it certainly was in 1865, when the citizens of the Indian Ocean island became the first to host a University of London examination outside of London and, by extension, the world's first degree-level distance learners.
 

This type of timezone-defying qualification has come along way since such humble beginnings. But it is about to become a great deal more ubiquitous following the news that the University of London is the first English institution to sign up to Coursera, the US-based 'massive open online course' (Mooc) pioneer.
 

Coursera offers completely free online courses taught by academic staff from such august institutions as Stanford, Princeton and the closer-to-home University of Edinburgh. Anyone can join, and those who finished the courses gain a certificate, though not an accredited degree.
 

It currently boasts 1.3 million students – just six months after its launch.

 
"We have been providing access to high-quality distance education for 150 years," says Andrew Bollington, Chief Operating Officer of the University of London International Programme. "Coursera has a similar mission, outlook and set of ideas, transposed into the 21st century."
 
University of London will initially offer five short courses, lasting no longer than five weeks each, in topics ranging from 'Why We Need Psychology' to 'Creative Programming for Digital Media and Mobile App Development'.
 
Each is derived from existing undergraduate and postgraduate courses being taught at the University of London's 12 colleges. For instance, the 'Malicious Software and its Underground Economy' programme draws upon a Masters in Information Security being taught at Royal Holloway.
 
"We see one as a step into the other," says Bollington. "Lots of people will go in very speculatively, with no serious intention of completing the course – that’s because it’s completely free. But it opens possibilities to hook people in and engage them.
 
"Hopefully the result will be that students gain a lifelong learning experience."
 
Handling enormous numbers of students from such disparate locations is an enormous challenge, but some of Coursera's innovations – particularly its marking system – drew University of London's interest.
 
"Multiple choice is easy to mark online, but there’s nothing quite like an essay to promote in-depth learning," says Bollington. "Coursera have done some very interesting things with student formative assessment – things such as peer assessment."
 
The system in question first gives students two essays that have already been marked by a member of staff, and asks them to remark these following the same criteria. Students are given feedback on their efforts, and then asked to mark further essays by their peers which haven’t already been assessed.
 
Multiple students will mark each essay, with Coursera then aggregating these marks and stripping out the outliers.
 
Even with this type of innovation, the free model is not seen as sustainable by some observers, with Jessica Moore observing that "... everyone but the students seems to be out of pocket – which is a refreshing change, if arguably an unsustainable one".
 
However Bollington insists that free courses will remain the core model, and the basis on which the University of London has agreed to participate in the Coursera platform – even if a premium paid-for service for which students can opt in does become available in the future.
 
And with all the hype schemes such as Coursera and the comparable Harvard and MIT-based edX are generating, one question has to be asked – could Coursera's model be the future of distance learning?
 
"We’re just trying a few things out at this stage."