The University of Reading has become a partner in Futurelearn
Monday, 18 February 2013
'We are excited by the prospect of harnessing the very latest technology to provide a world-wide audience with opportunities to access high-quality, research-led teaching'
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, announced today during his trade mission to India that the University of Reading has become a partner in Futurelearn and will deliver a suite of free online open courses.
Futurelearn, a project led by the Open University, aims to bring together a range of free, open, online courses from leading UK universities in the same place and under the same brand.
The PM announced that Reading will be among the 17 top UK institutions such as Exeter, Southampton, Warwick and King's College London, which together will provide free online courses. Futurelearn is designed to play a key role in ensuring the UK is central to meeting the expanding global demand for higher education.
Futurelearn is the platform devised to enable UK partner universities to deliver a coherent online programme of free Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) and is designed to rival American online provision such as Coursera. The courses will be accessible to prospective students wherever they live, directly through their computers or mobile devices.
Professor Gavin Brooks, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning said: "This is an exciting opportunity for Reading to be at the forefront of developments in education technology.
"Futurelearn will allow us to further develop our global strategy by creating a virtual presence to add to our growing physical presence across the globe and will build on the distance learning strengths we already have in the University, such as the courses developed by Henley Business School. We hope it will link into the many areas of teaching and research strength across the University as we develop our plans over the next few months."
The University's MOOCs will be 6-8 week courses providing a taster of some of the programmes and areas of research strength at Reading.
Over the next few months, the University will be developing its strategy to maximise the opportunities that Futurelearn will provide and it is planned that the first courses will be available in the second half of 2013. The project is being led by Professor Julian Park and Professor Shirley Williams.
The Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell is quoted in the Futurelearn announcement. He said: "We are excited by the prospect of harnessing the very latest technology to provide a world-wide audience with opportunities to access high-quality, research-led teaching.
"Futurelearn will build on our existing technology-enhanced learning activities and will be an online addition to the global reach of many of our other projects, including our new campus development in Malaysia. We hope it will also provide a window into the latest thinking of University of Reading academics working in areas of global significance, such as climate science, nutrition and food security."
Please follow the link for more information on Futurelearn and MOOCs
To see a video of Professor Gavin Brooks explaining why Reading has joined Futurelearn please visit the youtube video