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Thursday 12 December 2013

DAVID WILLETTS MP, UK Minister for Higher Education, on MOOCs. LIVE BLOG

Live Blog on Rt Hon David Willetts MP's speech on 12 Dec 2013 to the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education conference: "The International Higher Education Revolution".

David Willett's talk is entitled: "The importance of MOOCs and their impact on international students, qualifications and partnerships"

Speech started approx 09.30 am

UK is ccelebrating the 50th anniversary of the Robbins report. There remains, even after 50 years, unsatisfied suppressed demand for Higher Education. The UK’s moment of reflection is a microcosm of a larger surge in Developing Economies worldwide. Ministers from emerging nations express to Mr Willetts that massive investment in HE extension is the crucial step to escaping the middle income trap. This is an opportunity for Britain as a global HE leader. What are the ways to respond ?

Students studying in Britain is one way forward. 435,000 foreign students are in Britain today for courses. There are no limits on the number of legitimate students. There will be no limits. But flying people into Heathrow, however great the capacity of runways or universities, doesn’t give a solution that will match the demand of, for example, Indonesia’s additional quarter of a million of students’ yearly.

Setting up foreign campus is a solution that has been developed by several UK HEIs. In China: Liverpool, Nottingham, whose chancellors were with Mr Willetts on the recent Cameron mission to China. Many foreign Governments he has met have strategy of hosting foreign Universities as a way to stimulate these kinds of arrangements. Malaysia a good example.

Third option is: study at distance, from abroad, for a British qualification, like Nelson Mandela at University of London. The total number abroad studying for British qualifications is 570,000.

MOOCs by happy coincidence have arrived as the technology advance that enables HEIs to reach more students, further afield, with better education.

What is underestimated in MOOCs debate, is that while there are poor quality MOOCs, which are merely lectures, there is also a huge advance by MOOC leaders through the use in education analytics. Keystroke studies, seeing patterns of learning, allow educators to see where students are learning best. The educational resource from this is massive and is only just beginning to be harvested. Interactive textbooks and peer group allow better learning. More and more MOOCs will live up this standard.

Implication of MOOCs for the conference theme. Education disintermediation is an opportunity for existing providers. Indian universities are possibly too dependent on Agents – now they can offer direct experience by allowing students to contact them through MOOC sampling. MOOCs will be test of how much Universities are willing to expand and recruit.

Qualifications issue: how credentialise MOOCs. These will use intelligent technologies like iris recognition to offer a compelling evidence of achievement with integrity.

Futurelearn. This is not a winner takes all market (Amazon style) – Futurelearn is not too late into the market. Mr Willetts attended launch of Futurelearn and launch of Inmarsat Alpha a UK satellite aimed at African market to deliver broadband to uncovered territories. African countries are desperate for education content and the satellite can potentially beam learning content of British educational services beamed direct to African classrooms is Mr Willett vision of the future of borderless education.

Report of questions and discussion in next post.

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