MOOCs
In September 2012, the University of Melbourne was the first university outside North America to partner with Coursera to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through their platform. We released our first MOOC in early 2013 – Principles of Macroeconomics – and since then have developed an offering of around 25 courses at any one time.
More recently, we also joined the FutureLearn partnership to broaden our reach and explore other opportunities.
Our MOOCs typically run from four to eight weeks and combine video lectures, interactive content, discussion forums, online quizzes and peer-reviewed assignments.
Showcasing our expertise
Our MOOCs enable the University to showcase its broad research and teaching expertise. Learners benefit from our MOOCs in diverse discipline areas such as philosophy, genetics, computer science, education, physiology, history and economics.
The program has also helped the University’s teaching staff develop a deeper understanding of online curriculum and pedagogy.
Broad international reach
With 36 per cent of our learners from countries with emerging economies, one of the most rewarding outcomes of this project has been the opportunity to engage with learners the University might not have otherwise reached.
Today we are proud to have had more than one million learners from over 200 countries enrol in our MOOCs, and we look forward to further developments in the area in the future.