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Ready or Not - The Role of Online Learning in Higher Education

11-12 December, London

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Whatever you call it- online, digital, virtual, e-learning- it has been a rough ride. In the 1990's, champions imagined a near-future of dramatically better access to higher education, a wealth of online learning resources and plummeting costs. All over the world, students would be able to enrol at the best universities, and all but the top institutions would perish. Reality proved a bit more complicated.

Twenty years on, bricks-and-mortar universities are very much alive, and most international students still travel, but it is undeniable that online learning is growing in popularity. Internet access has surged, bandwidth exploded and smartphones are ubiquitous. MOOCs, adaptive learning and AI-based student advising are the latest examples of online education. A growing number of traditional universities are partnering with the private sector to launch online degrees.

Is online higher education about to realise its promise?

The OBHE's 2017 Global Forum will reassess the potential of online and blended learning in higher education, to meet the needs of domestic and international students. Drawing on a unique series of country studies from around the world, this event is an opportunity to engage with the latest data, learn from experience, and consider new models and technologies.

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 6 July 2017

Trying to Make a Difference -
Online and blended higher education in Egypt

Dr Christopher Hill
OBHE Associate
Associate Professor, The British University in Dubai

Deeply rooted in history. Marred by upheaval and unrest.  The largest education system in the Middle East and North Africa. In need of reform. Egypt is a country of contradictions, challenges and opportunities.  Recent events- the popular protests that ousted President Mubarak, the short-lived Morsi government and the present el-Sisi regime- have shaken the country, raising and dashing hopes at every turn, depending on your point of view.

Egypt’s higher education system exhibits no shortage of challenges- access, quality, funding and graduate outcomes. The country now has over a decade of experience working with forms of online learning. In 2017, what is the state-of-play in online learning, and what impact is it having on higher education? 

Full article available for members.

19 June 2017

Joseph A Planell, President of the UOC, weighs in on the future of online HE in Catalonia, Spain

Rachael Merola, Senior Researcher, OBHE

Spain’s Universitat Oberta Catalunya (The UOC) was the world’s first online university and it currently is the only fully online university with more than 20 years’ experience and more than 58,000 graduates. The UOC is a university specialised in e-learning and the knowledge society, providing people lifelong learning and educational opportunities through both formal and non-formal training, contributing to their occupational and personal development.

The UOC model is designed to be followed fully online and has an asynchronous nature. Exams are still the only element that require physical presence of the student. Nevertheless, one of the UOC’s stated objectives is to replace them by online evaluation processes, as identity verification systems are implemented.

In terms of research, the UOC expertise lies in the study of the Internet and the effects of the interaction between digital technologies and human activity.

In the academic year 2015-2016, UOC reports:

• 61,122 graduates and 76,072 qualifications issued, comprising 30 ECTS credits or more each.
• 63,873 students.
• 374 full-time and 3.167 part-time professors.
• More than 150 collaboration agreements with other universities

OPEN ACESS.

15 June 2017

Battling the Great Recession:
Online Higher Education in Spain

Rachael Merola, Senior Researcher, OBHE

Spain is a distance learning pioneer: in 1972 the federal government founded one of the world’s first national distance learning universities, the National Distance Education University (UNED), and in 1995 the region of Catalonia created a ground breaking online university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

What does online higher education, distance and blended, look like in Spain today?

This article looks at the status of online learning in Spain and how it grew during the country’s economic crisis beginning in 2008, as well as its current direction and potential for the future.

Full article available for members.

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