Better security verification for online courses, combined with immersive technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will take MOOCs to the next level. 

The popularity of Online Courses has steadily increased in recent years. Millions of students have enrolled onto MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by prestigious institutions around the globe and facilitated by platforms like Coursera, EdX and Futurelearn.

But although this growth shows no signs of slowing down (Coursera alone currently has 26 million users and over 150 university partners) the drop-out rates have been shown to be much higher for MOOCs than campus-based courses, with some studies placing the average completion rate at around 13%.

The popularity of Online Courses has steadily increased in recent years
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One of the main reasons for this has been a certain credibility issue. While some people are quite happy to sign onto these courses for sheer personal development, the main motivation for busy professionals to complete, for instance, an MBA, is to improve their employability and career prospects. If the validity of those qualifications is brought into question however, this undermines the whole premise and renders that investment– of both time and money – worthless.

We need to ensure that the person collecting the certificate is the same one who did the work
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One key issue here is the fact that it has been traditionally difficult to determine whether the person doing the coursework is the same one as has their name on the certificate issued. And although this isn’t a problem unique to online courses, it’s much easier to find such loopholes where sign-up processes only require an email address, for example.

This is something that looks set to change, however, as more people have become used to stricter checks in relation to processes such as online banking, tax returns, or immigration assessment. Which is why one of the world’s largest visa application contractors – VSF Global – has just announced that it is entering the online education space to effectively help bridge that credibility gap.

VSF Global identity verification expertise to improve MOOC credibility
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They have partnered with UK EdTech start-up Oxademy to extend their identity management services – which they already provide to over 50 governments including the US, Russia and the UK – for the purpose of processing passports and visas. By importing the same kind of security techniques they have developed for verifying visa information into education, and also including a final exam where students have to be physically present with their ID, they’re hoping to make online courses (specially in emerging economies where this type of fraud is endemic) much more attractive to potential employers.

VFS-Oxademy will provide internationally accredited post-graduate and executive education programmes in full online and ‘blended’ modes combining online with classroom learning for students worldwide. These courses will be affiliated with top universities in the UK and US, and will include Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Masters in Strategic Leadership (MSL) and Masters of Science in Organisation Leadership).  Although still requiring a substantial financial commitment, these online MBAs are significantly more affordable at £7,000 (compared to over £21,000 average for many other on-campus providers).

They plan to grow by targeting companies looking to invest in their workforce, particularly in developing countries, by taking advantage of those relatively lower costs. This also ties into the work placement element of the courses, where MBA students have to take part in a work placement as part of final stages of their course. This will enable students in the Middle East or India to work with a company in the UK via virtual technologies, something that also suits employers who often struggle to find office space for work experience students but are happy to interact with them virtually.

Oxademy courses will personalise content with Artificial Intelligence
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Both the identity-checking and blended learning elements require a physical infrastructure in place, which is why is why VSF is in quite a unique position to implement the model effectively, since it already has 1,900 visa centres in 127 countries distributed around the globe.

Oxademy will also address the lack of personal engagement which feeds into those high drop-out rates by leveraging Artificial Intelligence to personalize its courses. Its cloud infrastructure system called OX360 will provide real-time analysis of performance data and include features such as a chat facility so that students can speak to tutors direct at any time, plus a mobile app to prompt students on which course material they need to study ahead of their next online session.

AI systems judge if a learner is struggling with an exercise and adapt
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The AI system can judge, for example, if a learner is struggling with a particular exercise or spending a longer time than average to read through it, and alter the course content accordingly. By identifying each learner’s particular strengths and weaknesses and generating individualized learning paths, the hope is that students will feel the same level of engagement and support as they would if they were consuming the same content on campus. In a digital world where we’re seeing immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality develop at exponential speed, it follows that students will increasingly see this as a viable and worthwhile option for furthering their education.

This article was originally published on EdTech Digest

Taking MOOCs to the Next Level https://t.co/Fyyee099bg pic.twitter.com/3MUhFe7pXe

— edtech digest (@edtechdigest) August 3, 2017

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Powering Up MOOCs in the Virtual Age appeared first on Tech Trends.

MOOCs are now mainstream, but online courses need to leverage new technologies if they are to truly democratise access to knowledge 

There’s little doubt that online courses are proving popular with students all over the world. Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers such as EdX and Futurelearn have been lauded with democratising higher education and making knowledge more accessible.

Coursera – which to date attracted over $210 million investment – has over 20 million registered learners who access courses from over 140 institutions worldwide, and most major universities – From Harvard to Imperial and Princeton – have jumped on the online learning bandwagon.

Take-up and offer of online courses in the UK has risen dramatically
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Research published by Ashton University and Keypath Education (who have just announced a partnership to deliver Masters degrees in Accounting, Finance and Management) show there has been a dramatic rise in both the offer and take-up of courses from major UK universities in the past year.

“We live in an increasingly global and technology-driven world, where online degrees are quickly becoming a natural option for students and universities alike,” agrees Professor Alex Cameron, Vice Chancellor of Aston University. “We have been able to attract a diverse and impressive student body to our online programmes, students who would otherwise not have been able to study at Aston.”

The growth in online degrees is also being powered by greater digital connectivity in emerging markets such as Nigeria as well as a demand for flexible working and learning in developed economies like the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Analysis of the latest data from the Higher Education Statistical Authority (HESA) revealed that since 2011 the numbers of American students studying at UK universities entirely via online degrees has increased by 26%, while Australian and South African numbers have soared a staggering 125% and 135% respectively.

“We are experiencing a global boom in the number of students studying online degrees, but with Brexit on the horizon, it is more important than ever that British institutions are taking the lead on innovation as we are in a very competitive race to attract the world’s best and brightest students to study with British Universities,” says Keypath Education CEO Rajay Naik.

Online learning is big business. While such courses are comparatively more affordable than their traditional campus-based counterparts, fees for Aston’s MBA and MSc programmes start at £11,050 for UK students and £16,050 for international students.

We are experiencing a global boom in the number of people studying online degrees
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With six intakes per year and no physical restrictions as to the number of students that can be admitted, it is easy to see why this is such an attractive booming market, specially in the global climate of increased competitiveness where academic qualifications can still make a huge difference to a person’s long-term earning prospects.

Most online course providers stopped offering free certification years ago, which reflects the real value that is now attached to online qualifications. The unfortunate consequence of this is that there is a rising problem of fake accreditation, where many online courses faced criticism for not offering sufficient identity checks to make sure people receiving course certification are the same ones who actually did the coursework.

Most online course providers stopped offering free certification years ago
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And while it is difficult to see the problem being completely eradicated – the “fake qualifications industry” was already worth over $1bn a decade ago before the popularisation of MOOCs ever became a phenomenon – there are significant moves being made in the industry to effectively address this.

One example is the recently announced partnership between VSF Global and Oxademy to offer online postgraduate and business management courses. VSF are experts in identification and security, being the world’s largest visa application contractor, working for more than 50 governments processing visa applications in 127 countries across the globe.

VSF will apply visa-level identity check standards to their MOOCs
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VSF They are now proposing to bring the rigorous identity check standards routinely required for visa applications to their MOOCs (which will offer MBAs starting at £7000), in addition to requiring the student to be physically present at one of its locations for a final exam before issuing the certificate.

Another trend that will undoubtedly affect the sector is that as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies improve at an ever-faster pace it will enable much better provisions for personalized learning.

A huge problem with online courses – which accounts for their higher drop-out rates where compared to their traditional counterparts – is that the lack of personal interaction with a tutor can lead to a one-size-fits-all approach, which can be demotivating.

This is something VSF-Oxademy courses will offer students in their blended learning courses, leveraging AI to identify each learner’s strengths and weaknesses and generate teaching paths based on the individual learner’s behaviour, personalising the learning to each student through real-time analysis of performance data.

“A unique feature of the VFS-Oxademy programmes is that they can be customised to individual needs of students, irrespective of location or background,” agrees Bernard Martyris, Chief of Human Resources at VFS Global.

Developing software that understands how you learn best and where you need to focus is a main area of investment not only for commercial enterprises, but in the burgeoning “venture philanthropy” sector.

The Gates foundation has given more than $300 million to personalised learning initiatives
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Since 2009, for example, the Gates foundation has given more than $300 million to support research and development on personalised learning, and they recently partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to set aside a $12 million grant to support research and development into new ways of tailoring classroom instruction to individual students.

There’s no doubt that we’ve come a very long way with online learning, and are getting ever closer to fulfilling Isaac Asimov’s great vision – which he set out at a time when most of us could not conceive of having computers in our home, never-mind the Internet.

VFS-Oxademy programmes customise learning to student needs
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The future of learning might look like Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One
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Looking to the not-too-distant future, we can already envisage how Virtual and Mixed Reality technologies will increasingly be incorporated into the online learning strategy of major Universities institutions help to make such distance courses more immersive and engaging, blending the real and virtual world seamlessly and thus vastly increasing our ability to learn.

The future of learning will probably look a lot like Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One world, which will be brought to life for the big screen by Steven Spielberg. Bring on “Ready Player Learn”.

Now that MOOCs are mainstream, where does online learning go next? https://t.co/UZ5CY9TLIQ

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) July 19, 2017

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Imagining the Future of Online Learning appeared first on Tech Trends.