Online university boosts free course programme

Publish date	2008-06-27
Available Articles	Full articles without membership

Ten more units of courseware have been added to the Open University of Hong Kong’s suite of free courseware.

The university says its initiative has been well received since it was launched last summer. Similar initiatives by the Open University in the UK and MIT in the US have proved popular with students who want a taster of programmes, distance learners who wish to try out online learning, and MBA students who want to augment their programme modules.

OUHK now offers 35 study units (http://freecourseware.ouhk.edu.hk) and intends to increase this number to 150 by 2009.

The new units cover subject areas including art and history, business and management, education, languages and IT.

Degree level units provided in Chinese include Rules and Forms of Classical Chinese Poems, which introduces the traditional Chinese literature, and the intriguingly titled ‘Argument’ is about logical thinking – particularly useful for business students.

Those with an interest in professional development might find useful Developments in Management Thinking and Introduction to Derivative Tools for Investment. Other units available in English are The Hong Kong Legal System, English Language Skills - Expressing Personal Feelings, Applied Maths and Geology and Geomorphology of Hong Kong.

The Lose weight and Keep Fit might not help you get an MBA, but at least it will help you shed pounds accumulated through sitting in front of your computer all week.

In addition to a wide range of audio-visual and multimedia learning materials, a discussion forum has been set up in some of the new units, allowing users to share experiences and exchange ideas online with each other.

Interactive activities, quizzes, case studies and reference materials augment each course.

Dr Yuen Kin-sun, head of educational technology and publishing at OUHK, said: “We have opened wide the door of continuing education to all aspiring learners whatever their backgrounds. The learning materials and tools can help people who wish to receive higher education to get prepared and gain confidence in learning.

“Student leavers who are about to embark on tertiary study can familiarize themselves with relevant curricula and assess their own interest and capabilities through the online courses. University students can also make use of the courseware as a supplement to their current study programmes.

“We are hopeful that this free service will also benefit the disadvantaged groups in the community, like people with disabilities or those with low income.”

Dr Yuen pointed out that with e-learning becoming more popular worldwide, the experience of developing free courseware could help sharper colleagues’ mastery of advanced technologies in distance teaching and learning.

OUHK’s free units have attracted 90,000 downloads from users from Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia, USA and Canada. In the initial release of 25 units, business and management units were the most popular.

The Open University in the UK has already put thousands of hours of course material online (http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/). Postgraduate and undergraduate subjects including business, arts science, and computing are included in the project.

OpenLearn aims to make up to 5,000 hours worth of undergraduate and postgraduate study material available to everyone by 2008. The materials will be presented as units requiring between three and 15 hours study time. Users can copy and distribute them so long as they do not do so for commercial gain.

Interested students can keep track of new courses. The OU has signed up with social networking service Twitter to provide text alerts when new courses become available on the Open Learn initiative. Sign up here. www.twitter.com/openuniversity.

Keywords: free courseware, OpenLearn, online education.

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