Sometimes it feels as though UK higher education likes creating reports on blended learning just as much as Warner Brother’s liked making Police Academy films. The latest in the franchise is the cross-party think tank Policy Connect's report “Digitally enhanced blended learning”, a title that, with a few more keywords stuffed in, would compel us all to shout “house!”.
Read MoreAt the end of last year, I wrote about a new online learning ranking announced by Times Higher Education (THE). At that stage, details were somewhat fuzzy, which, as might be expected, stimulated a lot of questions. On the whole, my conclusion was that an online learning ranking has the potential to be something positive, but there are challenges to doing this effectively and in a way that is trusted by the sector.
Read MoreAn article published online by one of the major UK national newspapers caught my attention this week. The headline writers excelled in capturing interest with the title "Online learning has all but destroyed the university experience.
If you've spent any time working in online education, you're likely familiar with headlines of this nature. You've probably also encountered negative perceptions, ranging from subtle criticisms to outright attacks. So much so that it's all too easy to adopt a defensive stance when faced with such headlines.
Read MoreIf you're anything like me, you'll be reflecting on how swiftly the year seems to be progressing and how distant January feels. We've now reached the end of the first quarter of 2024, making it an opportune time to reflect on online education news and developments in UK higher education.
Read MoreLearning design in UK higher education has been on an interesting journey in recent years. It’s grown in popularity as a term, an activity, and as a moniker for roles that support learning & teaching activity.
The term, along with the role type associated with it; namely a learning designer, is one of the newer titles on the list of learning & teaching support roles in UK higher education. It is more contemporary than titles such as education developer, academic developer and learning technologist, arguably possessing greater cachet as a result.
Read MoreThe current financial situation in UK higher education is compelling universities to explore various avenues to attract students and ultimately increase their income. The primary mitigation for an increasingly dire set of financial conditions has been to attract more high-fee-paying international students to on-campus study.
Read MoreHow do you create great online learning experiences? Well if you paste that question into a search engine you’re likely to find a number of suggestions, and in most cases that number seems to be ten.
Listicles aside, what people working in online education should realise is that crafting a great online learning experience entails a wide range of considerations. There are always aspects that even the most knowledgeable and experienced among us might overlook, neglect, or need to compromise on.
Read MoreMany people have questioned the extent to which the higher education sector has learnt lessons from the overall experience of the pandemic. For some, the sector has simply carried on regardless and reverted to its old ways. I think this view is quite simplistic, but there are certainly lessons that might have been learned that haven't been universally adopted.
Read MoreThe year is still in its infancy, yet it has already delivered some noteworthy news in online education. Coursera has just reported its results for Q4 of 2023 and the previous year as a whole, alongside official announcements of Online Programme Management (OPM) company partnerships with two UK universities. These developments are significant for what they reveal about the current state of the online education sector in relation to higher education.
Read MoreI wonder if you remember the higher education discourse of 2020 and 2021. One aspect of it that sticks in my memory is the almost incessant talk about modalities, whether that be online, blended, hybrid or hyflex. The focus also extended beyond just the range of modalities and included the future trajectory for the primary teaching modality in higher education.
Read MoreJanuary has been a challenging month for those seeking positive news about UK higher education. The news has been full of stories of financial crises, fears of what would happen if a higher education institution (HEI) goes under and jolly topics like fraud in franchised provision. It’s clear the UK higher education sector is in a bad way.
Many HEIs are compelled to undertake a variety of measures to tackle the severe challenges they now face. This involves exploring either new markets or those in which they have not previously been active in.
Read MoreIf you've been following UK higher education policy, you'll know that a change to the student finance system is set to take place in 2025 with the introduction of the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE). This is how the government describes the change:
“From 2025, the lifelong loan entitlement will provide individuals with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of 4 years of post-18 education to use over their lifetime. It will be available for both modular and full-time study at higher technical and degree levels (levels 4 to 6), regardless of whether they are provided in colleges or universities.”
Read MoreSince 2021, I have been providing an annual review of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) market in UK higher education, aiming to highlight trends, notable developments, and evolving market shares.
Read MoreAs we approach the end of the year, I want to share some reflections on the past year as it relates to online education within UK higher education.
AI has dominated this year's higher education headlines, and the impressive emergence of AI in mainstream products is this year's standout story. However, the focus on AI in higher education has felt overdone at times, to the extent that one would be forgiven for thinking that nothing else happened this year.
Read MoreTimes Higher Education (THE) recently announced the launch of a global online learning ranking to add to their growing suite. This new ranking is an acknowledgment of the increasing number of universities that either have online degree portfolios or are beginning to develop them.
Read MoreImagine working at a university as a strong advocate for online education, striving to get this on the agenda but often facing frustration due to the lack of appetite, myopia, and misunderstanding. Then picture hearing that another university nearby has announced a significant move into online education, creating numerous online degrees and supporting them with a dedicated team and operation. It would be hard not to feel a very strong sense of envy.
Read More“AI will revolutionise [insert sector here]” encapsulates the kind of rhetoric we've been hearing for a while. I'm not disputing AI's significant impact on higher education for a second. However, amidst the AI maelstrom, it's very easy to overlook other factors influencing higher education change.
Read MoreIn the last 12-18 months, I’ve frequently described sluggish performance, acquisitions, the cloud of US regulatory changes and less than healthy financial signals as turbulence in the world of online education companies. It would be difficult to claim that things have settled down significantly since my last exploration of this topic, but it does feel like an opportune time for some reflection.
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