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Swinburne joins the MOOC torrent
Technical university joins growing trend with three announced online courses. By Aileen Macalintal
Swinburne University of Technology has joined institutions worldwide in offering Massive Open Online Courses( MOOCs), through Open Universities Australia’ s( OUA) free platform, Open2Study, which launched in March as a partnership between OUA and a number of Australian and international universities.
The first batch of Swinburne courses launched in early August. It included basic physics, innovation for powerful outcomes and concepts in game development. Later this year, basic chemistry and robotics will be introduced.
Swinburne Pro Vice-Chancellor learning transformations professor Gilly Salmon, said more than 20 per cent of the university’ s students were already doing digital studies through Swinburne Online and OUA programs, but they wished to extend their reach.
Salmon said the three courses, as well as others to come, were based on the institution’ s strengths as a university of technology and innovation.“ The MOOCs offer free access to learning experiences for anyone with a good internet connection anywhere in the world,” she said.
The subjects will run for only a month. They are available entirely online with short video lectures, quizzes and student discussion forums. Participants may earn badges for learning and helping other students.
Some participating academics have adapted their courses to suit high school students, too, using practical examples and different teaching techniques.
OUA chief executive Paul Wappett is delighted that some of Swinburne’ s top lecturers are involved in Open2Study.
“ The development process for one of our courses is a rigorous one,” Wappett said.” For lecturers, this involves turning complex concepts and lectures into easily digestible 5-10 minute segments.“ This is then supplemented with quizzes and assessments to ensure the students are gaining new knowledge and comprehension.
“ They then spend five gruelling days with our video production crew to shoot the content. Our results suggest students are enjoying the quality and engaging experience. For example, our lecturers use iPads and perspex glass screens to create live illustrations that appear on the screen.“ When you enter the classroom, you will see the videos, social discussions with fellow students and course materials all located on the one page,” Wappett said.“ This is a feature unique to Open2Study.”
He called the platform perfect for those who are“ curious about online study, looking to boost their professional skills, returning to study or just wanting to learn something new”. n
CQU cuts 166 jobs
Decline in international students led to losses; staff input helps some retain jobs.
Central Queensland University has cut 166 jobs in order to generate about $ 25 million in budget savings, mostly in response to the downturn in international student enrolments.
Vice-chancellor and president professor Scott Bowman said,“ The fact that the university has been able to make the required savings with fewer than anticipated job losses [ the original estimate in May was 200 ] is due in no small part to staff input into the development of the restructure model.
“ The final restructure model shows 131 staff departures from voluntary separations, and 35 from forced redundancies,” Bowman said.
Due to the restructure, new vacancies had also been created and were open to all staff, Bowman said, including those displaced by the process.“ This will likely result in the net loss in staff being even fewer still.” The cuts came following the drop in international student enrolment and consequent financial losses.
“ Despite recording the second-highest rate of domestic student growth [ in the country ] over the past three years, at 28.2 per cent,” Bowman said,“ the effect of the downturn in the international student market has been too large to absorb.” He said CQU sustained a $ 26 million loss in 2012 due to a decline in international student numbers, long-term investments in research capacity, new courses and strategic capital works.
All departing staff members are being offered a comprehensive range of counseling, guidance and career services.
The cuts have been focused on administrative areas to protect teaching positions and those providing direct support to students.“ This was purely to ensure disruption to students was kept to an absolute minimum,” Bowman said.
The vice-chancellor insisted there would be no more planned cuts.“ There is no need for further measures as part of this process to restore financial sustainability,” he said.
Asked how the cuts would affect learning, teaching and other operations, Bowman said the impact would be limited and hopefully unnoticeable to students.
“ Voluntary separations and redundancies were signed off only after careful consideration to ensure there would be no major impact on teaching, learning and other core services,” he explained.
He said a lengthy consultation has resulted in overwhelming feedback from staff and all input was carefully considered and in many cases implemented.
“ The process has been ongoing since the start of June and the restructure model has involved multiple rounds of revisions.”
He added that the university strived to keep open communication channels with all affected unions and ensured they had ready access to staff and executives to discuss issues or ideas as they arose. n
8 | Issue 8 2013