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Free Courses and Low Cost Degrees Featuring MOOCs from Australia Coming to North America.

Distance Education Pioneer Pursues North American Marketplace with Free Course Offerings.

Armidale, Australia – November 1, 2012 – The University of New England (UNE) in Australia, a leader in online learning and distance education, announced that it will begin researching and pursuing North American partnerships for the deployment of free courses and highly scalable MOOCs. To accelerate the effort, UNE will send representatives to Educause 2012 in Denver, Colorado next week to conduct discussions with interested organizations.
UNE has already developed three significant offerings:

  1. Open pathways programs for underserved and struggling students,
  2. Free courses designed to attract students to degree and certificate programs,
  3. Low cost MOOCs that remove barriers for students to pursue a master’s degree.

Leveraging UNE’s wealth of capabilities, partner institutions can rapidly deploy new low cost academic and support programs for students. UNE is well regarded for delivering high quality student support services, academic advising, career counseling, and online community capabilities.

“With over 85% of the university’s 20,000 students taking online courses, UNE awards degrees and certifications to thousands of off-campus students every year,” said Dr. Michael Crock, Pro Vice Chancellor for Innovation and International.

Dr. Michael Crock, who is also a member of UNE’s Senior Management Team, will be presenting an overview of UNE’s MOOC vision on Wednesday, November 7th at 1:00 p.m. in the Gilfus Education Group’s Innovation Showcase at Educause 2012 in booth #761. He will discuss the expected impact of high quality MOOCs on students, colleges and universities, based on his many years of experience in delivering and administering distance learning programs,.

Dr. Michael Crock and members of the UNE delegation will be conducting meetings to discuss programs and partnerships related to free courses and low cost MOOCs, during the Educause Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado from November 5th through 9th. Institutions and investors interested in scheduling a meeting should complete the online form which can be found at www.www.gilfuseducationgroup.com/une.

About the University of New England

The University of New England was the first Australian university established outside a capital city. With a history extending back to the 1920s, UNE has a well-earned reputation as one of Australia’s great teaching, training and research universities. A pioneer in distance education, UNE has offered remote programs since 1955, making it Australia’s longest continuous provider of distance learning. Its graduates consistently rate their experience at UNE highly, a reflection of the University’s commitment to student support. More than 90,000 people now hold UNE degrees and certifications, with many in senior professional positions in Australia and around the world. UNE offers over 1,800 courses and more than 200 programs of study at the vocational, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

 

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Media Contact:

Peter Rasmussen

University of New England

+61 459 820 101

[email protected]

 

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