Madison community members and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison already have access to a wide variety of educational opportunities because of their connection to the university. But after starting its first phase of Massive Open Online Courses, UW-Madison is looking to extend those opportunities to an audience worldwide.
The university will embark on its second phase of the MOOCs pilot program in the 2015-’16 school year, continuing the online education initiative aimed at providing creditless learning opportunities to a mass audience.
The six new course options for the second phase are inspired by resident environmentalist Aldo Leopold, according to a July 2014 statement from the university. The courses will all fall under the umbrella topic of environment and the community, but will differ in content from Shakespeare to climate change.
MOOCs require no enrollment cost, no need to be a registered student at the host institution and have no participation limit.
“We hope that by making MOOCs a free and easy point of entry for participants interested in a UW-Madison educational experience, we can help direct them to our credit-bearing online and residential postgraduate degree programs, certificates and professional development opportunities,” Jeffrey Russell, vice provost for lifelong learning and dean of the Division of Continuing Studies, said in a UW-Madison release.
The university introduced the first pilot phase of four MOOCs in October 2013, with topics ranging from video games to human evolution.
According to UW-Madison’s Educational Innovation department, MOOCs, accessible through the Internet, are structured for students to guide themselves through the lessons and use technological-based assessments to prove their knowledge.
“We envision a future where everyone has access to a world-class education,” Coursera, UW-Madison’s MOOCs provider, says in its mission statement. “We aim to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families and the communities they live in.”
Total enrollment in last year’s four classes reached 135,600 people from 141 countries and all 50 states, according to a statement from the university.
“This year our MOOCs extended the Wisconsin Idea to learners around the world,” Russell said. “In 2015, we are continuing in that spirit to make the UW-Madison experience more accessible.”
