Why the internet will never replace universities

By Kel Fidler. All the recent hype about online higher education and 'Moocs' misses the point, says Kel Fidler – universities have been doing it for years. Read any article about online higher education and I guarantee you will come across the much-touted ‘MOOCs’ – massive open online courses – as well as references to, perhaps, gamification, crowd-sourcing and even avatars. While such developments are undoubtedly fascinating, they present online learning as something futuristic – a new development and consequently, a new threat to many UK universities. But this is just not the case. Online learning is nothing new for UK higher education. Forward-thinking institutions and their partners have been doing it for years, as a natural extension of their existing provision. Read more...