First, a timeline:
The origins of online college education
1960: The first computer-assisted instruction system, PLATO, was developed at the University of Illinois.
FACT: It was used to provide coursework at more than 1,000 terminals in all, and operated for more than 30 years.
1969 The U.S. Department of Defense commissioned ARPANET, the first to use many of the technologies that form the foundation of the modern Internet.
1980: Usenet is established. Unlike ARPANET, Usenet took a different approach to connectivity, with distributed servers rather than a single central server.
1982: The Computer Assisted Learning Center (CALC) is founded. Rather than focusing on the distance provided by online education, CALC uses computers to provide an improved educational experience.
1989: The University of Phoenix offers first online undergraduate and graduate degrees.
1991: Electronic performance support systems, which help employers with employee training, are conceptualized.
1996: Jones International University becomes the first totally online college to receive regional accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, offering accredited online university courses and legitimizing online education.
2005: Online education becomes one of the cornerstones of the American higher education system, with more than 3 million students taking at least one online class.
2009: The federal government provides more than $500 million for online courses and materials.
2013: More than 6 million U.S.students projected to take at least one online course.
2013: European consortium begins offering free online courses (MOOCs)
ALERT: Catching the Wave: Universities around the world going online
FACT: Beginning in Mid-September, top U.K. universities began offering free online courses to anyone around the world.
More than 20: number of institutions, including Southampton, Warwick and Reading have signed up to provide short courses in subject areas such as science, maths and technology.
FutureLearn: the online hub for U.K. degree level courses.
FREE: It is the first time that U.K. based organization has offered MOOCs (Massive open online courses)
FREE: Students in any country will be able to sign up for a course through the FutureLearn site and study for free.
And then…on Sept. 25, 2013: European Commission launched an open education resource Web site http://openeducationeuropa.eu/
Institutions affiliated with openeducationeuropa include:
Institute of Technology, Sligo (Ireland) Sligo is a national leader in online learning in Ireland. a. 1200: number of students taking 25 online courses primarily in engineering and science. URL: http://itsligo.ie
Rooter (Spain) is an international strategic consultancy specialized in education, legal services, technology and other activities within a digital economy. One of its main lines of activity is online education. URL: www.rooter.es
National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE) is one of the top research universities in Russia. Established in 1992 to promote new research and teaching in economics and related disciplines, it offers programs at all levels of university education including business, law, Asian studies, media and communications, IT, mathematics, engineering, and more. URL: http://www.hse.ru/
Maasricht University, the Netherlands. The most international university in the Netherlands. With almost 16,000 students and 4,000 staff. URL: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl
University of Porto, Portugal. With origins dating back to the eighteenth century, the University is currently the largest education and research institution in Portugal. URL: http://sigarra.up.pt/up/pt/web_page.inicial
The Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium. Founded in 1425, is one of Europe’s oldest universities. The university has more than 28,000 students from bachelor’s level to doctorate. URL: http://www.uclouvain.be/index.html
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, is one of the world´s leading medical universities.
Open MOOC, in Spain. OpenMOOC is an open source platform (Apache license 2.0) that implements a fully open MOOC solution.
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. The second largest business school in Europe with 20,000 students.
HEC Paris, France. founded in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, HEC Paris specializes in education and research in management sciences.
Another university partnership:
Semester Online : Consortium partner schools: Semester Online programs offer rigorous, for-credit online courses from prestigious colleges and universities to college students worldwide
In the U.S.
Boston College
Brandeis
Emory University
Northwestern U.
U. of North Carolina
Notre Dame
Wake Forest
Washington University, St. Louis
International Participants
Trinity College Dublin
University of Melbourne
Foreign universities offering online coursework include:
Art: The Elements of Drawing – Stephen Farthing, Oxford University. Find on: The Web and iTunes
Demography: Demographic Trends and Problems of the Modern World – David Coleman, Oxford. Find on Web, iTunes Viedeo, iTunes Audio.
Economics: Advanced Political Economy – Steven Keen, University of Western Sydney. Find on: You Tube.
Economics: Behavioral Finance – Steven Keen, University of Western Sydney. On You Tube.
Languages: Icelandic Online –University of Iceland.
Linguistics: Old English in Context – Stuart Lee, Oxford University.
Music theory: Dave Conservatoire (Music Theory Lessons) – David Rees, Royal College of Music, London.
Sociology: Cosmologies of Capitalism – Web – Alan MacFarlane, Cambridge University. http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/theorists/cosmologies.htm
Business: Introduction to Strategic Management – R. Srinivasan, IISC Bangalore. Also found on You Tube.
Computers: Data Structures and Algorithms – Richard Buckland, and Design in Computing both taught by Richard Buckland, University of New South Wales. Find on You Tube.
Top rated: World Universities with global reputations
University of Cambridge (UK)
University of Oxford (U.K.)University of Edinburgh (Scotland)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris
University of Copenhagen in Denmark
Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg in Germany
Top Asian Universities
The University of Hong Kong,
National University of Singapore
University of Tokyo
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
National Taiwan University
Top Latin American Universities
Universidad de Chile
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Universidade de Sao Paulo
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, in Brazil
Sources:
http://semesteronline.org/
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/