The Future of Higher Education may be Free!

You can learn almost anything online and mostly for free! From playing the guitar to computer programming, will find the lessons you need online and communities to help you along. Press coverage of the MOOC (Massive Open... [ view full abstract ]

You can learn almost anything online and mostly for free! From playing the guitar to computer programming, will find the lessons you need online and communities to help you along. Press coverage of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) phenomenon has predicted major disruption in higher education and the imminent demise of institutions as we know them. Such free online learning has the potential to open up education to many, to increase skill levels in the workforce and reduce training costs. Will it disrupt and cause institutions to fail, or can it be absorbed into institutions and exploited in order to improve, access, learning quality and efficiency? In this Gasta presentation, the presenter who has 20 years experience in online learning and more recently in open education, will describe some of the developments in open learning to date, how it is being integrated into higher education so far, some barriers to be overcome, and will suggest a vision of what might emerge in the longer term.

Keywords: Open learning, OER, MOOC, free