University Of Cape Town Free Online Courses
University Of Cape Town Free Online Courses, The University of Cape Town (UCT) is the oldest university in South Africa. With its main campus located on the slopes of Devil’s Peak in the Cape Peninsula, it was third on The Telegraph’s 2014 list of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
UCT is one of the leading higher education and research institutions on the African continent and has a tradition of academic excellence that is respected worldwide. On its staff are more than one-third of South Africa’s A-rated researchers and academics – all of whom are also recognised as world leaders in their respective fields, who have earned international awards and published articles in the world’s most prestigious journals. UCT has also established research and teaching partnerships with universities across Africa and around the world.
UCT focuses research on the leading problems of the day and seeks to instil in graduates a sense of social commitment and responsibility to their communities. UCT has established multidisciplinary research initiatives to tackle contemporary issues such as safety and violence, poverty and inequality, the crisis in basic education across South Africa, African challenges brought by climate change, issues affecting children, urbanisation and various gender issues, to name a few.
Massive Open Online Courses – or Moocs as they are known – are sweeping across global higher education.
According to Sandra Klopper, deputy vice-chancellor of strategic issues relating to teaching and learning at the university, these free online courses with no entry requirements were designed for mass participation and trusted that students would drive their own education.
“Moocs are a relatively recent development in the innovation of online learning – this time, offering to anyone with Internet access a taste of university-level learning without the demands or cost of formal assessment. Moocs allow for features such as interactive online forums that can involve hundreds of students in peer-to-peer discussions, as well as access to video and audio lectures, and course materials in online format.”
She said the university had decided to develop its own online courses because it was believed the university had knowledge and learning that would be of interest to people locally and globally.
Klopper said UCT had last month partnered with British-based Moocs provider FutureLearn.
She said several courses were currently being developed for next year’s launch.
“We are working on a number of course proposals – in fields such as medicine, health sciences and the arts. UCT’s first courses will be delivered through FutureLearn in 2015.
“They will be offered for free to anyone in the world with an Internet connection to join through the partnering platforms.”
Klopper said while there had been an increase in free online learning enrolments across the world there were no African universities offering Moocs.
Simon Nelson, chief executive of FutureLearn, said it had partnered with a number of top universities around the world.
“I’m delighted that these prestigious universities have selected FutureLearn as the platform for their free online courses. The benefits to our learners are undeniable; offering access to a growing collective of world-leading academics and centres of higher education,” he said in a press statement.
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