University of London to expand its selection of free online courses

The university that pioneered the world's first distance-learning degrees has put the latest trend in online education to the test by offering a selection of e-courses.

The University of London launched a suite of four massive open online courses (MOOCs) in June on the platform of educational technology firm Coursera. And after conducting a detailed evaluation of the students' course and survey results, it has declared the trial a success and plans to roll out further subjects.

The free, open-access courses are offered online to an unlimited number of students - without formal assessment - and have attracted more than 210,000 people from 160 countries. A post-course survey found that 91 per cent of users rated it as "good", "very good" or "excellent", according to a report published by the university last week.

The four six-week courses currently available - in photojournalism, malware, English common law and computer programming - require about five to 10 hours of study per week, through video lectures, multiple-choice questions and interactive forums.

Barney Grainger, academic project manager for University of London International Programmes, says: "There is a very high satisfaction rate. And we have received, at this point, 45 expressions of interest in our degree courses from students who have taken one of our MOOCs.

"The fact that there is a conversion from MOOC learning to seeking full degrees would indicate that our outlay on these MOOCs has, in fact, been justified. Our learning journey has commenced, and the MOOC business model can work," Grainger says.

International Programmes is planning to continue all four pilot courses and launch five more MOOCs next year in partnership with institutions within the university. The new courses haven't been announced.