贵耻迟耻谤别尝别补谤苍鈥檚 new report shows that people turn to online courses to upskill for new careers
Flexibility is the number one feature that learners seek in higher education, said Ian McIlwain, vice-president of partnerships and business development at digital education platform FutureLearn.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about the flexibility of how, when and where to learn,鈥 McIlwain told a session at THE Digital Universities Week UK 2022. 鈥淚t is also about the flexibility that comes with personalisation and the pace at which people choose to learn.鈥
McIlwain outlined the findings of , launched in March. The report surveyed the motivations, attitudes and behaviours of about 2,000 UK learners and more than 500 UK-based employers and also included insights from 10 education experts.
鈥溾楩lexible鈥 is not the same as remote learning,鈥 said Astrid deRidder, vice-president of content and learning at FutureLearn. 鈥淎ccording to the report, learners want to learn remotely, from home, on the device of their choosing, but it is also about the scope, sequence and pacing.
Kiran Trehan, pro vice-chancellor of partnerships and engagement and director of the Centre for Women鈥檚 Enterprise, Leadership, Economy and Diversity at the University of York, warned that students聽would ultimately vote with their feet and choose institutions that respond to their needs.
鈥淭his report engages deeply with the community, and learners are saying: 鈥楾his is how we want to learn,鈥濃 Trehan said.
While students wanted more flexibility, almost one in five said they lost motivation quickly when learning online, the report found.
Trehan said this loss of motivation was a challenge for educators. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to design [virtual] space, and [recognise that] virtual spaces are not the same as face-to-face,鈥 she said.
Another complex issue is that online spaces can make learning more accessible, but technology can also be a barrier, the panellists said. 鈥淭echnology can be a聽solution to barriers but can also exacerbate or scale problems if we are not looking for them or do not anticipate them,鈥 said McIlwain.
Nevertheless, demand for online remote learning continues to grow. One in five respondents said they had changed their career during the pandemic, and of those respondents, more than 80聽per cent said an online course had helped them to achieve that change, the report found.
Additionally, one in three respondents chose online learning as their preferred means of聽acquiring new skills.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we鈥檙e building what we鈥檙e building [at FutureLearn] and doing what we鈥檙e doing,鈥 said McIlwain. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about access and opportunity.鈥
about FutureLearn.
