Malaysia rolls out massive open online courses for public varsities

To promote blended learning, Malaysia has rolled out the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) initiative for public varsities.

This initiative aims to improve learning and teaching method as well as lessen class time. Students of public universities can access the subjects anywhere and anything through a web portal (www.openlearning.com/Malaysianmoocs).

"For the first semester in the 2014 session beginning on September 7 and 8, 16,000 used the MOOCs for compulsory subjects for first year students in the IPTA which are the Islamic Civilisation and Asian Civilisations (Titas), Ethnic Relations, Entrepreneurship, and ICT Competency," said Second Education Minister, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.

Jusoh estimates 15 per cent of learning in IPTAs will be done through the MOOCs concept by next year, increasing to 30 percent in 2020.

The popularity of MOOCs began in 2012 when several well-financed providers associated with top universities, emerged, including Coursera, Udacity, and edX. Students can study online with prestigious universities, normally at no cost.