Image Courtesy: bit.ly/1BOam7z Are you planning to earn a degree? Have you thought about online courses? If not, then you should start thinking about it, as millions of individuals from around the world are now pursuing online programmes to get a higher qualification, learn required skills and boost their careers. Keep reading to learn more...
Online Education: The Simpler Way To Learn
Currently you can find a number of online programmes and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offered by to universities in UK that provide quality higher education for free. Language, health and business education are among the most popular programmes that are provided by a hub based in the United Kingdom. A study reveals that in the near future, more women will pursue these online degree programmes than men.
The study has been conducted by FutureLearn, which is the first site based in the UK to provide online classes for free from leading UK universities including King’s College London, University of Warwick, the Open University, University of Sheffield, along with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and Trinity College Dublin.
Can MOOCs Help Professionals?
The statistics from the study shows that currently there are more than 800,000 learners on that website. Among the students, almost 58 per cent are women and more than 70 per cent learners signing up have earned a higher education degree already. The data also reveals that there is a broad age range among students with 13 per cent learners over the age of 55 years and around 23 per cent learners between the age 26 and 35.
According to Kathryn Skelton of FutureLearn, the data shows that numerous individuals are now singing up for online programmes to gain knowledge on a specific topic, acquire new skills, to perform better in their jobs or to better their career prospects. I have observed that more than 58 per cent of individuals using FutureLearn are already in employment. The most popular occupations among these learners are accounting, for more than 50 per cent of the students, information technology (IT), healthcare and education.
Kathryn Skelton said “The majority of our learners are employed, and they are looking to further their careers and get a fresh perspective on their jobs. At the same time, we’re seeing a lot of people take courses simply because they’re interested in learning more about a particular subject, and they find it a rewarding way to spend their spare time.”
Learning, Not Just Getting A Degree
The site claims that the most in-demand programmes include business and management, health and psychology, followed by culture and language. The Explore English: Language and Culture MOOC offered by the British Council has proved to be the most popular programme on the site with over 122,000 individuals pursuing it.
Kathryn said “The demands on people’s time are great, but that doesn’t lessen the need or desire to keep learning. It’s no surprise that more and more people are turning to online learning to help improve their lives, whether for work or for personal interest.”
She further added “We know from previous research that learning makes people feel good, but time and money are barriers to learning. Courses on FutureLearn are free and flexible. Learners can take them at their own pace, and they are accessing them anywhere with an internet connection, be it on their commute, at work or on the sofa in the evening.”
Boost Your Career With MOOCs
MOOCS and online degree programmes tend to concise degree level courses which extend for only a few weeks. For the benefits it offers, online learning has also gained much popularity around the United States in the past few years. You can also find several hubs in the US which offer courses from prominent universities like Columbia University, Yale University, Brown University and Princeton University.
So if you are planning to get a higher degree or gearing up to push your career forward, then its time you take online learning into consideration. It will not only allow you to work and study simultaneously, but you will not have to empty your savings to earn a recognised degree.
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