DO ONLINE COURSES SPELL THE END OF CAMPUS LIFE?

Publishing, music, shopping and journalism have all recently been revolutionised by the internet. Next in line? Education. UK universities are now following the US phenomenon by offering free first-class tuition to anyone who can log on, anywhere in the world. But does this mean that traditional education is a thing of the past?

Sebastian Thrun, a German- born professor of artificial intelligence at Stanford University is the name behind Udacity, an online university which aims to provide mass high quality education around the world. The scheme is targeted at students in developing countries who don’t have access to traditional education or for students in the developed world who do but choose to study online. The choice seems simple: pay thousands of pounds a year for your education or get it free online?

The idea occurred to Thrun at the end of 2011. “I heard Salman Khan talk about the Khan Academy and I was just blown away by it.” 37-year-old Salman Khan, is the founder of the Khan Academy, more commonly referred to as the ‘classroom revolution.’ His online school has served up almost 200 million lessons through video and is growing rapidly thanks to an active community and support from the likes of Google and Bill Gates. The school boasts 3,400 short videos or tutorials, most of which Khan made himself, and 10 million students. "I was amazed by it," explained Thrun. "And frankly embarrassed that I was teaching 200 students. And he was teaching millions."

On the flipside, there are certain fundamental interactions that schools and universities facilitate that are very difficult to truly replicate online. It’s the personal nature of a teacher sitting next to you guiding you through a problem, or a lunch break with a fellow student, a class project in the library or an extra-curricular activity after school.

Edinburgh University was the first establishment in Scotland and the UK to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) which are delivered via the Coursera partnership - a network of leading international universities which offer short undergraduate-level online courses free of charge. However, an increasing number of other UK universities seem to be employing the idea. King's College London, along with the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick have partnered with FutureLearn, a company set up by the Open University that will offer free, non-credit bearing courses to internet-users around the world.

MOOCs have attracted millions of users across the globe, and are especially popular in emerging economies – a key market place for UK universities. FutureLearn will promote UK institutions to international students, said Prof Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University.

"At the moment foreign students' perception of UK universities is: wonderful history, great tradition, really good teaching, but a bit boring.

"It's absolutely unacceptable that the number one or two brand for higher education in the world should be lagging in the areas of innovation in terms of Higher Education. We need to inject that front-foot, innovative flavour if we're to compete with the US."

The UK higher education industry, which is worth £14 billion, stands in the top five export earners for Britain. Universities minister David Willetts explained how the partnership – which has received cross-party support and involves universities from Scotland, Wales and England – will put the UK at the heart of online education.

Strathclyde University’s Myplace/Pegasus, a moodle-based learning system offers a combination of learning materials, incorporating the benefits of the Internet Age and the social and personal components that come with physical places of learning. Universities offer personalised advice from lecturers and tutors whose positive reinforcement is beneficial to students.

The future of education, both online and offline, will be won by those who understand that why, how and where people learn are not one­-size-­fits-­all questions. Figuring out how to get universities to accept MOOC classes for credit is a major thrust of the fast-growing, constantly changing online teaching industry at the moment. As Thrun concludes, “It’s my mission now; this is the future. There is no doubt about it.”