OE Global 2018

Worldwide there are thousands of MOOCs available. Millions of learners can use these MOOCs from all ages, countries and different backgrounds. Delft University of Technology offers 68 MOOCs on the edX platform and already attracted more than 1.5 million learners and these numbers are growing rapidly. Our regular on campus students were not benefitting enough from these MOOCs.
Two years ago our Vice-President Education & Operations Anka Mulder raised the question with our partner universities. Wouldn’t it be great if our students could use the wide variety of MOOC offerings in their on campus degree? A vision emerged: virtual exchange of online courses. In Europe we have an elaborate system for offline exchange but virtual exchange is still a novelty.
In 2016 TU Delft partnered up with leading universities around the world, such as University of Queensland, EPFL, and Hong Kong university of Science and Technology, to launch the new initiative: Credits for MOOCs – Virtual exchange. A three-years pilot to explore the possibilities of virtual exchange. There were several challenges to overcome before we could start, ranging from organising exams, dealing with different time zones, different academic calendars and embedding each other’s MOOCs in our regular process of credit recognition (rethinking education). In 2017 the first students participated in this initiative. The aim of this presentation is to share with you our lessons learned, overcoming barriers and how we are gradually transforming education within our universities by incorporating informal education.