University of Auckland dips toe into MOOC waters

The University of Auckland has teamed up with pilot MOOC platform FutureLearn and is expected to start delivering some courses on the platform shortly. FutureLearn is a private company wholly owned by the Open University and with over 20 UK and international university partnerships, as well as institutions with archives of cultural and educational material, including the British Council, the British Library, and the British Museum. It's a small step for the University which has been in the past, according to various statements by vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon, hesitant to jump on the MOOC bandwagon. It will  be extremely interesting to see how this pans out over the back-drop of a university which seems to be increasingly in a phase of creating new physical spaces with both the demolishing and rebuild of the Science faculty and the purchase of a significant space in Newmarket.