Overall, UK universities need to raise their game significantly when it comes to using their websites as product marketing and recruitment tools, but shorter forms of provision are often where I witness the most neglect and the most egregious examples.

"With a growing number of UK universities entering or considering online education as part of their diversification strategy, now is a timely moment to reflect on the current state of the OPM market and the key players operating in UK higher education."

"When this government manages to snap out of what feels like an extended political version of The Play That Goes Wrong, it would be wise to give more serious consideration to the role online learning can play in its agenda." https://t.co/sBHX3T66pb #onlinelearning

"While some EdTech companies position their advantage as offering a prompt-free interface that doesn't rely on user prompting skills, this also needs to be underpinned by confidence that the company has a nuanced & sophisticated understanding of learning."

"one wonders what the impact would be if students had greater options and more explicit and deliberate flexibility within a campus anchored undergraduate degree"

"as things stand, disaggregation of online degree provision is happening largely at PGT level, and given the current online student market and the exclusionary nature of the LLE for online education, I would not expect this to change anytime soon"

"There is a certain orthodoxy in how the sector builds a case for doing something new or different, and it tends to be overly reliant on user (student) research focused on asking people what they want."

"What has been evident this quarter is a more concentrated focus on developing propositions and courses that align with the prevailing narrative of recent years, education as a utility for professional development and skills, particularly in short forms."

"Universities face various questions when starting to develop a portfolio of online courses & degrees. One key decision…is whether to establish a separate online arm with dedicated functions & responsibility for new degrees and, potentially, legacy ones."

"For Coursera, the challenge is one of credibility, not just growing learner numbers, but proving that its courses and credentials translate into meaningful skills and workplace impact." https://t.co/xhDd8Tij4W #onlinelearning #onlineeducation #highereducation

"With the summer behind us, it’s time to look back at some key developments in the last quarter in UK higher education, and online education in particular..there has been no shortage of relevant and noteworthy developments over the past quarter"

"A challenge..is the extent to which EdTech companies and their products can genuinely offer distinct benefits over general-purpose generative AI tools for many of the functions they are developing."

"It would be obvious to point to the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE)..as a stimulus..but it would be easy to overstate its impact...The funding is focused on disaggregated UG provision, which..has a minimal presence in the lifelong learning landscape."

"AI features are reshaping established EdTech products used by universities, while a wide array of consumer AI technologies are being adopted personally by students and staff alike."

"Coursera is moving toward a competency-based education model in which the unit of organisation is not a degree title like “data science” but the job role itself. Skills, knowledge, and assessments are mapped directly to the realities of that role."

"while the choices universities face in operationalising their online portfolios may lead them down different paths..given projected needs, developing to better serve a mature student audience, motivated by prof. development would be a wise investment."

"This shift towards a portfolio focused on careers and employment presents a fundamental challenge for universities, both in being desirable partners that can align with it and in facing the competition as an alternative study destination."

"Some university short course webpages are among the best examples you’ll find anywhere of pages most likely to achieve a 100% bounce rate — countless examples lack the basics students need: pricing, start dates, time commitment, duration and eligibility."

What could be better than learning about The Beatles online from the University of Liverpool... #onlinelearning #onlineeducation #highereducation https://t.co/F2NMOSQtAL?

"Given everything happening in UK HE, and the increasingly competitive nature of the online education market, the international TNE online market is only going to become more important." https://t.co/w2OqxW1uYX #onlinelearning #onlineeducation #highereducation