Are you studying online yet? If not, it is about time you start pursuing your degree online and achieve your career goals without investing excessive time or money.
With the advancement of technology, online learning has become one of the most popular modes of earning an accredited qualification for many students and professionals across the globe. Why? Simply because it allows you to advance your education without making any drastic changes to your personal and professional life. As online courses offer a lot of convenience and flexibility, its demand has been increasing quickly worldwide.
Learning English The Online Way
Recently, over 100,000 individuals have enrolled for a single web-based course that offers English language tuition to the students. The introductory programme from the British Council, is their first attempt at MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which provides lessons free of charge. Among the people who have already signed up for the 6 week course, students from Russia, Burma and Spain are highest in numbers.
According to the British Council, this online course is among the largest English language classes worldwide. More than 33 per cent of these English language students are pursuing the education programme through their smartphones.
Tapping Into The Global Demand
Sara Pierson, head of English partnerships at the British Council, claims that the web-based programme has “tapped into the global demand.” She said “English is spoken at a useful level by one in four people worldwide - and we know that even more people all over the world want to learn English.”
MOOCs were initially adopted by some of the leading universities in the world which offered numerous programmes online to students anywhere in the world. In fact some of the online university courses have acquired excessively high students’ base, with some institutes having over 200,000 students.
A Global Virtual Classroom
However, several educational establishments have also started to develop online courses for students. In fact, the British Council has partnered with prominent UK-based online education provider, FutureLearn, to create and deliver the English course.
Kathryn Skelton of FutureLearn commented “Learners are taking the course from countries like Burma and Algeria, where internet penetration is relatively low, yet the appetite for learning English is clearly thriving.”
The online language course has already attracted learners from 178 nations, with Spain being the highest contributor of students. The United Kingdom is also in the top 10 list. Moreover, there are large groups of students from India, Vietnam, China and Colombia as well. A study of the programme, which utilises online tutors and video to deliver course content, reveals that male students are outnumbered by female students by less than one to two. It is probably the first time they are pursuing an online programme for nearly three quarters. It was also found that the biggest group of students were educators.
You will not be required to pay any tuition fee for pursuing the course neither there will be any examination at the end. Instead you will receive a “statement of participation.”
Are You Going To Enrol For The Programme?
So what do you think about the new online English course from the British Council? Do you think this course can help you in honing your English skills? Let us know what you feel by sharing your views and opinions in the comments section below.
