Amelia Teng
The Straits Times
Thursday, Nov 12, 2015
It is working with popular US-based Coursera to cater to educators
around the world.
Educators worldwide will soon be able to tap the expertise of
Singapore's teacher training institute over the Internet.
The National Institute of Education (NIE) International - the
business consultancy arm of the institute - intends to offer
courses with United States-based education provider Coursera.
The tie-up is the latest here, after the National University of
Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
started putting up courses last year on the popular massive open
online course platform.
Professor Lee Sing Kong, managing director of NIE International,
told The Straits Times that it hopes to launch one or two courses
by the end of next year.
The courses, which will cater to educators around the world, are
likely to cover topics such as management and school
leadership.
Prof Lee said that many educators are interested in the teacher
training institute's courses but they come from very faraway places
such as South America.
It started talks with Coursera this year to develop a few specific
modules so that educators can tap into the content that NIE has
developed to train teachers.
Participants will have to pay a fee for the course, at the end of
which they get a certificate of accreditation from NIE
International.
Prof Lee said that if there is interest in the initial courses NIE
International plans to offer, it will offer more courses in science
and mathematics teaching methods in future.
Meanwhile, thousands have signed up for the online courses offered
by the two local universities.
NUS, the first university here to partner Coursera, offered three
courses to the public last year.
This year, it launched two more - one on superhero entertainment
and another specialisation programme in public relations for
digital media. A specialisation programme on Coursera is a series
of courses bundled together.
So far, NUS' courses - each usually comprising six to eight weeks
of video presentations, exercises, quizzes and peer-to-peer
assessment - have attracted about 180,000 learners from more than
100 countries. In January next year, it will offer another
specialisation programme - Communicating in the Globalised
Workplace.
On top of courses for the public, NUS also introduced courses on
Coursera in January last year for its students and those entering
university after full-time national service.
These 28 courses have received more than 21,000 sign-ups to
date.
An NUS spokesman said that it will put up more courses in the
coming years, particularly in those with large enrolments so that
students can have more time for in-depth learning through
discussions and debates in class.
Meanwhile, 210,000 participants - including 10,800 students from
NTU - signed up for the courses taught by the university's
professors on topics such as forensic science and e-commerce.
To date, 6,000 students from NTU have received credits for
completing two courses in symmetry and forensic science.
The university's third course on Coursera in January this year, on
e-commerce, attracted 28,000 participants from around the
world.
Its next course, on Confucian philosophy, to be launched in the
first half of next year, has already had 6,200 sign-ups.
Professor Kam Chan Hin, NTU's senior associate provost for
undergraduate education, said Coursera has provided a platform for
NTU's content to reach a global audience.
Ms Sandy Lee, 22, a second-year NTU sociology student who took the
symmetry and forensic science modules this year, said: "I like the
flexibility to choose when I want to go through the materials as
long as it's before the deadline for assignments."
She added that online learning would be more suitable for science
courses which "tend to be more straightforward".
"Humanities and languages still require classroom learning as the
content is more diverse and usually require more interaction," she
said.