Lesiones Graves

times; 3) alternative financing options;

and 4) employer-payment solutions.”

80 | �ducation to �mployment: Getting �urope’s Youth into Work | Building a system that works for everyone

The FernUniversität now has 88,000 students and has continued to innovate, developing both an online and a physical presence. Today, it has an extensive programme with lectures, support, libraries, and research; all administrative tasks, such as registration and exams, are available online. It has 38 study centres across Germany and neighbouring countries (including Austria, Russia, and Hungary).

FernUniversität charges a credit-hour-based fee, which offers the student a more flexible pay-per-use scheme.3

More recently, the advent of streaming technologies has boosted interest and experimentation in online learning, such as Massive Open Online Courses (known as MOOCs). MOOCs can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection, and some have racked up enormous numbers of students. Prestigious institutions and universities are getting in on the action: MIT and Harvard are developing edX; its first course—on circuits and electronics—in March 2012 attracted almost 155,000 students in 194 countries. While MOOCs clearly enhance access, the jury is still out on whether they effectively support student learning, let alone whether they enable students to find better job opportunities. It is very much an open question whether students who take MOOCs have the same commitment as those enrolled in more traditional forms of learning. For example, only 5 percent of those who signed up for the 14-week edX course finished it—a rate that is typical.4 _{The University of Pennsylvania recently}

analysed the results of 16 MOOC courses with one million students; it found a completion rate of just 4 percent, with participation dropping sharply after a week or two. One of the earliest MOOC providers, Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online (ALISON) has registered 2.5 million learners since 2007, and a 12 percent graduation rate. That is very low compared with conventional classroom courses (68 percent in the O�CD).5

This kind of comparison may be the wrong way to look at MOOCs. One of their important characteristics, in fact, is that students can readily drop one and add another as they refine their learning and career journey.

A survey published by Qualtrics and Instructure Partner in July 2013 found that 29 percent of the students who dropped out of MOOCs said the main reason was the learning experience didn’t match their expectations, the same percentage as those who said they were too busy to finish. If students are treating enrolling in a MOOC as they do attending an open day, lower completion rates are to be expected.

It is simply too soon to say how MOOCs can best be deployed for the widest population. The early evidence suggests that it is those with the greatest ambition and keenest desire to learn—such as the High-achiever and Persister segments (see Chapter 1)—who are likely to benefit most from the MOOC model’s facility to provide the skills they need at low-cost. Members of the other segments, who struggle more with motivation and direction, will need support to use MOOCs well, either in the form of opportunities to work face-to-face with peers or tutors off line, or by combining MOOC learning with attendance at a local study centre, along the lines of the FernUniversität model.

One way to help people who need a closer link to their educational establishment is to combine face-to-face and distance learning via Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs). These are restricted-access online courses with associated collaboration tools, such as discussion boards. For example, HarvardX’s first SPOC, a law school course on copyright, debuted in January 2013 with 4,100 applicants worldwide being screened to form the 500-student online class.6 3. More and better financing options: Besides reducing costs for students via flexible and online courses, students may also be supported with structured low-interest and long-term financing. This does not by itself reduce the cost of tuition, but it does lighten the one-shot burden that students and their families incur to fund post-secondary education, along with the associated living costs.

Strengthened state-financing may involve government- supported loans as is the case in Sweden and the UK. For almost a century, Sweden’s student-aid authority—Centrala Studiestödnämillionden (CSN)—has offered study grants and long-term loans to cover tuition and living costs; in 2013, it supported more than 900,000 students from certified universities. Students are granted funds upon enrolment and continue to receive these if they successfully continue their courses; the level of support makes it economically feasible to complete further education. The CSN also has a “study now, pay later” programme that offers low-interest student loans that may be repaid over a period of up to 25 years. On the one hand, this system ensures that socioeconomic position is not a major barrier to access to university in Sweden: the country has fewer students citing ability to pay as a factor and a relatively large percentage in the ‘High-achiever’ segment. On the other hand, the ‘Meanderer’ group is also over-represented, suggesting that some young people get

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81 | �ducation to �mployment: Getting �urope’s Youth into Work | Building a system that works for everyone

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