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By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent
A partnership of UK universities is launching an online project, challenging US
universities that have dominated this emerging market.
They will aim to give the public access to higher education courses via
computers, tablets or smartphones.
The partnership will include the Open University, King's College London,
Bristol, Exeter, Warwick, East Anglia, Leeds, Lancaster, Southampton, Cardiff,
Birmingham and St Andrews.
Courses will be offered from next year.
This could "revolutionise conventional models of formal education", says
Universities Minister David Willetts.
The project will represent the biggest UK response to rapidly growing online
universities - with these universities planning to offer courses through a
shared online platform.
'Global brands'
There are usually no formal entry requirements for students on such courses but
individual universities will have to decide how students can be examined and
accredited.
Coursera lecture from U of Penn A University of Pennsylvania professor of
classical studies prepares an online lecture for the US-based Coursera online
university platform
Martin Bean, the Open University's vice-chancellor, said that the arrival of
online courses meant that UK universities could either "stick their heads in
the sand" or rise to the international challenge.
The vice-chancellor said higher education had to face up to the impact of the
internet on delivering courses.
"What the web has taught us is that you can take nothing for granted - those
who sit back and hope it goes away will lose," he said.
University of Southampton vice-chancellor Don Nutbeam said joining this project
would help to build the university as a "global brand".
He anticipates that his university will offer about 15 to 20 self-contained
modules, which could be the "stepping stones" for students to enter other
courses.
"We want to be in at the foundation - we want to be well positioned," he said.
A new company called FutureLearn is being set up to run this online project,
which will be majority-owned by the Open University.
Massive courses
This year has seen intense interest among universities in the United States
over the growth of online university platforms.
These have become known as Massive Open Online Courses - or MOOCs.
Online joint projects, offered by some of the world's leading universities,
including Harvard, Stanford and MIT, have attracted registrations from millions
of students.
They have raised the prospect of reaching many more students at a much lower
cost. Their courses have used the internet to deliver video and provide
interactive exercises and automated testing.
The announcement from the FutureLearn project sees the first major challenge
from the UK, headed by the Open University, which has pioneered distance
learning.
This comes a day after the UK's universities admissions service reported a
54,000 drop in students starting courses this autumn, in the first year of
higher tuition fees in England.
From next year, the universities involved in the UK project will begin to offer
courses on the FutureLearn online platform.
These universities will be responsible for the content, quality, accreditation
and cost of courses offered online.
There will also be social networking-style communities for students.
Materials will be designed for portable devices, such as iPads or mobile
phones.
'Big frontier'
In the US, in these early stages of development, courses have been offered free
- but there have been charges introduced where there are certificates and
invigilated exams.
Martin Bean The Open University's Martin Bean says UK universities cannot
"stick their head in the sand"
There are also expectations that high levels of web traffic will be used for
advertising or links to other services.
"The big frontier" for online universities, says Mr Bean, is how to test and
award credits for such large numbers of students.
And when universities are charging high levels of tuition fees for their
campus-based students, this raises questions about how this will be balanced
against awarding online degrees for much less.
But Prof Nutbeam says that the impact of online courses could change the
expectations of students on campus. Will students still want to sit through
traditional lectures rather than using recordings?
"The UK must be at the forefront of developments in educational technology.
Massive Open Online Courses present an opportunity for us to widen access to,
and meet the global demand for, higher education. This is growing rapidly in
emerging economies like Brazil, India and China," said Mr Willetts.
"New online delivery tools will also create incredible opportunities for UK
entrepreneurs to reach world markets."