Almost 2,500 log on to start course in first 24 hours of MOOC going live
The University of Tasmania is delighted by the public response to its very first offering as part of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) phenomenon.
The free online course, Understanding Dementia, has been developed by the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, based in UTAS's Faculty of Health Science. It went live at 9am on Monday (29 July 2013).
"We now have more than 6,500 registrants around Australia and the world," said the Dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Professor Denise Fassett, on 16 July, "with almost 2,500 logging on to start the course in the last 24 hours. This is a substantial MOOC course in scale, and it’s fantastic to see such a response in the first offering."
International registrations are dominated by students from the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand, India and the Philippines.
In 2011, there were an estimated 298,000 people with dementia in Australia. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, this number is expected to increase markedly, with projections suggesting numbers will reach around 400,000 by 2020 and 900,000 by 2050.
Co-director of the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, Professor James Vickers, describes the Wicking Centre's approach: "Our goal is to improve the quality of life for people with dementia, their families and carers.
"Understanding Dementia has been structured as a complete and comprehensive course of 11 weeks duration, with the goal of providing quality evidence-based information about dementia."
Media contact:
Netty Gibson, Media and Communications, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, (03) 6226 4213; 0466 556 277.