Microsoft co-founder funds new online programmes

Mr Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, is supporting Oxford University to develop innovative programmes on-line aimed at providing `professional development' in tailored and flexible ways, supported by tutors. The University's Department for Continuing Education has been given a grant of US $500,000 by the Paul G Allen Virtual Education Foundation based in Washington State, to provide continuing professional development in the area of molecular medicine. The new learning system is composed of a very large number of small components, each typically 15 minutes of study time, and is classified according to topic, medium, level, and prerequisites. It is being developed through the Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning programme of the Department for Continuing Education (TALL), in partnership with Oxford University libraries and the Oxford University Press. Each student's needs will be analysed, together with their current level of knowledge, in order to construct a personalised course from the database of learning components. Students will be intensively supported through their courses by a specialist tutor, and courses can easily be modified in the light of the student's progress or because of changed needs. The Director of TALL, Mr Jonathan Darby, said the approach would treat student time as the most valuable commodity. `Each student follows a course that concentrates on what they need to know, with no time wasted on topics with which they are already familiar. `The small size of each learning component keeps them simple and easy to develop and update. Yet the varied module types (audiographics, video, illustrated texts, animations) combine to create a stimulating learning environment that will support a range of learning styles,' he added. Dr Geoffrey Thomas, Director of the Department for Continuing Education and President of Kellogg College, described the grant as `very important for the University because it helps ensure that Oxford's position as a leading university is well reinforced via the global medium of the Internet'. The use of metadata to define each learning component makes them individually tradable. Educators and trainers world-wide will be able to use them as building blocks in their own teaching programmes. The first courses developed for the system will be in immunology, under the direction of Professor Kathryn Wood of the Department of Surgery. Initially students will be able to take an internet-delivered version of `Immunology: a path through the maze', the Department for Continuing Education's highly successful existing course. The TALL programme has grown rapidly since its inception two years ago. Students are already studying `History On-line' and further courses are under development in computing and modern languages.