Online lessons return to the classroom - Stuart Winthrope, Sydney Morning Herald

The University of Melbourne’s online courses have opened access to courses in zoology, economics and climate change to anyone with a computer and internet connection through the Coursera platform. But these courses also provide data for research which benefits on-campus teaching. “Among the many reasons that we got into MOOCS was the research potential of harvesting and mining data that comes out of the Coursera platform,” University of Melbourne Director of eLearning Professor Gregor Kennedy says. Professor Kennedy leads the University’s Learning Analytics Research Group, which draws upon staff expertise in psychology, education, and computer science to help understand students’ online learning processes and outcomes. http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/voice/online-lessons-return-to-the-classroom-20140506-37u02.html