Over 1,500 learners have signed up to a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on freecourses.atu.ie since the website was relaunched at the MOOCs for Industry event by Atlantic Technological University President Orla Flynn earlier this month.

That’s according to ATU’s Online, Flexible, Professional, Development (OFPD) Head of Innovation Gavin Clinch – bringing the number of registered participants on ATU’s free courses’ website to more than 35,000 learners.

Gavin Clinch, along with Senior Instructional Designer Louise Kearins, made presentations on the history of the MOOCs at a special evening at ATU Galway last week, outlining that ATU now offers over 30 free courses – 22 of which were created under the Higher Education 4.0 Project.

They also outlined the educational value of these free, short, online courses to the university, the lecturer and the learner – and to the external agencies, industries and businesses which have collaborated in creating MOOCs to meet a skills demand or gap in their respective sector.

Dr John Scahill (Sustainable Development Goals), Dr Roisin Nash (Ocean Pollution) and 2024 Bloom Gold medal winner Leonie Cornelius – all of whom have created short courses in their chosen fields of expertise – also presented at the MOOCs for the Environment evening.

This was followed by a lively discussion, moderated by Higher Education 4.0 Communications Lead Donal Loftus, on the importance of the environmental MOOCs in educating people and creating awareness, with representatives from Kinvara Tidy Towns among those in the audience to recognise that these free courses can be an invaluable resource for community groups.

There were several exhibition stands on the evening, with Higher Education 4.0 Remote Labs Engineer John Hough showcasing the Recording Studios that have been put in place for lecturers and MOOC creators by the Project across several of ATU’s nine campuses.

Also among those in attendance were OFPD Business Development and ATU’s MyCareerPath, the flexible, online careers service, which is currently running a series of lunchtime webinars on such topics as future-proofing your career and boosting your career prospects.

For more on ATU’s MOOCs, go to https://freecourses.atu.ie.

Pictured: At the MOOCs for the Environment event at ATU Galway last Wednesday were Higher Education 4.0 Communications Lead Donal Loftus; Louise Kearins, Higher Education 4.0 Senior Instructional Designer; Online, Flexible, Professional, Development (OFPD) Head of Innovation Gavin Clinch; ATU lecturer Roisin Nash; award-winning garden designer Leonie Cornelius; and ATU lecturer John Scahill. Photo: Mike Shaughnessy