8 November 2017 at 9:00 am
Victoria offering New Zealand’s first bicultural MOOC
Victoria University of Wellington’s latest massive open online course (MOOC) is New Zealand’s first bicultural MOOC and a unique offering on the international stage.
Developed as a series, New Zealand Landscape as Culture will explore how people express their culture through perspectives on the landscapes they live in. The course will incorporate mātauranga Māori and te reo Māori, and introduce ideas from both Māori and Pākehā cultures, exploring the geology, popular culture, politics, art and literature of landscape.
Steven Warburton, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Digital Futures) and director of VictoriaX, the university’s MOOC platform, said the new series shows the variety of courses that the university is able to share with students online.
“Our MOOC programme is an important addition to the broad range of Victoria courses offered, as it gives domestic and international learners a high quality educational experience with our world-class academics,” he said.
“This MOOC showcases Victoria’s role in enriching national culture, and is the latest in an exciting line-up of VictoriaX courses to be delivered.”
The New Zealand Landscape as Culture series will begin with the four-week course, Islands (Ngā Motu), starting November 10, 2017.
Victoria launched its debut MOOC in April this year, Antarctica: From Geology to Human History, which attracted more than 5000 enrolments.
Victoria is the only New Zealand university to offer courses through the edX platform, founded by prestigious US universities Harvard and MIT in 2012.
