Unhooking learning from the calendar - Deakin Starts Anytime

The internet has helped universities unhook learning from the physical campus, and students can now learn at their place using online courses.

But the calendar still dictates the pace of learning.

Deakin is going one big step further: from January, students at will be able to start selected courses on any day of the University year, and study at their own pace.

Professor Beverley Oliver, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) said Start Anytime exemplifies how Deakin is improving the student experience by driving the digital frontier.

“Courses at Deakin are traditionally studied in defined trimesters and follow a weekly calendar, Professor Oliver said.

“Start Anytime enables students in the MBA, MBA (International), Master of Commerce, Master of Information Systems, Master of Marketing and Master of Business Analytics to start studying when they want to and complete the assessments at their own pace with support and feedback from teaching staff as well as a community of peers.”

New students can enrol and complete their first unit in January 2016.

Professor Oliver said Start Anytime builds on Deakin’s high-quality student learning experience by offering even more flexibility when studying in the cloud – focussing on assessment, feedback and evidence of learning.

“We aim to help people learn in ways that match our lifestyles,” Professor Oliver said.

“Digital disruption is happening – we use streaming services such as Netflix to watch, even ‘binge watch’, our favourite shows.

“We believe that we can offer excellent learning experiences using the same idea: students should be able to complete assessments – ‘binge learn’ - when they feel ready, and not have to wait several weeks until trimester ticks over.

“Students want flexibility and Start Anytime is one way Deakin can offer on-demand, resource-rich study and innovate using digital disruption for a better student experience.

“We are starting this mode in selected units in prestigious postgraduate courses in January, and we expect to broaden this approach in due course.”