AUS-AUN Engagement: AI for Curriculum Design and Delivery with OpenLearning

On 26 February 2024, the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Secretariat delegates led by Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti, with the facilitation of Mr. Michael Fay OAM, Director of ASEAN Focus Group and Special Advisor to the AUN Executive Director, and Mr. Eugene Quah, AFG Partner, had the honour of meeting with Mr. Adam Brimo, CEO of OpenLearning, an online learning platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support and empower educators across the world in creating an active, engaging, and scalable online learning experience for learners, from start to finish.

What is OpenLearning?

Established in 2012, OpenLearning is an advanced AI-powered online platform designed for institutions from across the globe to create, sell and deliver short courses and microcredentials seamlessly to learners from anywhere. Prioritising active learning, community engagement and authentic assessment as key driving qualities, OpenLearning ensures simplified, tailor-made and personalised experience to all its users from start to finish through AI-powered assistance, signifying its outstanding place among other online learning platforms and services. 
To date, OpenLearning has supported more than 3 million learners and more than 300 institutions across the world in over 300 public courses and 4,250 private courses.

Integrated Solutions for Curriculum Design, Evaluation and Assessment

The key quality of OpenLearning is an integrated and innovative toolset for educators to create and design all aspects of establishing an active and engaging online courses; from Course Authoring, Learner Engagement to Learner Facilitation and Support. The solutions offered by the platform in this dimension include, but are not limited to, multimedia course materials, self-generated content, automatic performance tracking, etc.

The functionalities of its AI tools also cover the aspects of learning assessment, certification and analysis. The assessment solutions offered by OpenLearning are automated and diversified beyond the conventional methods of testing and examination, taking into account the course objectives and designed outcomes. Ultimately, in the case of open credit courses available on OpenLearning, the credits earned upon completion of the course are stackable and subject to cross-border credit recognition to higher education institutions and governmental bodies the platform has aligned its framework with.

With such richness in terms of integrated solutions to the common challenges of curriculum design and delivery, OpenLearning has showcased just how powerful integrated AI tools can be in streamlining and enriching the teaching and learning experience of both educators and learners.
OpenLearning in Cross-border Credit Recognition and Qualifications

As new advanced technology is continuously introduced in the field, education is becoming less bound by geographical borders and more cross-borderly integrated with online and technology enhanced learning. In the collaborative dialogue between OpenLearning and AUN, both parties also discussed at length on the prospect of cross-border credit recognition and qualifications through learning of courses through this online learning platform, highlighting its Open Credit System.

According to OpenLearning, the platform’s Open Credit system is in alignment with Australia’s first micro-credential framework and lifelong learning. In this regard, the platform works with higher education institutions and the Australian Government to ensure that the qualifications offered through the OpenLearning platform are in alignment with the country’s policies.

OpenLearning’s progress in promoting cross-border credit recognition also goes beyond its home country. According to Mr. Adam, in the context of ASEAN higher education, he himself has extensive experience working closely with the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia for a long time in helping the development of the country’s Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) until nationwide implementation. Since 2018, he has been working with public and private sectors in Malaysia directly in the areas of AI product and online course development. On this subject, OpenLearning has worked with various universities from Malaysia and Temasek University from Singapore. In this regard, AUN Member Universities and Associate Member Universities partnering with OpenLearning include Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Utara Malaysia and more.

According to Mr. Adam, based on the platform engagement with various universities so far, OnlineLearning’s open credit qualifications contribute significantly to the generation of revenue of universities’ online courses and also the increase of gross margins from current students through learning course digitalisation. In terms of university-industry engagement, there is evident reduction of the course drop out rate as well as an increased job employability for learners and graduates of open-credit courses. This opens room for more exploration on the possibility of cross-sectoral credit recognition and industry-aligned education through AI-powered tools such as OpenLearning.

The dialogue between the AUN Secretariat and OpenLearning opened yet another important area of collaboration and exploration for AUN and its Member Universities, this time focusing on education design and delivery through AI. In this regard, the AUN Secretariat is grateful for the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas with Mr. Brimo and explore the possible benefits of AI technology that could still be tapped to advance the learning experience for students across ASEAN.

To learn more about OpenLearning, please visit: https://www.openlearning.com/

For more coverage on AUS-AUN Engagement news:

• AUS-AUN Engagement: AUN Secretariat and Study NSW Updated on Past Progress and Explored Potentials Ahead
• AUS-AUN Engagement: Overview of the Network’s Past and Prospective Strategic Partnerships with Australia