Image: Mathieu Plourde http://www.flickr.com/photos/mathplourde/8620174342/ CC:BY

So we are moving forward with the Newcastle MOOCventure swiftly. I had a nice email from a colleague at FutureLearn who said he liked our approach.

I’m not sure what that means, but for sure things are moving at a fast pace here. We had a good amount of interest internally when we asked for expressions of interest, and going down from 45 to 3 has been challenging. We still aren’t quite there yet, but have got our first title chosen, and will be starting work on designing and developing that one soon, with the others following soon after.

I am sure the process will be fascinating and I think we are in a privileged position in being able to take advantage of the increasing body of knowledge skills and experience across the UK HE sector, from those who have done it already, with FutureLearn, with other platform providers and independent adventures too.

I set up an internal mailing list so that we can communicate about both our own FutureLearn course development, and as a place to share related news from elsewhere, knowledge and expertise, and within an hour had 50 subscribers.

I’m under no illusion that my job over the next year is going to be a challenging one, but seeing how much interest there is in our institution is certainly helping with the early planning stages. And I am really valuing the discussions I am having with colleagues elsewhere.