FutureLearn, the UK’s leading MOOC platform, has signed an agreement with Pearson VUE, allowing users to take exams in secure testing facilities worldwide.
FutureLearn, which provides free online courses from universities and cultural institutions around the world, has opened the option to seven of its courses from six universities in the UK and one in Australia.
“For its learners it offers them the ability to gain additional recognition for courses”
Kathy Skelton, head of strategy and insight at FutureLearn, told The PIE News that offering physical exams was something that FutureLearn had been piloting soon after it launched, and approached Pearson due to its experience and reputation in secure testing.
“They have good coverage worldwide,” she said. “We looked at the procedures that they provide around identity checking and invigilation to satisfy ourselves that it was a testing experience that people could put their faith in.”
Users have the option of booking their exam which can then be taken at one of Pearson VUE’s 5,100 test centres in 180 countries.
FutureLearn, which currently has one million users from all over the world, is setting the standard price for test centre exams at £119, which may be varied in the future.
“For some learners who want to prove what they learned from the course in a more robust way, like an invigilated exam, this gives them something to go on to,” Skelton said.
Marco Scarola, global marketing communications leader at Pearson,added that the deal has benefits for both companies as well as for users.
“For its learners it offers them the ability to gain additional recognition for courses,” he told The PIE News.
“Particularly career-enhancing ones, in dedicated test facilities and so closer to home.”
Due to the security benefits of using these test centres, Skelton agreed it’s possible that more MOOC providers may also be thinking of new testing strategies.
“I think a lot of online course providers are interested in ways of assessing people and there’s lots of different routes they can go down,” she said.
“And it might be via physical test centres, or it might be via more robust online methods as they develop.”
