New digital design programme caters to growing international student market

Press release, 9 May 2013, Yoobee School of Design, Auckland, New Zealand: Yoobee School of Design has launched a new Online Learning programme to complement its classroom offerings and increase engagement with international markets. 

Registration is now open for four short courses that will kick off in June: Photoshop, 3D Character Animation, Adobe Illustrator, XHTML & CSS. A further eight courses will come online before the end of the year.

The global popularity of online learning is significant. For instance, 90%of the UK Open University’s 263,000 students are based outside of the UK, and it is projected that over 80% of US tertiary education students will be completing some of their courses online by next year.

“Online Learning will open up Yoobee’s first-class digital design courses to the world – well beyond our campuses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch,” says Ruth Cooper, General Manager, Education at Yoobee. “We are catering to a new generation of students who come with their own ‘digital backpack’; they already have the technology to successfully complete an online course, whether they live in Gisborne or Invercargill, Seoul or Jakarta.

“We also see opportunities for a blended online/on-campus model to broaden our appeal. For example, international students who are interested in traveling to New Zealand to study but can’t afford two years of independent living expenses will soon be able to complete the first year online in their home country and spend the second year on campus. It’s all about enabling flexibility.”

Yoobee has hired a team of three specialist educators to design and develop the online learning programme. The ‘virtual classroom’ cloud-based delivery platform is built on a combination of Moodle Joule, Kaltura and Adobe Connect and will enable high tutor-to-student ratios.

“We have designed the programme for an anytime, anywhere, any device world, but it’s not about the technology,” says Sue Deucher, Yoobee’s Manager of Online Learning. “We’re focused on ensuring the learning experience is authentic, engaging and interactive, with a mix of options so students can choose the way that they learn best – whether that’s attending live interactive sessions with a tutor or viewing the recording later. They can even collaborate through a Facebook-style social space. It’s so much more than just a video library.”

Yoobee currently has 123 international students enrolled across its three campuses. The new programme was announced today at Yoobee’s Auckland campus grand opening event.