Duncan at CAPDM

That's a very big number, and the impact on teaching and learning capacity is bound to be significant.

All of the CODE things thus far have been really good that way too, loads of people with interesting questions and answers! But yes, impossible to follow at the time. 😂

Incredible amount of chat! So good

*waves* at @dresdeb.bsky.social in the excellent CODE webinar on asynchronous learning that is happening right now. Part of a really great series of seminars/conversations from the Centre for Online and Distance Education at the University of London.

An alternative plan for UK HE: make more money - CAPDM UK universities are behaving as if their income is set by government. They actually have the resources and the opportunity to make serious money.

> It is by no means an easy answer, but it can be done, and the best time to start is right now.

www.capdm.com/2025/11/15/a...

> And yet again all the chat is about what levers govt is pulling - whether it's inflation-linked tuition fees or a proposed international student levy - and almost none of it is about how universities can make more money themselves by investing in the creation of online distance learning. >

OfS updated its analysis of the financial stability of HE institutions in England today. In May this year it forecast 64 of England's 276 institutions would report deficits in 2026-27. Today that figure is 114. That's 41% of all English universities predicted to have spending higher than revenues. >

An alternative plan for UK HE: make more money Why do our higher education institutions behave as if their income is set by government and out of their control? Why are spending cuts and department culls their only response to a tough economy? Uni...

Why do our higher education institutions behave as if their income is set by government and outwith their control? Why is their only response to a tough economy spending cuts? Universities can make money. They have the resources and the opportunity. #highered #ukhe #edtech #distancelearning

An alternative plan for UK HE: make more money.

Why do our higher education institutions behave as if their income is set by government and out of their control? Why is their only response to a tough economy spending cuts? Universities can make money. They have the resources and the opportunity.

Our wee company is 29 years old today! 29 years of building and supporting top quality programmes of distance learning for people like the University of London, Pearson, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors, Mac Keith Press and many, many more.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

LinkedIn is badgering me to write a post about AI. Okay then. Before I start let me clarify that I have not used an LLM to write any part of this post; not to start it off, not to polish its… | Dunca... LinkedIn is badgering me to write a post about AI. Okay then. Before I start let me clarify that I have not used an LLM to write any part of this post; not to start it off, not to polish its language...

LinkedIn has been pushing me - and presumably everyone else - to write a post about AI. So I did. Spoiler: it's a bit grumpy and if you're a fan of using an LLM to generate social media posts or make photos come to life you may not like it.

UK's first 'super-university' to be created as two merge from 2026 Universities are facing ongoing financial worries, with the regulator saying other mergers could follow.

One of the more obvious merger possibilities in #UKHE is now officially happening. The claim that this is not about saving money rings pretty hollow. One wonders whether the three campuses will all survive the next few years; Canterbury in particular looks like it could be a casualty. More to come.

It's not what #edtech suppliers typically do, but I thought it was worth marking the *end* of a long and fruitful relationship today. | Duncan Hothersall It's not what #edtech suppliers typically do, but I thought it was worth marking the *end* of a long and fruitful relationship today. CAPDM Limited and the University of the West of Scotland first sta...

I wrote a wee post today about the *end* of a contract. Not a typical thing to write about, but actually contracts end all the time and often that doesn't indicate success or failure so much as just the completion of something - in this case something hugely successful and profitable for both sides!

It's the boring stuff that delivers change - CAPDM OLS25 took place recently in Leeds. Our MD was there and, after an unexpected hiatus, shares his highlights here.

So, I went to Leeds for #OLS25, had a brilliant time, and then got... waylaid somewhat by life events! But I'm back now, and raring to go. My highlights: www.capdm.com/2025/08/15/i...

Likewise! Great chats. Thank you!

Fantastic #OLS2025 coverage from @dresdeb.bsky.social over the past two days. It's been a great conference and I've met some really interesting new people, as well as bumping into some old friends.

Heading down to @universityofleeds.bsky.social today to join #OLS25 starting tomorrow. I know @mdkorosec.bsky.social and the team have been working incredibly hard to put this together. Especially looking forward to @neilmosley.bsky.social, Phil Hill and Glenda Morgan's insights.

Scottish finances drop 92 per cent with nine institutions in red Increased staff and other operating costs blamed for ‘significant deterioration’, with spending on restructuring ballooning

Scottish universities recorded a surplus of more than £17 million in the past academic year, a 92 per cent reduction on the £211 million surplus recorded the year before. @twilliamsthe.bsky.social reports

#AcademicSky #EduSky

This is a *really* good set of tactics for reducing the impact of AI rot in teaching and learning.

The University of Leeds has become the first Russell Group university to officially announce that it is quitting Elon Musk’s social media site X.

It will, however, be alive and well on Bluesky.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Oh the joys of being ill right through the Christmas and New Year break and only feeling properly better the evening before you're back to work! Always seems to be the way... Anyway, happy new year everyone. Let's make 2025 a good year for online learning in higher education!

It would be good if conversations around widening access to #HigherEd in the UK included the genuinely game changing possibilities opened up by online and distance learning, as a new generation of school leavers is not troubled by online or mixed-mode learning. #LTHE #EdTech

I keep reading about "AI"-powered mind map generators, and while I kind of admire the technical achievement it really underlines the mismatch between this sort of #edtech and, you know, actual *learning*. It is in the individual's own creation of a mind map that learning happens. That's the point!

Quite the analogy here 🫢, but there's a parallel between how publishers have come to treat book authors and how #highered institutions have come to treat the authors of their critical #onlinelearning content. In both cases an ongoing relationship can be much more rewarding for both parties.

Indeed! (This post was an attempt at humour. Sorry!)

Draft Dubai Declaration on OER The 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress took place in Dubai last week. The previous two congresses, held in Paris in 2012, and Ljubljana in 2017, resulted in the Paris OER Declaration and the Ljubljana …

Over at the #OpenScot blog, @joecar80.bsky.social and I have been starting to think about the Draft Dubai Declaration on OER and whether it might prompt the education sector in Scotland to reconsider the benefits and affordances of #OER openscot.net/oer/draft-du...

As MD of a company which supplies services to universities I of course agree with this, but it's critical that universities themselves continue to own and run their core functions. In my experience too many unis focus on control of the inconsequential bits and relinquish it over their core business.

By the end of our conversation my contact was really keen to work with us but their bosses had already decided to buy the shiny new tool which promised point-and-click course authoring (with AI assistance, inevitably). I wonder what they will have built in 3 years. Maybe I'll be proved wrong. [5/5]

What struck me was what could have been achieved with £50,000 here, versus what is likely to happen. We've just completed a complex medical programme comprising 42 hours of study, and we charged less than £35,000. Content development was on top, of course, but it shows what can be achieved. [4/5]

It was a classic tools-first purchasing decision. I counselled against it, and in favour of spending the majority of the money on making the content as good as possible, then finding an LMS that met the needs of that content and those learning from it. But you win some you lose some. [3/5]