Under the contract, OpenLearning has been commissioned by the Office of Best Practice Regulation in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to deliver a Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) MOOC that will train thousands of public servants and members of the public over the next four years.

Adam Brimo, CEO and co-founder of OpenLearning, said that through the RIA MOOC, the federal government will be able to deliver cost-effective, high quality training using OpenLearning’s platform.

The initiative will allow the government to roll-out the training program on a large scale while increasing transparency on government decision making for the public, community organisations and stakeholders.

Brimo said the government’s decision to announce a MOOC as an important training method cements the platform as a “truly disruptive technology, replacing in-person training for large scale, ongoing projects such as RIA training.

OpenLearning was selected as the preferred platform after a competitive tender process.

Brimo said the RIA is an objective process that involves problem solving, cost benefit analysis and public consultation that policy officers must undertake before proposing new regulations. The self-paced training course consists of 12 learning modules that will cater for everyone from beginners to experts in RIA within government and across the Asia-Pacific region.

“Our expertise in the design and delivery of MOOCs, as well as our previous experience in delivering training to the Government through our partnership with the Australian Institute of Sport is highly regarded,” Brimo said.

“The ability for OpenLearning’s platform to manage multiple languages is an essential attribute. We are delighted to be able to deliver this requirement to the Government and to be awarded this opportunity.”

 “Launching the first Australian Government MOOC is another significant milestone in the growth of OpenLearning after being selected as the national MOOC platform for Malaysian universities in September 2014.”

According to Brimo, OpenLearning currently has over 200,000 students from 27 universities around the globe using its social and collaborative online learning platform, with key customers including the University of New South Wales, the Australian Institute of Sport, the Ministry of Education in Malaysia and Taylor’s University (Malaysia).

The announcement of the contract win was made as part of the recent opening of OpenLearning’s new global headquarters in Sydney, which will serve as its global engineering hub and a base for the senior leadership team.