The University of Cape Town (UCT) has launched a series of online postgraduate programmes, which would bring together online education and face-to-face learning.

The initiative was a direct response to the rising demand for quality online education and was largely aimed at professionals who needed the flexibility to study further.

“It’s not merely putting materials on the Web. It is the most interactive online programme worldwide,” UCT Faculty of Commerce dean Professor Don Ross told a media briefing in Cape Town.

He said the programme would go beyond what was offered in a traditional lecture hall.

“Rich, real-time student communication with lecturers, tutors and one another during all stages of learning is now possible,” said Ross.

Each student would have a dedicated course coach, who would monitor their work and be available to help students set goals and reach their targets, noted online education company GetSmarter CEO Rob Paddock.

UCT’s Faculty of Commerce partnered with GetSmarter to offer three postgraduate diplomas online, in a blended learning mode, as part of its Across Africa initiative.

Blended learning combined the use of a flexible and cutting-edge interactive online education platform with face-to-face learning.

The UCT Postgraduate Diploma in Management in Marketing and the UCT Advanced Diploma in Business Project Management would start in February 2015. Applications for the courses have so far exceeded 145 for the postgraduate Marketing course and 111 for the Business Project Management diploma.

Blended learning programmes were seen as a critical way forward in education, given the huge demand for places of conventional learning at universities.

Ross said UCT was limited by its face-to-face intake, currently standing at 26 330 students this year.

“We have to turn down lots of qualified postgraduate students and this will help fill a very important gap.”

Online distance learning had been changing the face of education around the world, with some international universities making the move as early as two decades ago.

Last year, the South African government granted UCT the right to offer distance learning qualifications. The university has been running numerous short courses in partnership with GetSmarter since 2008.

In 2012, UCT ran two undergraduate courses as part of the Bachelor of Business Science degree.

The Faculty of Commerce said results in the first-year Evidence-Based Management course suggested that the virtual learning environment was intuitive and accessible enough to mitigate against the so-called “digital divide”, with students from disadvantaged school backgrounds performing as well or better than comparable cohorts in previous years.

UCT and GetSmarter were enrolling students across Africa, who would communicate online in discussion forums and participate in group projects. Video lectures, tests and practice quizzes would also form part of the courses.

The cost of the online postgraduate diplomas would be the same as those offered on campus.