Prime Minister’s department to set up its own MOOC

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is looking to set up its own massive open online course (MOOC) to train Australian public servants and potentially those from other jurisdictions how to calculate the financial impact of new regulation.

Since assuming power in 2013, the Abbott government has set itself an annual target of $1 billion in savings through scrapping red tape. The PM&C has formulated a regulation burden measurement (RBM) framework to calculate these red tape dividends.

Taking its cues from the international tertiary sector, the department now wants to expand and improve the public service’s understanding of how to conduct these calculations through a readily accessible MOOC.

The department envisions running the course for between three and five years, and making it available to anyone interested in knowing more about calculating the financial impact of government policy, including members of the business community and university students. However it does concede that some content may need to be restricted to the Australian Public Service.

The MOOC will be flexible enough to take on any number of new users without incurring additional costs, and accessible to participants at any time and from any device, according to the department.

The online training is set to cover cost estimation methodology, cost-benefit analysis and regulatory economics courses, plus optional modules.

PM&C has suggested the online course will initially focus on the Australian RIA (regulatory impact analysis) model, but will be capable of taking in modules on state, territory, and international approaches in the future.

“The overall aim is for a public service that has higher analytical capability that in turn would provide decision makers with better information on which to make decisions.

-  PM&C tender documents

The Government is currently looking for someone to design the course with collaborative peer review and testing processes built to each module, alongside video and interactive content.

The MOOC is due to be ready for use by the middle of next year.