Mike Feerick

Last updated

Mike Feerick
MGF - July 2013 (High Res).jpg
Mike Feerick
Born
New York, USA [1]
EducationMBA
Alma mater Harvard University [2]
University of Limerick
Occupations
  • Founder, CEO of Alison [3]
  • Founder, former CEO of Yac.com [4]
  • Chairman of Ireland Reaching Out Project [5]

Mike Feerick, an Irish social entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of Alison, an e-learning company based in Ireland.

Contents

He is an Ashoka fellow [6] [7]

Feerick is also the founder of Ireland Reaching Out , a "reverse" genealogy project based in Ireland that reconnects Irish diaspora with their ancestral roots in Ireland. [8] [9]

Career

Born in New York City, but raised in Limerick and Galway, Ireland, [10] Mike Feerick sought a Harvard MBA but first gained an internship with philanthropist and early mentor Chuck Feeney. Feerick credits Feeney with helping to foster his particular interest in social entrepreneurship, stating that working with Feeney also made him realise that the best way to address any social issue was to create a sustainable business model around the need. [11] [12]

Feerick has served as the Acting managing director of Interactive Investor International and has also held positions with Bertelsmann Music Group. He previously owned the franchise rights to JFAX Ireland which was sold to Esat Telecom in 1999, a leading Irish telecommunications player. [13] He is also the founder and former CEO of Yac.com, a web-based unified messaging telecoms provider. Feerick sold Yac to Nasdaq-listed J2 Global Communications in 2007. [12]

Feerick set up the precursor to Alison, an e-learning sub-contracting business for Microsoft called Advance Learning in 2000, [14] [10] a business that developed into a specialist providing training for the ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) desktop training certification. [15]

Alison

Feerick launched Alison as a for-profit social enterprise on 21 April 2007, a MOOC-based educational technology platform. [16] [17] [18] [19] In outlining the basis of Alison's operation, he explained to David Bornstein of the New York Times that 'education underpins all social progress. If we can improve the general education level worldwide, global poverty can be dealt with profoundly and a general standard of living can be vastly improved.' [20]

The Economist noted in 2013 that Alison generates 'plenty of revenue' on its website through the use of a freemium model with hosted banner advertising while still providing its learning materials of 'mostly vocational education' for free. [21]

Feerick said he was motivated by the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26, [10] [22] and suggested it as a model that can be used by governments worldwide to address the growing global Skills Gap. [23]

In February 2021, Alison was awarded the Civil Solidarity Prize by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for its free course "Coronavirus – What you need to know", which was published in February 2020 to inform people about the spread of the virus, its effects and how to protect themselves. [24] [25]

Awards

Alison received an Honourable Mention Award in information and communications technology at the UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize in Paris in 2010. [26]

In 2012, Feerick received an Arthur Guinness Fund award for Social Entrepreneurship for the work undertaken with organising the Irish diaspora through the Ireland Reaching Out programme he founded in 2009. [27]

Social and Community Initiatives

Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO)

Feerick founded Ireland Reaching Out, a volunteer-led, community-based National Irish Diaspora Programme in 2009 with the stated goal of connecting people of the Irish Diaspora to their ancestral roots in Ireland. [28] Feerick and Irish economist David McWilliams pitched the idea to the Irish government in 2010. Ireland Reaching Out welcomed its first returning group in July 2011. [29] In 2017, Ireland XO volunteers across Ireland welcomed home 300 returning Diaspora groups. [30] The Ireland XO Programme is funded by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Heritage Council of Ireland, Google and the Irish Lottery. Ireland XO operates across Ireland north and south. [31] [32]

University of Limerick

Feerick was the founding chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Kemmy Business School, at the University of Limerick, and is a Director Emeritus of the University of Limerick Foundation. [16] [33]

Irish Support & Advice Service

Feerick was appointed Chairperson of the Irish Support & Advice Service, [34] [10] Hammersmith, London in 1995. As Chairperson, Feerick founded an outreach programme, funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the Mott Foundation, assisting the "forgotten Irish", a term which refers to elderly Irish emigrants to the UK in the 1940s and 50's who subsequently met hard times. [35] [6]

Alternative Sentencing

Through Alison, Feerick has pioneered free learning as an innovative alternative sentencing option within the US court system where the judge does not wish to impose a custodial sentence. His view is that incarceration should be avoided if at all possible, especially for minor offences, and that free mandatory education should be a part of every court sentence worldwide. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40]

Personal views

Feerick believes that the current traditional education systems are "too slow, too expensive, and they can’t reach everyone", stating that people need a much more accessible education system. He believes that with the help of technology, it is possible to create a scalable and sustainable platform for free education for everyone. [41]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limerick</span> City in Ireland

Limerick is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 102,287 at the 2022 census, Limerick is the third-most populous urban area in the Republic of Ireland, and the fourth-most populous city on the island of Ireland. It was founded by Scandinavian settlers in 812, during the Viking Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Economic and Social Committee</span> Institution of the European Union

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body of the European Union (EU) established in 1958. It is an advisory assembly composed of representatives from employers' associations, workers' unions and civil society organisations. Its seat, which it shares with the Committee of the Regions, is the Jacques Delors building on Belliardstraat / Rue Belliard 99 in Brussels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Limerick</span> University in Ireland, founded as NIHE Limerick

University of Limerick (UL) is a public research university institution in Limerick, Ireland. Founded in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick, it became a university in September 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989. It was the first university established since Irish independence in 1922, followed by the establishment of Dublin City University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limerick Institute of Technology</span> Former higher educational institution

The Limerick Institute of Technology was an institute of technology, located in Limerick, Ireland. The institute had five campuses that were located in Limerick, Thurles, Clonmel, as well as a regional learning centre in Ennis. The main campus was located at Moylish Park in Limerick adjacent to Thomond Park and housed the Faculty of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology and the School of Business and Humanities. The School of Art & Design is located at the Clare Street and Clonmel campuses.

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech", it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology. In EdTech Inc.: Selling, Automating and Globalizing Higher Education in the Digital Age, Tanner Mirrlees and Shahid Alvi (2019) argue "EdTech is no exception to industry ownership and market rules" and "define the EdTech industries as all the privately owned companies currently involved in the financing, production and distribution of commercial hardware, software, cultural goods, services and platforms for the educational market with the goal of turning a profit. Many of these companies are US-based and rapidly expanding into educational markets across North America, and increasingly growing all over the world."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Idit Harel</span> Israeli-American entrepreneur

Idit R. Harel is an Israeli-American entrepreneur and CEO of Globaloria. She is researcher of learning sciences and of constructionist learning-based EdTech interventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open education</span> Educational movement

Open education is an educational movement founded on openness, with connections to other educational movements such as critical pedagogy, and with an educational stance which favours widening participation and inclusiveness in society. Open education broadens access to the learning and training traditionally offered through formal education systems and is typically offered through online and distance education. The qualifier "open" refers to the elimination of barriers that can preclude both opportunities and recognition for participation in institution-based learning. One aspect of openness or "opening up" education is the development and adoption of open educational resources in support of open educational practices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University Hospital Limerick</span> Irish hospital

University Hospital Limerick is a Level 4 hospital located in Dooradoyle, Limerick, Ireland. It is managed by UL Hospitals Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D2L</span> Global software company

D2L is a Canada-based global software company with offices in Australia, Brazil, Europe, Singapore, and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">XOJET Aviation LLC</span> Private airliner provider service

XO is a US-based private aviation company and subsidiary of Vista Global with its headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. XO, with a worldwide fleet access of more than 1,450 private aircraft, offers clients on-demand private jet charters with fixed-price membership programs as alternatives to jet cards and fractional ownership of aircraft. The company also offers the ability to purchase individual seats on pre-arranged, shared flights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massive open online course</span> Education service on the web

A massive open online course or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008, that emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012, a year called the "Year of the MOOC".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udemy</span> American online learning platform

Udemy, Inc. is an education technology company, founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. It is based in San Francisco, California, United States, with hubs in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; İstanbul, Turkey, and Gurgaon, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coursera</span> Online education technology company

Coursera Inc. is an American global massive open online course provider. It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects.

edX Online education provider

edX is a US for-profit online education platform owned by 2U since 2021. The platform's main focus is to manage a variety of offerings, including elite brand bootcamps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P2PU</span> Nonprofit online open learning community

Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is a nonprofit online open learning community which allows users to organize and participate in courses and study groups to learn about specific topics. Peer 2 Peer University was started in 2009 with funding from the Hewlett Foundation and the Shuttleworth Foundation, with its first of courses in September of that year. An example of the "edupunk" approach to education, P2PU charges no tuition and courses are not accredited. However, some courses in "The School of Webcraft" provide the opportunity for recognition of achievements through the Open Badges project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison (company)</span> Irish online education platform

ALISON is an Irish online education platform for higher education that provides certificate courses and accredited diploma courses. It was founded on 21 April 2007 in Galway, Ireland, by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick.

iversity Berlin-based online education platform

Iversity is a Berlin-based online education platform. Since October 2013, iversity has specialised in providing online courses and lectures in higher education, specifically MOOCs. Courses are free and open for anyone to enroll and participate. Many of them are conducted in English or German, but also in other languages. iversity cooperates with individual professors as well as different European universities. Some of the courses were winners of the MOOC Production Fellowship held in early 2013. iversity.org officially launched the MOOC platform online in October 2013 and as of February 2015 has a user base of 600,000 online learners, enrolled in 63 courses offered by 41 partner universities. iversity is the only MOOC platform offering courses with ECTS-integration. iversity has branch offices in Bernau bei Berlin, Germany and Berlin.

Language MOOCs are web-based online courses freely accessible for a limited period of time, created for those interested in developing their skills in a foreign language. As Sokolik (2014) states, enrolment is large, free and not restricted to students by age or geographic location. They have to follow the format of a course, i.e., include a syllabus and schedule and offer the guidance of one or several instructors. The MOOCs are not so new, since courses with such characteristics had been available online for quite a lot of time before Dave Cormier coined the term 'MOOC' in 2008. Furthermore, MOOCs are generally regarded as the natural evolution of OERs, which are freely accessible materials used in Education for teaching, learning and assessment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ireland Reaching Out</span> Non-profit organization headquartered in Galloway, Ireland

Ireland Reaching Out, also known as Ireland XO, is a non-profit, volunteer and community-based organization headquartered in Galway, Ireland. It was founded by Mike Feerick in 2009. The organization aims to build lasting links between the Irish diaspora and the civil parishes in Ireland. Currently, the organization has more than 100,000 members around the world with 32 volunteer networks across Ireland, including Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable Development Goal 4</span> 4th of 17 Sustainable Development Goals to achieve quality education for all

Sustainable Development Goal 4 is about quality education and is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in September 2015. The full title of SDG 4 is "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".

References

  1. ↑ Ní Chonchúir, Sharon (12 July 2011). "Bring Them All Back Home". Irish Central. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Glader, Paul. "Khan Academy Competitor? Mike Feerick of Alison.com Talks About The Future of Online Educations". Wired Academic. Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  3. ↑ Bornstein, David (11 July 2012). "Open Education for a Global Economy". New York Times. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  4. ↑ Grose, Thomas K. (28 September 2001). "Connect The Dots – YAC's personal online call service has got your number". TIME.
  5. ↑ Muldoon, Molly (26 June 2012). "Obama's Irish Cousin Henry Healy Lands New Job As Tourism Ambassador". Irish Central. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  6. 1 2 "Michael Feerick | Ashoka Globalizer". ashokaglobalizer.org. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  7. ↑ "Khan Academy Competitor? Mike Feerick of Alison.com Talks About The Future of Online Education | WiredAcademic". www.wiredacademic.com. Archived from the original on 31 May 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Nicholson, Chris V. (18 July 2011). "In Tough Times, Irish Call Their Diaspora". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "Reaching Out Can Raise Us Up". Eolas Magazine: Public Affairs. Eolas Magazine. 2 August 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Mike Feerick: A meaningful career on the Internet since 1991". IrishCentral.com. 24 March 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "He'd like to teach the world – for free". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  12. 1 2 McNamara, Denise (11 June 2013). "The Galwayman with the Midas touch - and a social conscience - Connacht Tribune". Connacht Tribune. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  13. ↑ "Mike Feerick Businessweek Executive Profile". Bloomberg Businessweek. Bloomberg. Retrieved 15 July 2013.[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ "Our main interest is to ensure education is available free to all". smartinvestor.business-standard.com. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  15. ↑ Gurden, Dean. "ALISON CEO Mike Feerick Q&A on digital education". CIO UK. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  16. ↑ Vorhauser-Smith, Sylvia. "The New Era Of Learning Is Here, And It's Not Hype". Forbes. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  17. ↑ "Crowdsourced accreditation to challenge traditional education". The Australian. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "Irish-based Global Learning Platform Announces Major Jobs Expansion in Galway - Enterprise Ireland". www.enterprise-ireland.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  19. ↑ Bornstein, David (11 July 2012). "Open Education for a Global Economy". Opinionator. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  20. ↑ "The attack of the MOOCs". The Economist. 20 July 2013. ISSN   0013-0613 . Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  21. ↑ "Five Bright Ideas - Alumni - Harvard Business School". www.alumni.hbs.edu. June 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  22. ↑ "ALISON CEO Says – Unleash Online Learning to Address Global Inequality". College Blog News. 6 April 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  23. ↑ "ALISON LEARNING PLATFORM WINS EESC CIVIL SOLIDARITY PRIZE FOR IRELAND". European Economic and Social Committee. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  24. ↑ "Alison wins EESC prize for Covid-19 information course". TechCentral.ie. 15 February 2021. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  25. ↑ "Projects in Ireland and the Philippines receive honourable mentions in ICT in Education prize | Education". www.unesco.org. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  26. ↑ Doyle, Carmel. "10 social entrepreneurs get €700K from Arthur Guinness Fund". Silicon Republic. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  27. ↑ Nicholson, Chris V. (18 July 2011). "In Tough Times, Irish Call Their Diaspora". New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  28. ↑ Nicholson, Chris V. (18 July 2011). "In Tough Times, Irish Call Their Diaspora". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  29. ↑ "Mike Feerick on LinkedIn: "Congrats to Ireland Reaching Out…". LinkedIn. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  30. ↑ "First ever parish liaison gathering meets in Athlone". Athlone Advertiser.
  31. ↑ RTE - Video Summary- Ireland Reaching Out (5 August 2015), Ireland Reaching Out July 2015 , retrieved 3 January 2018
  32. ↑ "Emeritus Directors - University of Limerick Foundation". University of Limerick Foundation. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  33. ↑ "Hammersmith's Local Community Web Site". www.hammersmithtoday.co.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  34. ↑ "Forgotten Irish men and women who built Britain to be honoured in London". Irish Post. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  35. ↑ "MOOC Time Instead of Jail Time | Education Dive". www.educationdive.com. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  36. ↑ "Class time instead of jail time". Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  37. ↑ "News - US Offenders Punished with Galway Course – The Sunday Times". MoocLab - Connecting People to Online Learning. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  38. ↑ High, Peter. "CEO Of The World's First MOOC Provides Hope To Former Prisoners Through Education". Forbes. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  39. ↑ Bhagat, Rasheeda (9 January 2014). "Just about anyone can study in this v@rsity". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  40. ↑ "Disrupting the Traditional Global Education System". Education Matters. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.