Founded in December 2012 by The Open University, FutureLearn is a UK-based Massive Open Online Course provider. The purpose of the provider was to give the United Kingdom a place in the MOOC conversation, as the United States had previously dominated the field with its Coursera, edX, and Udacity websites.
Course Format:
Massive Open Online Courses on FutureLearn generally last between three to eight weeks and required a commitment of two to five hours per week. Courses occur on a set schedule, meaning that students take these courses with the instructor and their classmates. Students are also encouraged to engage in a conversation regarding the course materials on social media, using hashtags that reference the course to push the conversation forward.
Video lectures are the main medium used to disseminate information to users. Additionally, the course pages list requirements and prerequisites intended to help users determine if they’re capable of completing the class. Students who complete MOOCs on FutureLearn will be eligible for a certificate of completion.
Course Offerings:
FutureLearn’s interface does not sort course offerings by subject matter. Instead, the courses are listed by their status: New & Upcoming, In Progress, and Past. Below is a sampling of the courses available on FutureLearn:
- Innovation: The Key to Business Success
- Decision Making in a Complex and Uncertain World
- Developing Your Research Project
- Hardian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier
- Basic Science: Understanding Experiments
- Introduction to Journalism
- Shakespeare and His World
- Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis
- A Beginner’s Guide to Writing in English for University Study
- Discover Dentistry
- The Mind is Flat: The Shock Shallowness of Human Psychology
- World War 1: Paris 1919 – A New World Order?
- Begin Programming: Build Your First Mobile Game
- World War 1: Aviation Comes of Age
University Partners:
FutureLearn has joined with a large number of universities from the United Kingdom in order to offer Massive Open Online Courses on a variety of subjects. Below is a sampling of the United Kingdom universities providing MOOCs on FutureLearn:
- University of Bristol
- Cardiffy University
- University of Exeter
- University of Glasgow
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- King’s College London
- Newcastle University
- University of Sheffield
- University of Southampton
Additionally, FutureLearn has also partnered with the following universities from across the globe to provide course offerings to its users:
- New Zealand’s University of Auckland
- China’s Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- The Republic of Ireland’s Trinity College
- South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University and Yonsei University
- Norway’s University of Oslo
- Australia’s Monash University
- The Netherlands’ University of Groningen
- South Africa’s University of Cape Town
The website notably has not partnered with any schools from the United States
Non-University Partners:
In addition to the company’s wide range of university partners, FutureLearn has also joined with four non-university organizations to provide materials for its users:
- The British Museum
- The British Council
- The British Library
- The National Film and Television School