FutureLearn

FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012. It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England.^[1][2] It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of May 2016 included 83 UK and international partners^[3] and—unlike similar platforms—includes non-university partners including: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library, ESA, the BMJ and the National Film and Television School.^[4]

History

FutureLearn was launched with 12 university partners, seeking those who "consistently rank at the top end of the…league tables".^[5] The 12 founding partners are: The Open University, University of Birmingham, University of Bristol, Cardiff University, University of East Anglia, University of Exeter, King's College London, Lancaster University, University of Leeds, University of Southampton, St Andrews University, and University of Warwick.^[6]

The launch was described as a move to 'fight back' and provide a space for UK institutions to engage in the MOOC space.^[7] FutureLearn's CEO, Simon Nelson, previously worked at the BBC.^[4]

Prior to the launch of FutureLearn few British universities had run online courses. Two (the University of Edinburgh and the University of London) had previously signed up to offer such courses through Coursera,^[8][9] while The Open University had been publishing a variety of online courses through its OpenLearn platform since 2006, although these were designed for self-directed study rather than cohort learning.^[10]

Partners

The following UK universities are partnered with FutureLearn (in alphabetical order):^[3]

• University of Aberdeen
• University of Bath
• University of Birmingham (founding partner)
• University of Bristol (founding partner)
• Cardiff University (founding partner)
• University College London
• University of Dundee
• Durham University
• University of East Anglia (founding partner)
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Exeter (founding partner)
• University of Glasgow
• King's College London (founding partner)
• Lancaster University (founding partner)
• University of Leeds (founding partner)
• University of Leicester
• University of Liverpool
• London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• Loughborough University
• University of Manchester
• Newcastle University
• University of Nottingham
• Queen’s University Belfast
• The Open University (founding partner)
• University of Reading
• Royal Holloway, University of London
• University of Sheffield
• University of Southampton (founding partner)
• St Andrews University (founding partner)
• University of Strathclyde
• University of Warwick (founding partner)
• University of York

Non-UK university partners include:^[3]

• University of Auckland, New Zealand
• University of Basel, Switzerland
• University of Bergen, Norway
• University of Cape Town, South Africa
• Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
• Fudan University, China
• University of Groningen, Netherlands
• Hanyang University
• Keio University, Japan
• University of Los Andes, Colombia
• Monash University, Australia^[11]
• University of Oslo, Norway
• Université Paris Diderot, France
• Pompeu Fabra University, Spain
• Queensland University of Technology
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
• University of New South Wales, Australia
• Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea
• Tel Aviv University, Israel
• University of Twente, Netherlands
• Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland^[11]
• Uppsala University
• University of Wollongong Australia
• Yonsei University, South Korea
• UNSW Australia, Australia
• University College Dublin, Ireland
• RMIT University, Australia

In addition, the National Film and Television School will offer courses in the future and some non-university partners will make content available via FutureLearn: the British Museum, the British Council and the British Library.^[3][4][12]

Courses

FutureLearn's courses span a broad range of topics. The first course opened on 14 October 2013.^[13] The first courses to be made available included "Web science: how the web is changing the world" (University of Southampton), "Introduction to ecosystems" (The Open University), "Improving your image: dental photography in practice" (University of Birmingham), "Causes of war" (King's College London), "The discovery of the Higgs boson" (University of Edinburgh), "Discover dentistry" (University of Sheffield), "Muslims in Britain: changes and challenges" (Cardiff University), "Begin programming: build your first mobile game" (University of Reading) and "England in the time of King Richard III" (University of Leicester). The first course to launch was "The secret power of brands", conducted by professor Robert Jones of the University of East Anglia.

References

External links

• Official website