The Course Design of FutureLearn’s “How to Create an Online Course”
- Steven P
- Mar 15, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 3, 2022
I finished my first course with FutureLearn yesterday and its quality surprised me, particularly given that it was free. I’m not sure why I expected less; the course was created by the University of Edinburgh. So, I reflected on the course design and see if could assess why I enjoyed it so much.
I’ve used Skillshare before and while the courses can be very good, they are solely video courses, sometimes with supplemental material and a discussion forum. Overall, the FutureLearn course seemed to have much more thought put into it.
I noted that a premium FutureLearn subscription gives you access to all the courses and digital certificates upon completing a course. While it seems expensive at €170/year, if the quality of the other courses are to this standard, it may be worth it. The subscription does not include the more advanced “ExpertTracks” and “Microcredentials” courses.
FutureLearn Course
There were four modules, each split into 8-12 units or pages. The timeframe for the course was two weeks, with two modules and three hours of study recommended per week.
I found the following aspects of FutureLearn particularly effective and/or enjoyable:
Each unit had a comment section which allowed other users to post their thoughts, insights and activity results. Some contributions were valuable.
Each module finished with a short quiz FOLLOWED BY a short podcast/interview with experts on the topic.
I found this to be a great way both to boost learning of “must-know” information and introduce new, “nice-to-know” thoughts on the topic.
Almost every unit had links for further reading or attached documents.
The attached documents were generally cheat-sheets, infographics or tables (rather than long research papers), and they either summarised the topic or were a tool for applying the concepts in the topic.
They were available to download and were also available for distribution on the creative commons (CC SA BY 4.0).
There was a 10-20 minute activity every few units, with the option to post your results in the comments section to gain feedback from other users.
Often, the course supplied many examples of completed activities.
The units were consistently formatted, but the presentation of the content varied.
One unit would be a video, the next would be a long text-based with lots of links and attachments, the next would be a short top tips section.
All videos were short and included both captions and a transcript attached as a pdf.
Podcast
I found the podcast for the third module particularly interesting, even exciting. Prior to starting this masters I was considering doing an MFA. However, a stable career was important to me and creating such a career from writing fiction requires a lot of skill and even more luck.
In that podcast, Richard Banks (former Head of Studio for FutureLearn’s in-house production team) talked about storytelling and how it can keep learners engaged. At FutureLearn, they mostly do this with case-studies, either real or fictional. I found this idea really exciting and felt like a way to use my love of fiction when I’m creating courses.
They also discussed accessibility in the podcast and he made two statements which I found useful and have paraphrased below.
Accessibiility is mandatory, non-negotiable, and is a legal requirement.
Not incorporating accessibility options is like building a house without doors and windows.
Overall, I found this FutureLearn course to be very beneficial, intend to do more courses and explore other MOOCs. In fact, I’ve signed up for the “Blended and Online Learning Design” course run by University College London. It’s intended to be a 3 week course. I will report back on its quality.
References
FutureLearn (2021) How to Create an Online Course, available: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/how-to-create-an-online-course [accessed 14 Mar 2022].
FutureLearn (2022) Blended and Online Learning Design, available: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/blended-and-online-learning-design [accessed 15 Mar 2022].
Comments