Universities Australia Conference 2020 – “Education Changing Lives”
Author: David Granzow, Director ANZ Partnerships at FutureLearnThe annual Universities Australia Conference was held in late February in Canberra at the National Convention Centre with attendees from the higher education and government sectors including senior representatives. The overarching 2020 theme of the conference was “Education Changes Lives” with a focus on how education is a…
Course Spotlight: Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is a global health issue that can take many forms and affect anyone. Health and social care professionals play an important role in recognising and helping victims of violent and abusive relationships. Aiming to improve knowledge of gender-based violence and the forms of domestic abuse, The University of Sheffield produced the course Supporting…
FutureLearn’s 2019: Year in Review
In 2019, FutureLearn received £50M ($65M) in funding and launched Unlimited, an annual subscription for its entire catalog. The total number of learners on FutureLearn’s platform grew to over 10 million, up from 8.7 million in 2018. On average, each learner has enrolled in 2.5 courses. 35 million comments have been posted on FutureLearn since…
FutureLearn Signs Up Ten Million Learners
In December 2012, eleven British universities joined with the Open University to launch a British-based MOOC provider: FutureLearn. The first courses, from 23 founding universities, appeared in October 2013. My first FutureLearn course was Start Writing Fiction in late 2014, when FutureLearn had fewer than 700,000 learners. The one million learners milestone was reached in…
University of Glasgow Set to Launch Online Master’s in End of Life Studies on...
University of Glasgow — Dumfries Rural Campus The University of Glasgow has announced that it will be launching an online master’s degree in end of life studies on FutureLearn, the leading European MOOC platform. The degree is currently in development and is set to receive its first student cohort in September 2020. A three-week taster…
University of Michigan Now Has MOOCs on Three Major Platforms
FutureLearn and the University of Michigan (U-M) have recently announced a partnership with three MOOCs to start on October 14 and more to come in the future. This means that U-M now has courses on three large MOOC providers: Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn. U-M already has a range of courses on Coursera and edX. The…
European MOOC Platforms Plan New Generation of Microcredentials
Europe’s main MOOC providers have partnered to create new microcredentials that will allow learners to earn academic credit while gaining in-demand skills. The initiative, called Common Microcredentials Framework, is spearheaded by the European MOOC Consortium, which comprises Europe’s largest MOOC providers: FutureLearn, which is based in the UK and has 9 million learners. Miriada X,…
Coursera and FutureLearn Raise Big Rounds from the Same Investor
Last week, Coursera announced their Series E round of $103M, led by Australia’s SEEK group. And this week FutureLearn announced that they raised £50M ($65M) from the same investor. In the case of FutureLearn, SEEK was the sole investor and took a 50% stake in the company. SEEK group is Australia’s number 1 job matching…
FutureLearn’s Unlimited: One Price for the Entire Catalog
FutureLearn, the UK-based MOOC provider, just launched a new plan that lets learners pay a single price to access most of FutureLearn’s catalog. Unlimited costs $269 and gives users access to the catalog for a single year and does not automatically roll over. For now Unlimited is available for a discounted rate of $199 (until May 11, 2019).…
What Kind Of Online Learner Are You?
The MOOC platform FutureLearn recently published a series of articles exploring who its learners are. Based on a survey of 7,000 learners, FutureLearn’s User Experience Researcher Tracey Walker identified seven archetypes, corresponding to seven patterns of behavior among users of FutureLearn. Walker grouped these archetypes into three types: Work and Study, Personal Life, and Leisure.…
