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…
35+ Legit Master’s Degrees You Can Now Earn Completely Online
Starting several years ago, massive open online course (MOOC) providers began releasing online degree programs, in partnership with universities. This trend started out slowly, but has been gaining momentum. The first MOOC-based degree, the Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) from Georgia Tech and Udacity, was announced back in 2013. It took two…
Who are our Learners? Part 1: What we did and why
A research-based insight into FutureLearners. Part 1: What we did and why. By Tracey Walker, User Experience Researcher at FutureLearn After 4 years, thousands of courses, and millions of learners, it seemed a good time to investigate who our learners really are and get to know them better. At the beginning, we assumed that…
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,…
Educator spotlight: Challenging borders of entrepreneurship and collaboration
From the start of the Demystifying Entrepreneurship course — part of an appropriately innovative degree venture — the cross-national team of educators from Deakin and Coventry Universities challenge learners, encouraging them to reconsider their assumptions about entrepreneurship and what it means to be an entrepreneur. With the city of Coventry in the background of the…
Who are our Learners? Part 4: The ‘Leisure’ archetypes
A research-based insight into FutureLearners. Part 4: The ‘Leisure’ archetypes. By Tracey Walker, User Experience Researcher at FutureLearn In part one, Tracey explained how the research and data team at FutureLearn set out to understand more about our learners. You can read more about this in Part 1: what we did and why. In part…
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).…
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…
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.…
How the University of York is using FutureLearn to support students and staff
Author: Iain Barr, Head of Lifelong Learning/E-learning and MOOC developer at University of YorkThe University of York combines the pursuit of academic excellence with a culture of inclusion, which encourages everyone – from a variety of backgrounds – to achieve their full potential. Since 2017, York has worked in partnership with FutureLearn to help further…
