Future Learn: Free Online Courses

I am not sure if this may have been posted before, but in case not, I thought some may find it usefully diverting...and the more the merrier.

We offer a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. These are delivered one step at a time, and are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop, so you can fit learning around your life.

We believe learning should be an enjoyable, social experience, so our courses offer the opportunity to discuss what you’re learning with others as you go, helping you make fresh discoveries and form new ideas.

www.futurelearn.com...

I have just started, this week, a course run by the University of Liverpool called Ancient Superpowers and so far it is providing me with well structured fun. I start another course next week. Each course is about 3 hours a week, give or take, and they cover a wide diversity of subjects. I can't fit it in this time round, but they are starting a cyber security course next week that looks handy. The courses while extracted from taught postgraduate courses are largely designed for those without prior experience of studying those subjects at that level, or even at all. Very accessible, without being patronising and there is a really diverse range of views in the discussions (not quite as diverse as here admittedly but given my own recent experience of higher education, a lot less stuffy and uptight than fee paying students).

Recommended

I recently did a songwriting course with Future Learn via the University of Sheffield......really enjoyed it.

Nice to use the internet for learning for a change, i often wonder how many people waste such a huge educational oppurtunity online. Add up the hours we spend on sites that are unproductive, then imagine if we'd put that time into a course to further ourselves?

With the amount thats online for free, we should all be little Albert Einsteins

CX.

I learned how to read and translate hieroglyphs last night. How thrilled am I? Very! Really very, very.

originally posted by: CX
I recently did a songwriting course with Future Learn via the University of Sheffield......really enjoyed it.

Nice to use the internet for learning for a change, i often wonder how many people waste such a huge educational oppurtunity online. Add up the hours we spend on sites that are unproductive, then imagine if we'd put that time into a course to further ourselves?

With the amount thats online for free, we should all be little Albert Einsteins

CX.

I am starting a creative writing course next week aimed at developing characters, there is a screen writing course too that I might try at a later date.

Despite my traumatic experience as a fee paying student with the OU, they deserve mounds of credit for putting that money where their mouth is and making such high quality education readily available and accessible to all, even those as anti-social as I. In fact the only criteria for inclusion seems to be that you be over 13 and can speak English.

a reply to: Anaana

These are great, I just had a quick look through them. There's a few that I might sign up for and I'm going to pass the link on to my colleagues at work too. Free CPD can't be ignored!

Thanks Anaana.

originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: Anaana

These are great, I just had a quick look through them. There's a few that I might sign up for and I'm going to pass the link on to my colleagues at work too. Free CPD can't be ignored!

Always happy to share

a reply to: Anaana

This is so much more positive than some other ways of spending time online.

I found this, "how to find sustainably made fabrics and ethical manufacturers" on the sustainable fashion page. The problem with that is there are huge frauds going on in the sustainable textiles world. Unfortunately the teachers will have been fooled by some of these frauds. There will be pressure to conform to the commercially tainted claims of what is sustainable.

What I'm saying is some of the stuff taught will be wrong.

Perhaps having the information free and easily accessible will encourage people to question the accuracy, while paying for education is more likely to produce graduates who want to believe all of it, because they paid for it.

Looks really interesting - I signed up for a few.
I find a couple a bit curious - like the one about virtuous character building...? The subject of how to be virtuous seems sort of non-academic, and more religious, as conceptions about virtue vary. Hm.

originally posted by: Kester
a reply to: Anaana

This is so much more positive than some other ways of spending time online.

I found this, "how to find sustainably made fabrics and ethical manufacturers" on the sustainable fashion page. The problem with that is there are huge frauds going on in the sustainable textiles world. Unfortunately the teachers will have been fooled by some of these frauds. There will be pressure to conform to the commercially tainted claims of what is sustainable.

What I like about the format in this respect is that the comments sections enables you to co-educate, to work together and expand the learning experience...not unlike we do here. You take out but you ensure that you put just as much in. Tell them how it is, your experience and knowledge are valuable, you need to share that and allow others to take up the mantel charged with that new awareness. The course leaders and designers are confined by their understanding and learning, just as we all are, in a way the Future Learn initiative helps to address this balance recognising that lifelong learning is not only a way of living but also a resource that can be drawn upon.

originally posted by: Kester
What I'm saying is some of the stuff taught will be wrong.

"Facts" are changeable and subject to the information available at the time, that is why learning is always on-going and developmentally changing.

originally posted by: Kester
Perhaps having the information free and easily accessible will encourage people to question the accuracy, while paying for education is more likely to produce graduates who want to believe all of it, because they paid for it.

A paid for course has to conform to certain standards of delivery and participation. It is a formula towards a set learning outcome, and where fees are concerned, there is a requirement to provide a standardised value for money product at the end. You get what you pay for basically. To qualify you have to conform to the set criteria, you cannot deviate from that course and innovate, not until you get to PhD standard anyway. I have difficulty with rules, going through all that, particularly the conformity, is very draining and difficult for me...and it has left me questioning whether that is really what I want to do and whether it will benefit me in the long run. The course I took though was fantastic, but I am still learning and developing those ideas learnt several months after passing that course, so I am not ready to take on any additional formal learning just yet. These free courses are enabling me to explore and get a taste for other subjects without getting into debt so that I can be sure that the next step I make is a firm one.

a reply to: Anaana

This sounds good. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

a reply to: Kester

My pleasure

“Perhaps having the information free and easily accessible will encourage people to question the accuracy, while paying for education is more likely to produce graduates who want to believe all of it, because they paid for it.” I totally agree with you Kester. I think students who are running out of time should have professional dissertation writers to help them in dissertation tasks.

originally posted by: reneebetrand
“Perhaps having the information free and easily accessible will encourage people to question the accuracy, while paying for education is more likely to produce graduates who want to believe all of it, because they paid for it.” I totally agree with you Kester. I think students who are running out of time should have professional dissertation writers to help them in dissertation tasks.

But surely, if they are not up to meeting the deadlines and tasks, they should not be studying at that level. I know standards, in terms of development of writing skills, have fallen in the UK considerably since the widespread use of computers, but those skills, as a consequence are now mandatory elements of undergraduate degree programs. Isn't getting someone else to do your dissertation cheating (mainly yourself)? Or perhaps I am misunderstanding the service you are touting?

Oh my gosh! Thank you do much for sharing this!

originally posted by: spartanwarrior
Oh my gosh! Thank you do much for sharing this!

Always happy to oblige.