Online Courses OLD

The University of Leeds works in partnership with FutureLearn, designing courses for delivery on their secure platform.  The short film below is an introduction to the course development process, the way courses are structured, the functionality of the platform and other interactive features we use to engage learners.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) give people around the world the opportunity to sample some of the excellent education offered at Leeds, giving those unable to access a traditional university education the chance to learn from our world-leading academics.

The latest MOOCs from Leeds

Next month, we are looking forward to another run of our ‘Going to University collection’.  The collection is a series of online taster courses aimed at students preparing for university, but also suitable for other learners interested in the topics. 16 unique courses make up the collection, each running multiple times over the coming months. All of the courses are designed to enrich and extend knowledge in a specific topic and develop transferable skills. The courses will be of particular interest to students deciding which subject to study at university and can be used to provide evidence for UCAS applications. Each course lasts for two weeks and will require roughly two hours of student effort per week. The courses can be used as a wider classroom or enrichment resources or can be used independently by students to discover more about the subject area. There is also a teachers’ page with further information and resources.

The latest addition to these courses is ‘Physical Theatre: Exploring the Slap’ which introduces world-renowned Russian director Meyerhold’s technique of biomechanics.

Coming up in November, we have Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research, a four week course produced with the National Institute for Health Research.  The course is all about the process of discovery and how it is used to improve healthcare, looking  in detail at why and how we do research through cases studies covering topics such as how research is helping to find new ways of treating and providing care for some of the major diseases including cancer and dementia.

We’ll also have another run of Blended Learning Essentials: Embedding Practice, a free course for the vocational education and training sector to promote effective practice and pedagogy in blended learning. Produced in association with Ufi Charitable Trust, UCL Institute of Education and the Association for Learning Technology, the three week course is the second of two exploring the effective use of blended learning. It builds upon the content of the first part, covering issues such as learning from experience and tackling difficult challenges with the help of blended learning. The lead educators on the courses are Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies at UCL, Diana Laurillard, and Professor Neil Morris, the Director of Digital Learning at the University Leeds and Chair of Educational Technology, Innovation and Change in the School of Education.