The UK-based online course platform FutureLearn last February announced a partnership with five important universities in the US: American University, Colorado State University, Penn State University, Purdue University and UVA Darden School of Business. Since its inception in October 2013, FutureLearn is quickly becoming a worldwide favourite, with 5 million registered users enrolled. Now FutureLearn has come up with even more higher-ed alternatives.

Open, online and massive courses

There are many places online where you can enrol in a massive open online course or an MOOC.

Five years ago the MOOC industry was just booming, but of course, there weren’t as many choices then as there is today. FutureLearn came into the landscape in 2013, as it joined the flock of leading online course providers offering free and paid online education: Coursera, edX, Khan Academy, Udacity, and much more. The FutureLearn team is situated at the British Library, near the King’s Cross, London.

Online postgraduate and graduate degrees

FutureLearn’s exceptional courses are emerging and standing out. From Beginning Robotics, Academic Integrity, introduction to Higgs Boson, to Moons, there are all sorts of courses on all sorts of topics and with certificates. Individual course offerings throughout the years began to be grouped into categories and then programs, which are bundled courses that students can take for free and for credit, for a fee.

Other online courses also have this option, where students can purchase the course for credit that they can transfer to their universities.

Five MOOCs degree subjects

After FutureLearn announced partnerships with five US-based universities, it is now offering the first five MOOCs degrees from Deakin University in Australia. The subjects currently being offered for Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate and Masters are Cyber Security, Development and Humanitarian Action, Diabetes Education, Professional Practice in Information Technology, and Information Technology.

To gain an international qualification, a student needs to complete all the programs and pass all the online assessments. Students can join a free two-week taster course and then pay £1,500 or $2,600 AUD for one that they can learn on the cloud.