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How to use online courses in your teaching

 

Take advantage of these easy to use online courses, with video, discussion and small tasks built-in. You can use our pre-set lesson plans and schemes of work to use resources from the courses in your classroom teaching.
Your students can also work through the online resources remotely. This could be as a class-wide activity, or as work for an individual. Each course has a range of tasks that students can complete, to consolidate their learning and send to you to evidence. You can also download all the instructions you and your students need.

Step 1: Browse our courses collection to select a course

Selecting your course

We have a wide range of short online courses available that take four hours in total, on interesting cross-curricular topics including science, business and dance. You could start with the courses to help your students learn productively and safely online.

FutureLearn is free to access with a valid email address. Your students can register and access any of the courses available. If you send them links to the courses you want them to complete, they will have access for up to four weeks. See the How to use FutureLearn guide for more information.

Step 2: Select whether you need resources for teaching in a classroom or remotely

Teaching in a classroom

Use a lesson plan

If you need a stand-alone lesson that you can complete with a class, each of our courses has a lesson plan explaining the activities and what you need, including which sections of the course you need to use.

Use a scheme of work

You can use our schemes of work to deliver three connected lessons on a topic, with details of the activities and everything you need.

Teaching remotely

Set an individual assessment task

Within each course, there are several tasks and activities. Although the FutureLearn platform does not have the functionality for teachers to monitor students’ progress through the course, you can set students deadlines to complete certain tasks. They can undertake these tasks offline and send you their completed work for assessment.

Each of these courses has a selection of final tasks for you to choose from – you can select the option that’s right for your students and needs. Your students can write a reflective summary, take a short test, or complete an individual project. These tasks are available on our website.

Set a group work task or a live discussion session

If you have live online sessions with students, you can also use the suggested discussion topics for each course to structure your session, whether that’s with video or text chat.

If your students have the resources to take part in group work remotely, many of the activities from the courses can be adapted. Websites such as Padlet are available for students to take part in asynchronous discussions, sharing work and commenting on each other’s posts.

If you have the option to conduct webinars with your students, this could provide an opportunity for students to present and discuss their work synchronously. They can discuss their learning from the online course with other students in real-time. This option could also give you the opportunity to answer questions or explore a topic in more details.

Get started now

Explore the online courses to find the one right for your students. In this online catalogue, you can find out about each course and watch a trailer. Once you have found a suitable course, follow the link in the course information to access the support resources.

Alternatively, if you are already familiar with the courses, you can go directly to the Teacher resources page. 

If you have any questions, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.