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You can offer an online or blended short course through UCL Extend or FutureLearn.
UCL Extend
UCL Extend is UCL's public-facing learning platform and provides access to short courses for a range of purposes, including CPD, public engagement, and widening access.
Its learning experience is based on Moodle alongside a range of other tools. It's integrated with a separate system that handles course bookings and payment processing.
New courses are set up using a standard template which follows the UCL Connected Learning Baseline.
UCL Extend courses can:
- be online or blended
- be free or cost a fee
- be accessed by UCL staff and students via single sign on, or any member of the public
- last any length of time
- use a wide range of pedagogies and teaching methods
- be advertised via the Short Course website or offered privately to defined groups of learners
- offer customisable course certificates.
Please note that learners who use UCL Extend do not become registered students of UCL and will not have access to other UCL systems. Credit-bearing short courses should not be run through UCL Extend.
FutureLearn
FutureLearn partners with universities and specialist organisations to offer fully online courses. It was originally created to deliver massive open online courses (MOOCs) but now includes different types of online short courses and degrees. Nevertheless, these courses typically attract large numbers of learners and are designed differently to academic courses for this reason.
UCL’s short, open online courses with FutureLearn are designed to provoke conversation, can be accessed from anywhere in the world, and work on any device. To date they have attracted more than 230,000 sign-ups globally and span topics such as dementia, urban planning, anthropology, and medicine.
FutureLearn courses:
- are online
- can be offered on an upgrade model (meaning they are free to study in the first instance but with a paid upgrade option) or on a premium model with an upfront fee
- are available to anyone, anywhere
- last approximately 2 to 5 weeks and are typically cohort based
- can be grouped together as ‘programs’
- use a social learning pedagogy
- are accessed via the FutureLearn website or made available to private groups of learners
- offer course certificates
- are subject to a revenue share agreement.
Choosing the right platform for your course
Choosing whether to use UCL Extend or FutureLearn depends on your aims for the course and who you hope will take part. It's recommended that you make contact with the Online Learning team to discuss your aims prior to making a decision and to discuss the recommended learning design and development process for each route.