From the poems of Robert Burns to the laws of thermodynamics: 9 brand new courses announced
Nine new free online courses are now live on FutureLearn and ready for you to join, while many previous courses are preparing to run again. Here’s our quick guide to them all.
Robert Burns: Poems, Songs and Legacy
You can celebrate Burns Night 2016 online, and dig deeper into the life and works of Robert Burns, with this University of Glasgow course.
Over three weeks, you’ll explore the poems, songs and legacy of the great Scottish poet, finding out how an 18th-century farm labourer became a global icon.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 25 January.
Commercial Photography: Still and Moving Image
This six-week course – the first on FutureLearn from Norwich University of the Arts – is designed for current or aspiring commercial photographers.
It will help you develop your visual sensibility in support of a successful and sustainable practice; and get to grips with new media and moving image photography.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 11 January.
Teaching Literacy Through Film
This four-week course, from the British Film Institute (BFI) and Into Film, will help you use film to teach literacy.
You’ll discover how film can be used to develop a range of abilities – decoding, inference and analytical – as well as expanding creativity and improving vocabulary.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 25 January.
Music Moves: Why Does Music Make You Move?
Music is movement. A bold statement, but one that you can explore with the University of Oslo in this six-week course.
You’ll learn about the theoretical foundations for what we call embodied music cognition and why body movement is crucial for how we experience the emotional moods in music.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 1 February.
Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime
You can delve into the seedy underbelly of the art world, looking at smuggling, theft, fakes and fraud, with this three-week course.
You’ll find out how and why art is stolen, trafficked, found and returned, guided by researchers from the University of Glasgow’s Trafficking Culture Project.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 1 February.
Blended Learning Essentials: Embedding Practice
This is the second part of a University of Leeds course, which is designed to help the Vocational Education and Training sector promote effective use of blended learning.
In three weeks, it covers issues such as learning from experience and tackling difficult challenges with the help of blended learning.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 1 February.
Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing
You can learn how poems, plays and novels can help us understand and cope with deep emotional strain in this University of Warwick course.
Over six weeks, you’ll explore how six themes – stress, heartbreak, bereavement, trauma, depression and ageing – are tackled in literature.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 1 February.
Making Sense of Data in the Media
Learn how to make sense of social statistics and economic data with this introduction to quantitative social science from The University of Sheffield.
Over four weeks, you’ll look at ways to cut through the data you see in the news, to decide what numbers reveal, and when and why they mislead.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 8 February.
Energy: Thermodynamics in Everyday Life
This five-week course from the University of Liverpool will help you understand the laws of thermodynamics – and how they govern how we use and lose energy everyday.
You’ll explore some of the challenges associated with energy supply and consumption, and perform simple experiments to develop your appreciation of thermodynamics.
Find out more and join the course now – it starts 1 February.
Returning courses
Many previous courses will also be returning to FutureLearn in the coming months:
Starting November
Starting January
- Get Started with Online Learning
- Introduction to Cyber Security
- The Science of Nutrition
- Smart Cities
- Start Writing Fiction
- Africa: Sustainable Development For All?
- Football: More than a Game
- Preparing For University
Starting February
