Getting the most out of your learning

As this might be your first time studying with Coventry University, we’ve put together a few tips to help you get the most out of the experience.

Comments

FutureLearn is all about learning through conversation.

Instead of using separate forums or discussion boards, the platform encourages you to leave comments, share your thoughts and engage in conversation on individual steps as you work your way through the course.

You can also ‘like’, bookmark, filter and reply to comments – even follow your associate lecturers and fellow learners.

To see recent comments, simply select the activity icon at the top of a step. You can then filter this list to show only the comments of people you’re following or any that you’ve bookmarked.

To get the very best learning experience, take a look at these tips and tools for social learning. Don’t forget, while robust debate is encouraged, it’s important that you follow the FutureLearn code of conduct and are respectful of your fellow learners.

Capturing your thinking

A great way to get the most out of your course is to consistently capture your thinking. Exactly what you choose to record will be different for everyone, but it will probably include your notes, useful resources and reflections on your progress.

We call this collection a ‘learning log’. The aim is to allow you to regularly look back on what you’ve learned and articulate your thoughts and feelings about the experience. A learning log is informal and can be kept private. However, in the spirit of social learning, you’re encouraged to share as much of your work with your fellow learners as feels comfortable.

It’s up to you how you record your log entries but you might want to consider:

• Offline in a notebook
• Blogging and journaling tools, such as Blogger, Tumblr, Wix and WordPress
• Online note-taking tools and apps, such as Shrib, EverNote and Google Keep

If you’re a registered Coventry University student, you also have access to Microsoft OneNote as part of Office 365. You can find out more about this in your induction.

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Checking your progress

When you reach the end of a step and have understood everything, select the ‘mark as complete’ button. This will update your progress page and help you keep track of which steps you’ve completed. These completed steps will turn blue on your to-do list.

You can check your progress page by clicking the icon at the top of the step. This will show the percentage of course steps you’ve marked as complete.