Online Microcredential in Teaching

Online Teaching: Evaluating and Improving Courses

Develop the skills you need to evaluate the success of your online teaching and enhance your students’ remote learning experience.

Created by

The Open UniversityThe Open University

Learn more

Design and use teaching evaluation strategies to improve your online teaching

This 12-week microcredential will equip you with the skills you need to evaluate and improve your online courses.

Designed for individual educators and trainers as well as learning institutions, this microcredential will support you to ensure the ongoing success of your online courses and technology-enhanced learning (TEL) provision, whatever your sector.

Harness the power of technology-enhanced learning (TEL)

Whilst the use of technology for teaching and learning isn’t new, the COVID-19 pandemic saw organisations and individuals move courses and teaching online at unprecedented speed. For some, implementation has been so quick that it’s not evidence informed.

As the world has adapted and become accustomed to accessing services online, technology-enhanced learning and online teaching skills are more in-demand than ever before.

This course will support you to create an ethical course evaluation framework, analyse cause and effect relationships in your findings, share appropriate insights with stakeholders, and ultimately improve the impact of your online courses.

Evaluate the effectiveness of your online teaching

By determining the most effective ways of making online learning and assessment work for your students and making remote teaching work for you, you can minimise the long-term consequences of COVID-19 on student learning.

This microcredential will help you to pinpoint the factors limiting and enhancing your courses and teaching, and enable you to use these insights to build upon and enhance your online teaching provision.

You’ll be encouraged to apply the knowledge and skills you develop to your own setting and to draw on peers’ experiences as part of your learning journey.

Complete online course evaluations and create teaching evaluation plans

Developed by leading online and distance education experts from The Open University, you’ll learn how to identify what is and isn’t working and why using best-practice educational evaluation techniques.

You’ll learn how to create an ethical evaluation strategy that’s appropriate to your context and setting, and conduct analysis of your evaluation findings that you can apply to adapt your online course design.

Are online teaching evaluation skills in-demand?

The global online learning market is projected to be worth $325 Billion by 2025. Moves towards blended learning coupled with COVID-19 social distancing measures driving teaching online, mean that studying online is not only becoming commonplace but also being integrated into traditional teaching methods.

As such, the ability to determine the effectiveness of online courses and teaching practices is a new but essential skill for educators.

Do I need experience teaching online?

To get the most from this course, you should have experience in adult learning settings, though not necessarily in teaching online. If you have recently moved your teaching online or are considering it, this microcredential will enable you to upskill in this area.

Throughout the course you’ll take part in weekly activities to support and consolidate your learning. At the end of the course, you’ll submit an assessment which is marked and graded by subject matter experts.

This course is part of a suite of Online Teaching microcredentials from The Open University: Creating Courses for Adult Learners; Embedding Social, Race, and Gender-Related Equity; Accessibility and Inclusive Learning; and Teacher Development: Embedding Mental Health in the Curriculum.

Academic credits from this course can contribute to The Open University’s Masters in Online Teaching.

What skills will you learn?

  • Designing course evaluation strategies
  • Using an evaluation framework
  • Teaching online
  • Online course evaluation design
  • Technology-enhanced learning
  • Learning design
  • Evaluation findings analysis
  • Stakeholder management
  • Managing ethical considerations
  • Teaching evaluation approaches
  • Selecting data collection methods

What you will achieve

By the end of the microcredential, you’ll be able to...

  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the reasons for evaluating teaching
  • Draw on key theories to identify and assess a range of evaluation approaches and frameworks and their appropriateness for specific settings
  • Design evaluation strategies that are suitable for your technology-enhanced learning (TEL), and which meet the needs of diverse stakeholders
  • Show understanding of the ethical considerations involved in educational evaluation and how they can be managed
  • Share knowledge of how evaluation findings can be disseminated to meet diverse stakeholders’ needs

Are you eligible for this microcredential?

To study for this postgraduate microcredential, you will ideally have:

  • A Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent level qualification
  • Experience working in education
  • A strong interest in teaching and learning

The course material does not assume that learners are currently working. Past experiences will be just as relevant.

If you do not have a degree or equivalent level qualification you may find the postgraduate level assessment challenging.

Is this microcredential right for you?

This microcredential would benefit anyone currently working in, or looking to work in: universities, colleges and further education, adult education, and workplace learning and development settings. It will enhance the employability of roles including:

  • Teachers
  • Trainers
  • Lecturers
  • Learning designers
  • Education technologists and specialists
  • Heads of departments
  • Institution leaders and managers

The course has a global focus and delivers transferable skills for diverse sectors and organisations.

Syllabus

What happens before, during, and after your microcredential

  • Before learning

    You’ll have access to our online welcome area where you’ll be able to read any information relating to your microcredential.

  • Course

    From 14 Oct 2024

    Online Teaching: Evaluating and Improving Courses

    Learn how to improve your online teaching and course provision and create online teaching evaluation frameworks.

    12 weeks

    13 hours per week

  • After learning

    Your submitted assessment will be marked and graded by subject matter experts.

What you will receive

15 UK Credits at Postgraduate level from The Open University and a Certificate

Academic credits are awarded on passing the final assessment. These will be at postgraduate level 7 of the Framework for Higher Education (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) / level 11 of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.

Find out how credits work and where you can use them in our FAQs.

What is a microcredential?

Microcredentials are designed to upskill you for work in rapidly-growing industries, without the time and cost commitment of a full degree. Your microcredential can stand alone as an independent credential, and some also offer academic credit to use towards a degree.

Learn online with expert instructors

Complete online courses led by experts over multiple weeks with a dedicated group of professionals.

Complete project-based assessments

Test your understanding with online tutor-marked assessments and exercises.

Earn a professional credential

Finish your learning and pass your assessments to gain an accredited credential.

Advance further in your career

Use your microcredential as evidence of your specialised skills and progress further in your industry.

Career-focused learning by The Open University

As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.

  • Established

    1969
  • Location

    Milton Keynes, UK
  • World ranking

    Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020

Delivered by experts

Dr Leigh-Anne Perryman leads The Open University's Masters in Online Teaching programme. Her research explores the relationship between equity, social justice, online teaching and open pedagogies.

I'm a professor at The Open University, focused on educational futures, learning analytics, MOOCs, innovating pedagogy & online social learning.

I am Professor of Educational Technology at the OU. My interests are in digital scholarship, open education, OER and MOOCs.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

What are our learners saying?

Add a new skill or forge a new path

"I recommend Futurelearn to anyone looking to learn and upskill...If you are in the job market, you might want to add a new skill or forge a new path."

They bring the classroom right to you

"FutureLearn courses are always interesting and informative. They bring the classroom right to you and send you on a journey to explore new ideas and offer interesting topics."

When would you like to start?

Enrolment for this microcredential is closed. We aim to run our microcredentials every few months. Register to find out more about this microcredential and future start dates.

    Find out more

    Not sure if microcredentials are right for you? Fill in your details below and we will send you more information to help you make a decision.

    By clicking submit, I agree to FutureLearn's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

    FAQ

    We can accept payments made by card (Visa, Mastercard and American Express) or PayPal via our online system.

    You will have 14 days from the day the course starts to apply for a refund. If this Microcredential has any non-refundable costs they will be stated in the ‘Overview’ section above. You can find more information in our cancellation and refund policy.

    Microcredentials are designed to fit around your life and timezone.

    There may be live events as part of your studies, but these will be recorded and can be watched afterwards if you aren’t online for the live broadcast.

    No, microcredentials are designed to be taken anywhere in the world. You won’t need the right to study in the country where the university offering the microcredential is based.

    Microcredentials are stand-alone courses designed to meet specific learner and employer needs. Those awarded by The Open University have academic credit value at either undergraduate or postgraduate level, and, if appropriate, this may be used towards selected Open University qualifications. For more details, including eligible qualifications, visit The Open University’s Counting microcredentials towards OU qualifications page.

    The credit awarded may potentially be used at another university, subject to the agreement of the receiving institution.

    Want to know more? Read the microcredential FAQs, or contact us.