Online Teaching: Creating Courses for Adult Learners
Learn the practical skills you need to create online courses successfully, and develop your ability to teach adults online.
- Duration12 weeks
- Cost$999
Get the skills to teach adults online and at a distance
UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) reports that over 91% of the world’s student population – a total of 1,576,021,818 learners across 188 countries and in all sectors – were affected in Spring 2020 by the closure of educational institutions as part of a broader ‘lockdown’ strategy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many institutions have had to rush to put their teaching online, at an unprecedented scale. Student assessment has also been affected, with many exams cancelled and others moved online, creating uncertainty for all involved.
Regardless of when the pandemic ends, this ‘online pivot’ in education is likely to become permanent as more and more learning opportunities move online. Knowing how to create engaging online courses for adults will be a key skill moving forward, now that distance and online learning are used so widely.
On this microcredential, you’ll discover how adults learn online – and at a distance – drawing on key theories. You’ll evaluate technologies for supporting online and distance learning in specific contexts, drawing on a range of experiences and research to learn how to design engaging and inspiring online courses successfully.
You’ll examine different online teaching and learning methods in terms of their appropriateness for specific settings and learners, and ways of ensuring your classes are inclusive and accessible.
Ultimately, you’ll explore some of the many possibilities offered by learning with technology, and investigate the benefits and challenges of approaches to online learning that will have long-term career value beyond lockdown and the coronavirus crisis.
What skills will you learn?
- Designing online learning activities
- Designing online assessment
- Supporting diverse learners online
- Teaching online
- Selecting learning technologies
- Evaluating research evidence
- Developing persuasive arguments
- Designing online courses
What you will achieve
By the end of the microcredential, you’ll be able to...
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how adults learn online, and at a distance, drawing on key theories.
- Identify and evaluate a range of online teaching and learning methods in terms of their appropriateness for specific settings and learners.
- Identify and evaluate technologies for supporting online and distance learning in specific contexts, drawing on a range of experience and research accounts.
- Design online teaching and learning activities, courses and assessment that meet diverse learners’ needs, drawing on a range of evidence to support your design decisions.
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how online teaching, learning and assessment can be made safe and accessible to diverse learners.
Are you eligible for this microcredential?
To join this microcredential you will ideally have:
- A Bachelors degree or an equivalent level qualification
- Experience of working in education
- A strong interest in teaching and learning
Spaces are limited for this microcredential, and we recommend you register early to secure your place.
This microcredential is part of a planned suite of courses on aspects of online education. This course incorporates content from an existing OU module, Technology-enhanced Learning: Foundations and Futures (H880). If you have completed H880, or are currently studying it, please contact us before registering.
Is this microcredential right for you?
This microcredential has a global focus and the skills you’ll learn will be relevant for learners from around the world.
The microcredential would benefit anyone currently working or looking to work in universities, colleges or wider adult learning settings as a:
- Teacher
- Trainer
- Learning designer
- Educational technologist
- Head of department
- Institution leader
Syllabus
What happens before, during, and after your microcredential
Course
From 28 Jun 2021
Online Teaching: Creating Courses for Adult Learners
Learn how to design engaging online courses and ensure your online teaching is safe and accessible for a variety of learners.
12 weeks
13 hours per week
What you will receive
15 UK credits at Postgraduate level from The Open University
You’ll receive an Open University certificate confirming that you have received 15 academic credits at postgraduate level 7. Credits are awarded on passing the final assessment. The assessment will require you to develop your own plan for taking teaching and learning online. The plan, accompanied by a reflective commentary, will form the summative assessment component of the course, for submission in the final week.
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.
Complete online courses led by experts over 12-16 weeks with a dedicated group of professionals.
Test your understanding with online tutor-marked assessments and exercises.
Finish your learning and pass your assessments to gain an accredited credential.
Use your microcredential as evidence of your specialised skills and progress further in your industry.
Career-focused learning by The Open University
The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning, with a mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.
- Established1969
- LocationMilton Keynes, UK
- World rankingTop 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020
This microcredential is endorsed by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)
The Association for Learning Technology is the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK.
Delivered by experts
I’m a professor at The Open University, focused on educational futures, learning analytics, MOOCs, innovating pedagogy & online social learning.
I lead The Open University’s Online and Distance Education programme. My research specialisms include the impact of open pedagogies on learning and wellbeing, and gender equity in the developing world
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, but you can complete them as quickly or slowly as you like
- 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
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When would you like to start?
We aim to run our microcredentials every few months. Join on the date that suits you or register to hear from an enrolment advisor about future runs and updates.
Not ready to join yet? Speak to one of our enrolment advisors
Speak to an advisor
Not sure if this microcredential is right for you? Fill in your details below and one of our enrolment advisors will be in contact to provide you with the information you need to make a decision.
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. 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 products, designed to meet specific learner and employer needs and offer a credential in their own right. Those awarded by The Open University have a credit value at either undergraduate or postgraduate level, and this may in the future be used towards qualifications (for example, a Bachelor’s Degree, Diploma of Higher Education or Postgraduate Certificate) at The Open University, or potentially at another university (subject to the agreement of the receiving institution).
Want to know more? Read the microcredential FAQs, or contact us.