Online Courses

FutureLearn is an online platform offering short courses on a range of topics. The University of Leeds offers courses through the platform on a range of subjects that you and your students can access for free. These include:  

• Academic Skills 
• Environment  
• Chemistry  
• Business  
• Medicine  

Staff and students at the University of Leeds now have free upgraded access to a range of our courses developed by Leeds via FutureLearn Campus. Upgraded access includes:  

• access to end-of-course tests  
• digital certificates of achievement when they complete a course  
• access to courses for as long as they exist on FutureLearn.  

How do I access it?

Use this link to navigate to FutureLearn Campus. You can find detailed instructions on setting up Futurelearn Campus Single Sign-On (SSO) on the Knowledge Base. If you have any issues or questions, please contact us.

What courses are available?

To see which courses are available for free, once you log in, please navigate to the relevant menu item.  

For each course it contains:  

• a summary  
• the learning outcomes 
• the topics covered.  

To assist your search, each has also been mapped against Leeds UG and PG programmes for which the content might be useful. Please note that the links to the courses in this spreadsheet will take you to the public course signup pages. To access the courses via FutureLearn Campus, please use the links provided in Minerva.    

In the final column, you can also access the videos that were created for some of the courses should you wish to link to them as part of your online teaching.

Coursera is an online learning platform offering more than two thousand online courses created in partnership with world-leading education institutions and organisations.  

University of Leeds on Coursera gives students and staff free access to all Coursera courses created by participating institutions. This includes 3,800 courses and 400 Specializations (collections of courses).   

Courses are usually 4-6 weeks long but can be studied at the student’s own pace. When students complete a course and pass the assessments they will earn a Coursera certificate which can be shared on LinkedIn or their CV.  

We hope that you will investigate the courses available and make appropriate course recommendations to your students. Please do think about using Minerva to facilitate discussion amongst your cohort.  

How do I access it?  

Use this link to navigate to University of Leeds on Coursera. You can find detailed instructions on setting up Coursera for Campus Single Sign-On (SSO) on the Coursera Help section. If you have any issues or questions, please contact us.

How long will we have access to University of Leeds on Coursera?  

Coursera and their partners, including the University of Leeds, are coming together to provide free access to Coursera to help minimize the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on students around the world. Effective October 31, 2020, Leeds staff and students can continue to enrol in courses with no interruptions indefinitely. Enrolled staff and students will have access to their courses permanently.

How is University of Leeds on Coursera different to the main Coursera site (coursera.org)?  

University of Leeds on Coursera gives students and staff full access to Coursera courses for free. If you access these courses through the main Coursera website you would have to pay for full access. The course experience is the same if you sign up for a course through University of Leeds on Coursera or the main Coursera website.   

Help and support  

If you have any difficulty logging into University of Leeds on Coursera, please access the digital education helpdesk for support. 

LinkedIn Learning is an online learning platform that you can access anytime, anywhere.
By using your University of Leeds login, you can access freely over 15,000 self-paced learning courses covering a diverse range of topics. These include: 

• IT (such as programming) 
• Software (such as Office 365, MS Teams) 
• Project management 
• Data analysis and statistics 
• Professional skills 
• Managing your time and working with others 
• Creativity (such as drawing, painting, music). 

These are freely accessible to all staff and students using your University of Leeds login. Courses are led by experts and are on average one hour long, broken down into bite-sized video modules. 

How do I access it? 

On a desktop, navigate to  https://lnkd.in/fwXHwcK 

When using the LinkedIn Learning app for iOS/Android, select “Sign in with your organization portal” and enter leeds.ac.uk. 

• Leeds students can use online courses as an optional learning resource to further their knowledge in a particular area or to aid revision in much the same way as they would do for secondary reading.
• Each resource can be associated with a particular degree programme, module, set of modules or individual lectures or learning activities.
• Leeds students can interact with external learners on FutureLearn particularly by sharing and replying to messages in the Comments section; there is no tutor engagement and learning is entirely self-directed.
• Leeds students can access online courses via a link on Minerva, using the Single Sign-on to join it through FutureLearn for Campus or University of Leeds on Coursera; if they join the course via this route, they will have on-going access to the course beyond the duration of the course.
• Learning and teaching activities on the Leeds module continue as usual, with reference to the online course as lecturers or the module leader sees fit; lectures may wish to focus on a particular part of the course or video or use outputs from particular activities on the course . 
• Assessments for the module proceed as normal, administered by the School; completion of the online course is not considered for additional credit.  

• Leeds students engage with an online course at designated points in their module timetable; completion of activities and steps within the course corresponds to on-campus teaching events; the  course can act as preparation for teaching events, for example, completing an activity on the course, could provide material for group work in on-campus learning.    
• The online course will be associated with a particular module, with recurrent reference to it in the timetable; Leeds students would complete the online course within a time frame set out in the timetable, this would follow the normal duration of the course (usually two weeks); Leeds students should receive an announcement or communication, normally through Minerva, providing a link and date to join the correct run. 
• Leeds students can interact with external learners on FutureLearn particularly by sharing and replying to messages in the Comments section; the tutor has the option to decide whether or not they participate in the discussion; if the tutor wishes to participate in a particular run, they should ensure that they interact equally with both Leeds students and external learners; alternatively, Leeds students could be encouraged to interact with external learners.   
• Leeds students access the online course via a link on Minerva, using the Single Sign-on to join it through FutureLearn for Campus or University of Leeds on Coursera; if they join the course via this route, they will have ongoing access to the course beyond the normal duration of the course.  
• There are structured touchpoints through module announcements and timetables, as well as  face-to-face events and reflective activities and extensions of online course activities eg.  a groupwork version of a case study activity geared towards the online course.
• Assessments for the module proceed as normal, administered by the School; completion of the course is not considered for additional credit.