Online courses to use social media THE first British-led "massive open online course" venture, known as FutureLearn, plans to use social media features, says chief executive Simon Nelson. The idea is to make the experience more social by adopting social media "likes" and "follows" within a MOOC learning environment. There will also be student peer reviews and badges awarded for useful posts. "We want to really take advantage of the social potential and make it not such a solitary experience," Mr Nelson told the HES. FutureLearn, an initiative of veteran British online provider Open University and its Australian-born chief Martin Bean, was launched last week. It is playing catch-up with pioneering US-based MOOCs such as Coursera, Udacity and EdX. Mr Nelson was wary of FutureLearn being typecast as just a British initiative or espousing some sense of "Britishness," despite the heavy number of British institutions, coupled with the vocal support for the venture by the British government and collaborations with the British Museum, British Library and British Council. In addition to the 18 British universities, Australia's Monash and Ireland's Trinity College Dublin are also members. Oxford and Cambridge have remained aloof from MOOCs. British Universities Minister David Willets has backed the initiative, saying MOOCs "will keep the UK ahead in the global race to deliver education in worldwide markets." Mr Nelson said he expected a "few" other international universities would soon join and noted that the universities involved had wide appeal. "I definitely see this as a global initiative and I want it to be a global platform," he said. Initially FutureLearn hoped to charge students for statements of achievement and for hosted exams. The MOOC does not offer credit, which is left to its member universities. It is already in talks with the British Council and other potential providers of exam hosting services. Whether enough students and employers are prepared to value such non-credit-bearing courses remains to be seen. There is also scope for member universities to use FutureLearn content and courses for credit towards their own qualifications. For the universities, Mr Nelson said FutureLearn would be a new avenue for attracting fee-paying students after they got a taste of studying, while also projecting their brand beyond Britain. It would also be a chance for universities to experiment with courses and delivery. He said the catalyst for FutureLearn, which remains owned by OU, was the attraction of having British unis working together. He said some might interpret the move as defensive, but it was really about capitalising on OU's expertise. The thinking was that there was all this excitement around the potential of MOOCs and that rather than doing it all independently it would be better to work together. He saw no need for a similar Australian initiative. I don't think the nationality of the platform matters that much. It is the quality of the brand, the quality of the partnership.