Learning in Lockdown

Why not try a MOOC?

I’d read about MOOCs – or Massive Open Online Courses, to give them their full title – in the Third Age Matters magazine. They are usually recommended for members who, for whatever reason, can’t attend group meetings. During lockdown, however, the Third Age Trust has flagged up MOOCs as a way for us all to continue learning.

So I decided to see what was on offer. The platform I looked at was FutureLearn, partly owned by the Open University, and hosting a range of courses developed by universities and other institutions. Some courses are aimed at professionals, but others cover areas of general interest such as Nature and the Environment, Literature, History, and Creative Arts.

Courses are free. They run for just a few weeks and, once registered, you log in to study whenever it suits you. The ones I’ve followed are made up of short videos and articles that have been easy to understand. You are encouraged to post comments as you work through the course and to share ideas with fellow students from all around the world, so it doesn’t feel as though you are studying alone. Don’t worry, there are no tests, the courses are designed for the sheer pleasure of learning something new. If you don’t want to continue, you can just drop out at any time.

The first course I tried was developed by the Met Office with Exeter University. I learned about global weather systems, about the terminology used in forecasting, and how to read weather charts. I won’t remember it all, but some facts and concepts will stay with me and give me a better understanding of the weather in the future. I can often be found in the garden now, gazing at the sky and waxing lyrical about cloud formations!

I’m now following a course on Shakespeare, about how his work has appeared in print and in performance from his lifetime through to modern times. The course has been developed by King’s College, the Globe Theatre and the British Library. Presenters have described what life was like in Shakespeare’s day, using old maps and documents. They’ve shown us manuscripts and early printed texts and explained how the advent of print made Shakespeare’s work available to a wider readership. It’s really interesting and presented in such an easy way to follow.

So if you want to keep learning during lockdown and have access to the internet, why not have a look and see if there’s a MOOC that covers your area of interest? And please let us know how you get on.

Shelley Franklin