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Social prompts are a feature within Course Creator that makes it easier to build courses with our social learning pedagogy. They save time and avoid you having to create bespoke prompts per course. To amend or opt-out of social prompts co-creator, author or org admin permission is required.
Prompts are automatically switched on for new courses in Course Creator and prompts assigned for eligible steps. You must 'opt out' if you do not wish to use them. They are auto-generated by the platform to encourage learners to engage with the content in the comments.
They appear in a grey box at the bottom of the step content, just above the comments section.
Step types and frequency
Social prompts only appear on article, video, and audio steps. These step types have been chosen because they support comments but are not assessment-type steps where learners should be focused on comprehension.
Social prompts are scattered throughout the learning experience, not on every step to prevent overwhelming learners. A social prompt will appear on a course step if the previous three steps have no social prompt and do not include a discussion step.
Opt-out of prompts via the details tab
Scroll down to 'building your course' and select social prompts. To disable prompts on this run, click ‘switch social prompts off'.
If you switch off prompts and turn them back on again the social prompts will appear where they were before. Adding or removing a step won't affect social prompts on the remaining steps.
If you add a new step, when a number of steps already have social prompts, it might not be eligible for social prompts.
Apply prompts to a new run of an old course
Create a new draft run of your existing course.
Go to the social prompts menu area and click ‘switch social prompts on’. This will show the fields on the steps, to manually select prompts for each step. If you would like to automatically apply prompts across the whole course, you can click ‘assign new social prompts’ which will randomly allocate prompts throughout your course.
Manually add, change or remove prompts
In the edit step page for each individual step.
Regenerate prompts
Across the whole run, you can click ‘assign new prompts’ again, and new prompts will be applied across the steps.
What do the prompts say?
Our Learning Designers have based the prompts on years of experience building courses that engage learners. The options below are being periodically reviewed. Submit your ideas for additional prompts.
The first two steps of a course will choose from a specific ‘introductory’ category of prompts, all other steps will select from a generic category.
| Prompt Title | Prompt Instructions |
| Introduce yourself | What are you hoping to achieve by the end of this course? Share your goals and say hello in the comments. You can reply directly to learners who share your learning goals. |
| Share your learning goals | Comment below why you joined this course and one thing you hope to gain from it. If someone shares your goals, reply to their comment instead of making a new one. |
| Discussion for learning | What have you learned so far? Share a list of 2-3 key points in the discussion below. Has anyone else shared similar points? |
| Summarise the step | Comment below a short summary of what you learned during this step. If another learner writes a similar summary, reply to their comment adding one more thing you'd like to have covered. |
| Skills development | Comment below what skills you've practised so far on the course and how they relate to your overall learning goals. They might be directly related to the content or be additional skills, like communication, writing, or learning how to learn. |
| Share additional resources | Do you have links to other articles or websites that would be helpful to other learners? Share them below and explain in your comment why they're helpful. Let others know if you find their suggestions useful. |
| Share your tips | Do you have any practical tips to share with other learners? Share them – and why they're useful – in the comments. Remember to like any tips you find helpful and reply with any further additions. |
| Put into practice | From what you've learned so far, how will you put your new skills into practice? Can you give a specific example? Share suggestions, advice, or ideas in the comments below. |
| Put into practice #2 | What can you take from this course and try out today? Comment your ideas and reasons for your choice below. If you're not sure, get inspired by your fellow learners' ideas. |
| Try something new and share the results | Take something you've learned from this course and try it out in the real-world this week. Share below what worked, what didn't, and if anything surprised you... |
| Give the gift of learning |
Share your new knowledge! Comment below one thing you've discovered whilst taking this course that you think will help others. |
| Explore and share |
Share your examples: have you read, watched, listened to, or explored anything that has deepened your understanding of this topic? Add a link below and tell us why you found them helpful. |
| Consolidate your learning | List your key learnings from this step. Have others chosen the same as you? |
| Study tips and suggestions | Learning online can be challenging, what study tips or suggestions can you share with your fellow learners? Reply to or like the comments which share tips you find useful. |
| Build your network | Would you like to build your FutureLearn network? If you’re enjoying the comments someone shares, click their name and select ‘follow’ to always see their comments first. |
| Fill in the gaps |
Is there anything you're unsure of or would like to know more about? Your fellow learners might be able to help! Ask a question in the comments below. Help others by reading and responding to their questions if you can. |
| Your advice |
What advice would you give someone who's brand new to this topic? Share your tip below or reply to someone else's comment to build on their advice. Use the like button to show you agree with or learned from someone's suggestion. |
| Time to reflect |
After the last few steps, we'd love you to take a moment to pause and reflect on your learning experience so far. Share any thoughts you have below. |
| Deepen your understanding |
Imagine you had the opportunity to ask a question of an educator on this course. What question would you ask them? Maybe you can answer someone else's question below. |
| What do you think? |
Do you agree or disagree with the views presented in this step? Remember to take a pause before responding to other learners and show respect for the diverse opinions they represent. |
| Share |
Use the comments area to share ideas and thoughts with other learners. Responding is optional, but discussing your ideas can help you learn. |
| Revise |
What did you learn? Summarize what you learned below and see if any one else came to similar conclusions. |
| What do you think? #2 |
Share some thoughts on this step, did you learn anything new? |
| Ask for help |
Any questions? If you would like some help, let other learners know in the comments area. Perhaps someone can help you. |
| Strategies for understanding |
Have you found any concepts difficult on the course? What have you found useful in helping you to learn? |
| Think differently |
Can you explain these ideas in a different way? It can help you to understand concepts if you describe them in your own words. |
Terminology on this page that you aren’t familiar with? Check out our glossary.
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