How it works

Learning Manager is a tool that allows you to invite learners to courses and track their progress. For a visual demonstration to accompany this description of what Learning Manager does, please see this presentation.

 

 

Invite learners to courses

On the Courses tab you can invite learners to courses.

First of all you will be asked to choose a course run to invite learners to. You can choose:

• the current or next available run of most open courses on the platform;
• any current or upcoming run of your own invite-only courses;
• current and upcoming runs of courses from other organisations when an agreement is place.

Then you need to invite your learners either by sending personal invitation emails or by creating a shared invitation link.

If your organisation has SAML single sign-on enabled you can also enrol learners on courses via SAML enrolment.

Personal course invitations

When inviting learners by email, you can paste up to 1000 email addresses at a time. Each learner will receive an email containing a personal invitation link to the course that expires 6 months after creation, or when the chosen run of the course closes for enrolment - whichever occurs sooner. 

 

Shared invitation links

Shared invitation links can be pasted anywhere your learners will be such as your virtual learning environment, a forum or a group email. Be aware, however, that anyone with access to this link will be able to join the course, including people from outside your organisation.

If a link has been generated previously for the chosen course, you may also reuse the existing link.

For invite-only courses, the link will always enrol learners on the specific run of the course you chose on the previous step and will stop working after 13 weeks or on the date that run closes for enrolment, whichever occurs sooner.

For open courses, the link will enrol learners on the current or next available run of the course at the time of clicking the link. The link will not work when there are no runs of the course open for enrolment.

Managing existing invitations and links

The table on the Courses tab shows how many learners have enrolled on each course run so far, and how many have yet to accept their invitations.

You can click on a course title to access the course details page with tabs listing

• all learners who have enrolled on the course run;
• all learners who have yet to accept their invitations to the course run;
• all learners who have declined their invitations to the course run;
• all current and recently expired shared invitation links for the course run

If a learner loses their invitation email, you can resend one from the pending invitations tab. Invitations will arrive from please.do.not.reply@futurelearn.com. If an invitation has been sent in error, you can cancel it from this tab – so long as the learner hasn't already accepted it.

For security reasons shared invitation links are set up to expire 6 months after they were created or on the selected run's end date – whichever occurs sooner. Invitation links that expired more than six months ago are not listed and cannot be extended.

 

 

 

Learners get the upgraded experience

Most open FutureLearn courses run on the upgrade model with a Certificate of Achievement. When learners are invited to this type of course through Learning Manager they will receive the following benefits:

• Ongoing course access
• Access to tests
• A digital, downloadable pdf certificate

Please note, learners will not be posted a paper certificate.

The benefits are the same for learners on Sponsored courses. If you are running an invite-only course and want learners to receive the above benefits, we recommend using the this model.

 

What do learners get on the different course types?

Open courses

Business model	What are the standard benefits for paying learners	What do learners invited through Learning Manager get at no cost to them
Upgraded access	Digital, PDF and paper Certificate of Achievement (CoA) Ongoing access Access to tests	Digital and pdf CoA (no paper version) Ongoing access Access to tests
Paid for access	Digital and paper CoA Ongoing access Access to tests	You cannot currently invite learners to a paid course through Learning Manager
Sponsored access	No payment necessary – learners get:  Digital and pdf CoA Ongoing access Access to tests	Digital and pdf CoA (no paper version) Ongoing access Access to tests

 

Private / invite-only courses

Business model	What are the standard benefits for paying learners	What do learners invited through Learning Manager get at no cost to them
No purchase	This is not available to paying learners.	Ongoing access Access to tests
Sponsored access	No payment necessary – learners get: Digital and pdf CoA Ongoing access Access to tests	Digital and pdf CoA Ongoing access Access to tests

 

Track learner progress

You can view data two ways, per learner and per course.

At the learner level, you can see:

• which courses they have enrolled on
• the date of their enrolment
• step completion
• test scores
• number of comments made
• pending course invitations
• declined course invitations

At the course level, you can see:

• which learners have enrolled on the course
• the date of their enrolment
• step completion for individual learners
• test scores for individual learners
• number of comments made by individual learners
• which learners have pending course invitations
• which learners have declined course invitations
• Invitation links that have been created for this course

You can download a csv for each course that contains an entry for each enrolled learner or a csv for all courses that contains entries for all enrolled learners with the following pieces of information:

• Start date of the Run
• Membership ID
• Email address
• Name
• Futurelearn profile URL
• Number of steps completed
• Number of comments posted
• Average test score
• Date the learner has left the course
• Partner Course code (Code the partner developing the course uses to identify the course)
• Partner Run code (Code the partner developing the course uses to identify the run within the course)
• Run Slug
• Run title
• Date of last step the learner has visited
• Date of last comment the learner has made
• Course uuid (a universally unique identifier specific to the course)
• Run uuid (a universally unique identifier specific to the run within the course)

We have evaluated Learning Manager as part of our internal GDPR compliance process. Please ensure only people with responsibility for monitoring learner performance within your organisation have access to Learning Manager and you adhere to your own data policies.

 

View your costs

To see how much you’ve spent on enrolments, go to the Costs tab where you can see a monthly breakdown. You can see when the learners enrolled, on what courses, and how much each enrolment cost.

You might have already paid for these enrolments, and this information shows you how many enrolments have been used up. Or you might be expecting an invoice in future, and this information tells you how much it will be.

 

Manage your learners

On the Learners tab you can see which learners are part of your organisation.

If you need to, you can remove them from here. They will not lose their course access (except on private courses) or FutureLearn account but you will no longer be able to view any information about them in Learning Manager. If they have any course invitations still pending, they will not be able to accept them.

If you remove a learner from your organisation you will still have to pay for any enrolments they have. However, FutureLearn can manually intervene if you think the learner should not have enrolled in the first place.

 

Case studies

Over the last year many FutureLearn partners have used Learning Manager, here are some examples.

Supporting transition

One of our partners created an invite-only course for undergraduate students to take prior to starting university. The course aimed to help them with study skills and increase their understanding of life at university.

On campus blended learning

Many partners have invited their students to courses as part of their undergraduate or postgraduate programmes or as extra curricular options.

Staff training

One partner has developed an open course that they are also inviting their staff to take for their professional development.

‘FutureLearn Library’

One partner has invited their students to take courses developed by other universities. The courses were all focussed on developing skills for the workplace and helped the partner enact its employability strategy.

Delivering courses to industry

Some corporates have arranged with FutureLearn and our partners to use courses for staff learning and development.

 

Accessing Learning Manager

Once you have agreed costs with your Partnership Manager you will receive an email invitation to join Learning Manager.

By signing up you accept the Learning Manager Terms and Conditions.

Once you have accepted you will be able to access Learning Manager when you are signed in by clicking on the navigation in the top left.