3.1 Choosing a platform

Choosing a platform to host your course is a crucial decision and depends partly on who the audience for your course will be and the activities and functionality you require for your course. Your choice will also depend on how easy it is to set up the course, how user friendly the interface is for learners studying online, whether the platform offers alternative methods of presenting material to learners for accessibility purposes (especially important if you anticipate that a lot of your intended audience may have special educational needs), and how much information about the learners and their progress the platform gives you (learning analytics). Hosting costs may also be a deciding factor. If you are based at a University or college, your existing Virtual Learning Environment may only be set up to host closed courses for enrolled paying learners and may not have the functionality for an open online course.  

Open platforms you might consider include OpenLearn Create where this course is hosted, Canvas free tool [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] for building a class online and OPENedX.

3.2 OpenLearn Create