BBC partners with UK uni's to release online history courses

The BBC has partnered with the University of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and the Open University to create and deliver four online courses on the history of World War One, one of which went live on Monday. Sinéad Rocks, who is the Acting Controller of BBC Learning, said that these courses and partnerships with universities are part of the BBC's commitment to education: "BBC Learning has been tasked with looking at new ways to deliver educational content to audiences. For us, MOOCs have a great potential to democratise learning - you don't need pre-qualifications, content is there and waiting for you to use on your own terms."

The courses can be found for free on the online education platform, FutureLearn.com. These history-based online courses will explore heroism, the theme of trauma and memory, aviation and Paris in 1919 and will include material from the BBC's archive. One of these courses went live online on Monday, with the others set to be released over the next couple of months. Alison Fell, professor of French cultural history at the University of Leeds played a large role in the development of one of the courses titled "World War One: Changing Faces of Heroism", and expressed great support for the online platform. "MOOCs give anyone with access to the Internet the opportunity to learn something new in the company of like-minded people from all around the world."

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