10 Selecting a hosting platform

It’s important that you consider the hosting platform for your Open course at an early stage. We strongly advise that you investigate the reach, disciplinary focus and underpinning pedagogy of hosting platforms before considering which is best suited for your course.

The hosting platform’s features, such as support for peer review, video interactivity or commenting are likely to inform your learning design, so it’s important to complete this research at an early stage. Being aware of a platform’s affordances and constraints will help you to avoid unnecessary work developing learning tasks that aren’t supported.

Before deciding which hosting platform you would like to use, discuss your requirements with the team(s) responsible for creating digital education resources at your institution. They can explain the affordances and constraints of hosting platforms and can manage the relationship with the hosting platform provider on your behalf.

The table below summarises the features of FutureLearn and Coursera, the two platform providers with which Leeds has an existing relationship. This is not a recommendation to use either platform and you may wish to investigate the features and functionality that may be more appropriate to your course.