FutureLearn, the UK-based MOOC provider backed by Open University, reached a major milestone of 4 million learners. In contrast, Coursera has 20M learners, edX has 8.3M, and Udacity has 4M learners. But it should be noted that FutureLearn launched in December 2012, which was almost a year later than all those other MOOC providers.

FutureLearn reached the 3 million mark earlier this year in January 2016, which was just five months after they crossed the 2 million user milestone in September 2015.

And that’s not all: in another milestone, FutureLearn is rapidly moving towards providing a total of 400 courses. At the time of writing, FutureLearn has 383 courses. Six of those courses were featured in Class Central’s Top 50 MOOCs of All Time.

Partners

FutureLearn boasts over 60 university partners and 28 specialist organizations that have created courses on the FutureLearn platform. FutureLearn’s university partners consist of many non-UK universities from countries like New Zealand, Japan, China, Spain, Israel, and many others. You can find the entire list of FutureLearn partners here.

Progress and History

You can track the history of FutureLearn through articles written on Class Central (in reverse chronological order):

• FutureLearn Steps into the World of MOOC-Based Credentials With “FutureLearn Programs”
• FutureLearn Closes 2015 on a High: Gains £13M Investment, Wins UX Award, Approaches 3M students
• FutureLearn Introduces Modern and Visually Stunning Digital Certificates
• The MOOC Platform with a Twist: The Emergence of UK-Based FutureLearn
• MOOC Provider Futurelearn Rockets Past One Million Learner Milestone 
• Futurelearn Celebrates First Year and Comes Out of Beta
• Futurelearn gains steam with 350,000 learners and 7 new partner institutions