Finish an online university course from start to end
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
Universities around the world put real courses online, with lectures, assignments and fellow learners to argue with in the forums. Most people who enrol never reach the last week, so finishing is the challenge.
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How to start
- Search FutureLearn or edX for a subject you have always been curious about.
- Enrol in one course only and note how many weeks it runs.
- Do each week's work on a fixed day and post once in the discussion.
Where to go
We opened these links on 6 October 2026 and found them to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. Projects run over months and stall without a rhythm, so the plan sets milestones you can see.
From the site
Going back to study: Open University, community colleges, free courses and how to fund it
The realistic options for studying as an adult: the Open University, u3a, FutureLearn and Coursera, US community colleges and state tuition waivers for older residents, plus the UK Advanced Learner Loan, part-time student finance and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
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Sixty paper hats on a table in Bridlington: David Smith and the shape mathematicians had sought for decades
David Smith of Bridlington, a hobbyist with no training in mathematics, found 'the hat': the first single shape known to cover a flat surface only in patterns that never repeat. How he found it, why he could not prove it alone, and the free tools that let you put the same tiles on your own table.