Behind the Scenes at the 21st Century Museum

The Museum of Liverpool
© Ben Kirkpatrick

You can now sign up for our MOOC (Massive Open Online Course): Behind the Scenes at the 21^st Century Museum, which will run for 6 weeks from 1^st June 2015.

Over the last few months we have been working away with our friends and colleagues at National Museums Liverpool on this great new project that we hope will both help to raise the profile of the School, demystify what it is that we do (I’m often asked is ‘what actually is Museum Studies?’), give people a taster of what it is like to study here and offer people an opportunity to engage with issues facing the museum sector in the 21^st Century.

The course is all online, lasts six weeks and requires a minimum of 2 hours study per week. Learners will explore with us what it is to be, to create and work in a 21^st century museum, drawing on world class research from the School of Museum Studies and cutting edge case studies from National Museums Liverpool.

The MOOC will cover areas including the significance of museum architecture and design, developing and engaging visitors and audiences, how people emotionally engage with museums, objects and stories and how museums can help tackle difficult issues. We’ll explore how museums contribute to agenda such as social justice, human rights and health and wellbeing. Learners will also get the opportunity to find out more about what we do here at Leicester and what goes on a National Museums Liverpool, a service known for their approach to audience engagement and social justice.

Learners will experience a media-rich, social learning platform with the opportunity to discuss issues with hundreds, if not thousands of other learners, and will be inspired through lots of newly created visual and audio content.

The course is ideal for people thinking about studying Museum Studies, people in the museum sector looking to undertake CPD, museum volunteers and anyone who is simply interested in museums and what they do.

We’re thrilled to be only the third MOOC that the University will have offered and part of the amazing FutureLearn profile of MOOCs, and delighted to be delivering this programme in association with National Museums Liverpool.

Already, as a School, we have learned a lot from the process of designing the programme and creating content, particularly with the help of the fabulous team from the Leicester Learning Institute (Thanks, Nick, Matt and Rachel in particular). We’re already exploring how we can look afresh at our distance learning offer in the light of all that we have learned in developing the MOOC, and look forward to continue working with the Leicester Learning Institute to ensure we continue to offer the best possible learning opportunities, resources, and support to our student body.

These are exciting times for the School as we approach our 50^th anniversary and look to the future!

You can find out more about the MOOC by watching the trailer below and you can sign up for free at http://www.futurelearn.com/courses/museum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7wZLfe816Y