Institute for the Future
Futures Thinking Specialization
Institute for the Future

Futures Thinking Specialization

Ready Yourself for a Changing World. Learn the skills and mindsets of the world’s top futurists, so you can forecast what’s coming, imagine new possibilities, and seize control of your own future.

Taught in English

Some content may not be translated

Jane McGonigal

Instructor: Jane McGonigal

24,566 already enrolled

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Specialization - 5 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

4.8

(1,393 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

2 months at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Build your future forecasting skills.

  • Learn how to use Institute for the Future’s most powerful foresight tools, designed to help you spot new opportunities for innovation and invention.

  • Gain insight into the most important new technologies, global events and big ideas that are already shaping the future.

  • Think more creatively and optimistically about what’s possible in the future.

Details to know

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Specialization - 5 course series

Get in-depth knowledge of a subject

4.8

(1,393 reviews)

Beginner level

Recommended experience

2 months at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

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Advance your subject-matter expertise

  • Learn in-demand skills from university and industry experts
  • Master a subject or tool with hands-on projects
  • Develop a deep understanding of key concepts
  • Earn a career certificate from Institute for the Future
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Specialization - 5 course series

Ready, Set, Future! Introduction to Futures Thinking

Course 111 hours4.8 (1,155 ratings)

What you'll learn

  • Define futures thinking and give examples of futures projects

  • Collect and analyze signals of change

  • Identify historical change in the past to predict new changes in the future

  • Learn how to avoid future shock - and help others avoid it, too!

Skills you'll gain

Category: Foresight
Category: Creativity
Category: Leadership
Category: Innovation
Category: Strategic Planning

Forecasting Skills: See the Future Before it Happens

Course 213 hours4.9 (453 ratings)

What you'll learn

  • Collect and Analyze SIGNALS OF CHANGE

  • Identify and Analyze GLOBAL DRIVERS OF CHANGE

  • Combine Signals and Drivers into FUTURE FORECASTS

  • Write SCENARIOS that tell a story about your FUTURE FORECAST

Skills you'll gain

Category: Creativity
Category: Strategic Planning
Category: Collaboration
Category: Gaming
Category: Future Forecasting

Simulation Skills: This is Your Brain on the Future

Course 313 hours4.8 (367 ratings)

What you'll learn

Skills you'll gain

Category: Foresight
Category: Creativity
Category: Simulation
Category: Innovation
Category: Strategic Planning

Collaborative Foresight: How to Game the Future

Course 414 hours4.9 (228 ratings)

What you'll learn

  • Design and run a multiplayer forecasting game

  • Game out hard-to-predict consequences in any future scenario

  • Anticipate long-term harms of new technologies and how to prevent them

  • Create diverse, inclusive futures thinking communities

Skills you'll gain

Category: Foresight
Category: Strategic Thinking
Category: Creativity
Category: Scenario Development
Category: Innovation

Urgent Optimism: How to Turn Foresight into Action

Course 510 hours4.8 (230 ratings)

What you'll learn

  • Describe your preferred future

  • Create artifacts from the future

  • Build an action roadmap to change the future

  • Organize a community to change the future

Skills you'll gain

Category: Foresight
Category: Strategic Thinking
Category: Creativity
Category: Leadership
Category: Innovation

Instructor

Jane McGonigal
Institute for the Future
6 Courses61,696 learners

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