You can’t always know what’s coming, but you can imagine it. You have the ability to embrace new ideas and stay hopeful about the future. That’s what futures thinking is all about. By exiting your default frame and asking the right questions, you can start to imagine new scenarios and use those to inform your decisions. For anyone trying to think ahead and act strategically, this kind of thinking is a must.
With the expertise of Dr. Timiebi Aganaba from the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the Futures Thinking course will put the tools, knowledge and strategies for imagining possible futures directly into your hands. You’ll learn the fundamentals and get acquainted with your futures thinking toolkit. Then, you’ll directly apply them in hands-on scenarios.
Relying on your usual framework will not produce every possible future. Instead, you need to open your mind and remain hopeful. You also need to learn which questions to ask. By the end of your process, you should be able to exit your usual frame of mind and imagine new scenarios that you can plan for — skills that anyone can learn and apply anywhere. Jump-start your futures thinking journey today!
Status: Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking
Status: Creativity
Creativity
Course·7 hours
Featured reviews
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 13, 2024
I got an opportunity to brainstorm and identify various areas where I can work on, for my future growth and development
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 11, 2024
This course is very helpful and useful for my job. Very nice.
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Showing: 13 of 13
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R
Rod
1.0
·Reviewed Sep 5, 2025
I have completed 10 other coursera courses. This course was the least enjoyable or productive. The delivery is robotic, and the content is not practical or relateable.
Y
Yukihiro
5.0
·Reviewed Oct 28, 2024
I learned a lot about future thinking, both in theory and practice.
Most of the content in this course cannot be machine translated, so English reading ability is essential.
All assignments are peer-reviewed, but it's good because they're graded by AI.
I could see that most of the students were working with sincerity on their assignments.
However, I found the case study stories very difficult to understand because there was no background explanation.
C
Chia
5.0
·Reviewed Feb 8, 2026
This has been an excellent course. It cultivates futures thinking in a deeply reflective way, which I find especially meaningful at a personal level. It is more than just tools or concepts. It encourages me to examine my own assumptions, priorities, and possible directions in life. The assignments I have submitted are something I can keep to review myself as well. Thank you! I am grateful to have discovered and complete this course.
V
Vijay
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 14, 2024
I got an opportunity to brainstorm and identify various areas where I can work on, for my future growth and development
C
Chonlasap
5.0
·Reviewed Sep 12, 2024
This course is very helpful and useful for my job. Very nice.
O
Orkhan
5.0
·Reviewed Jan 29, 2024
Thanks for your wonderful, powerful and effective course!
A
AMEENA
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 26, 2026
جعلتني اعيد التفكير في مستقبلي
A
ABEER
5.0
·Reviewed Mar 6, 2026
برنامج ممتاز
S
Saeed
5.0
·Reviewed Nov 12, 2025
شكر
M
MOHAMMED
5.0
·Reviewed Aug 5, 2026
ل
L
Lucio
4.0
·Reviewed Feb 17, 2025
Good course. It's short but very powerful. My only complaint is regarding the exercises' instructions, they weren't very clear to me.
A
Alia
1.0
·Reviewed Mar 16, 2026
Leaving early. Nebulous information. Waste of time