My OpenLearn Profile
- Personalise your OpenLearn profile
- Save your favourite content
- Get recognition for your learning
Free learning from The Open University
free course icon
Level
Money & Business
Contemporary issues in managing
Traditionally, managing was born out of what Knights and Willmott (2012) call ‘direct control’ (Taylorism), where ‘foremen’ and supervisors were employed to watch staff at all times. In contemporary times, both coercion and direct supervision are still both used, but less often because other methods are also available. These different techniques are seductive because they entice employees to overwork by insinuating that being part of the organisation is like belonging to ‘a family’ where commitment is high, and identity becomes hugely dependant on ‘loving their job’. This free online course, Contemporary issues in managing, introduces three contemporary approaches (managing through organisational culture, managing through internal marketing, and managing through collective leadership). These approaches require you to think critically and challenge ideas and received wisdom.
free course icon
Level
Health, Sports & Psychology
Exercise and mental health
Each year thousands of pounds are spent on medications to treat conditions such as anxiety and depression. These medications often have negative side effects. Exercise is an alternative treatment that is low cost and has few side effects. In this free course, Exercise and mental health, we will look at the links between exercise and improved mental health and psychological well-being. This will include consideration of the role of exercise in combating stress, anxiety and depression, and in enhancing mood.
free course icon
Level
Nature & Environment
Eating for the environment
‘You are what you eat’, goes the old adage, but what you eat also has an impact on the environment. Transcript This free course, Eating for the environment, will explore the links between food, nutrition and environmental sustainability. It will start by exploring the diversity on your dinner plate and encourage you to reflect on it in relation to dietary choices and preferences of people around the world. It will explore the connections between food, culture and traditions, and the challenges in providing healthy and nutritious food to the world’s growing population. The course will examine innovative approaches to food that also help environmental sustainability.
free course icon
Level
Science, Maths & Technology
Fire ecology
This course explores the role of fire as a natural disturbance in ecosystems. It introduces the concept of a fire regime and its influence on the type and distribution of organisms that occur in fire prone ecosystems. It also looks at some of the adaptations of plants that have evolved in these ecosystems and how animals either avoid or exploit the consequences of fire as a natural disturbance. Finally it examines how fire can increase biodiversity by generating a mosaic of habitats within an ecosystem and briefly addresses some of the consequences of climate change and global warming on the intensity and frequency of fires.
article icon
Nature & Environment
Sustainability Hub
The way we live impacts our Earth, it is changing the climate and threatening livelihoods, species and ecosystems. It is clear our current strategies of supporting our way of life can't continue. Globalisation means it isn't always easy to see the impacts our behaviour has on others and the natural world, or what we can to make more sustainable choices.
video icon
History & The Arts
Troy Story: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
Interested in Greek myths? We've condensed the epic narrative of Homer's poems the Iliad and the Odyssey into short animations voiced by the dulcet tones of Don Warrington.
activity icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Design in a nutshell
Get the lowdown on 6 key design movements and share your design alter-ego
You can use OpenLearn to
Explore subjects
Browse subject categories to explore new topics or look for reference material for a course you are already studying.
Explore subjectsStudy free courses
From 1 to 100 hours of learning - discover hundreds of free courses to inspire and inform everyone.
Free coursesEarn while you learn
Earn a free digital badge or Statement of Participation as evidence of your learning to share with employers, friends and family.
Find out more
Get the most out of OpenLearn
Anyone can learn for free on OpenLearn but creating an account lets you set up a personal learning profile which tracks your course progress and gives you access to Statements of Participation and digital badges you earn along the way. Sign-up now!
©1999-2020. All rights reserved. The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking.