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
Health, Sports & Psychology
Making sense of ourselves
This free course, Making sense of ourselves, introduces you to well-known psychological topics by asking and answering everyday questions, such as Why don’t we like one another? Why would I hang around with you? Do you see what I see? What’s the point of childhood? You’ll learn how psychologists can go about addressing these questions using different research tools and approaches.
free course icon
Level
Society, Politics & Law
Critical criminology and the social sciences
This free course, Critical criminology and the social sciences, will provide you with an insight into some of the main disciplines within the social sciences, focusing in particular on critical criminology. It will begin by outlining some of the defining characteristics of the social science disciplines of psychology, law, sociology and critical criminology. Using the global financial crisis of 2007-8 as a case study, the course will then provide you with an insight into how academics working in some of these different disciplinary backgrounds make sense of a similar topic in different ways. The course will conclude by considering the place of critical criminology within the social sciences.
free course icon
Education & Development
Supporting children's development
Supporting children’s development is an introductory course for anyone who is interested in children’s development, especially support staff in schools, such as teaching assistants. It builds on your knowledge and skills to develop a deeper understanding of children from the early years to school leavers. You will be introduced to some core ideas surrounding development and learning, behaviour, special needs and disabilities.
free course icon
Level
Languages
Beginners’ Chinese: a taster course
Learn about Mandarin Chinese as a tool for communication and gain insights into Chinese society and culture. This free course, Beginners’ Chinese: a taster course, provides a brief introduction to the Chinese language, its scripts and sounds, and how words are formed. You will hear short conversations where people greet each other and introduce themselves, and learn how to ----- from one to ten. You’ll learn different ways of saying your name and greeting people, as well as give your telephone number. This OpenLearn course is introductory material for absolute beginners in Chinese.
TV, Radio & Events
The Bottom Line 2021
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show with people at the top giving insight into what matters.
article icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Resilience: The magic ingredient for Olympians?
Arguably, it has been a longer, and more challenging, road to Tokyo 2020 than any other Olympic Games in recent times. So how were the athletes and their support teams, able to pick up themselves up following the disappointment of the cancelled games last year and prepare for the rescheduled event? In this article, Dr Nichola Kentzer considers resilience as a key factor in supporting this disrupted athletic journey.
article icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Olympics, Paralympics, Olympians and Paralympians
The Tokyo Olympics were postponed due to COVID-19, but they are now underway and will run until the conclusion of the Paralympic Games in September - 6 weeks of sporting excellence. You can dig deep into the Olympics and Paralympics with our range of free resources, with new articles being added throughout the event.
icons icon-collections
Education & Development
The Race and Ethnicity Hub
This hub offers fresh perspectives on race, racism and ethnicity through free courses, articles, interactives and audio/visual materials.
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.