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
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.
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
History & The Arts
A spiritual revolution? Wicca and religious change in the 1960s
This free course, A spiritual revolution? Wicca and religious change in the 1960s looks at the ‘crisis’ of traditional religion in the Sixties in the Western world. It explores the process of religious renewal, looking at the development of Wicca, the prototypical form of modern Paganism. Originally presented as a Goddess religion of great antiquity, which had survived the Roman invasion and Church persecution, Wicca is in fact best seen as a new religion, clearly belonging to an age in which sexual norms, gender roles and traditional power structures were changing. It questions to what degree we can view religious change in the 1960s as spiritual revolution. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A113 Revolutions.
free course icon
Level
Society, Politics & Law
Why are nonhuman animals victims of harm?
In this free course, Why are nonhuman animals victims of harm? you will investigate why nonhuman animals tend to be overlooked as victims of violence. The course explores some of the social processes and structures that victimise other animals, such as ‘livestock’ farming. The course also highlights some of the environmental harms related to ‘livestock’ farming. You will learn about how harms are perpetuated by language and imagery, as well as how language and imagery can be used to oppose and resist harms against nonhuman animals. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD311 Crime, harm and the state Content warning Study in the social sciences – and criminology in particular – inevitably touches on sensitive and emotive topics that may be difficult and upsetting. This course explores harms against nonhuman animals that you may find difficult to work with, including images of nonhuman animals in confinement.
TV, Radio & Events
Hospital
Hospital tells the riveting story of the NHS in unprecedented times.
article icon
History & The Arts
Read this before you fall for a personalised book
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen the sales of personalised books go up, but are they as beneficial as other children's books? Professor Natalia Kucirkova explores...
article icon
Education & Development
What do you think about OpenLearn? Take the survey
Let us know what you think! We are running a survey to find out more about how you use OpenLearn, what’s great and what could be improved. The aim is to provide a better free learning experience for everyone.
activity icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Are you driven to distraction?
Can you drive safely and work effectively at the same time? If you ever need to make your vehicle a mobile office, by having hands free phone conversations, how confident are you that neither your work, nor your driving suffers?
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.