Since 2006, LearningSpace was the online home of free learning materials mostly taken from Open University courses. Over the last few months, though, we've been moving all of this content into OpenLearn, creating one home for all of the University's free learning content. It means we share a home with BBC programming content, topical and news stories, the Open University's iTunes U and YouTube channels, and much more besides.
You can use the navigation at the top of this page to explore what we have on offer. You can still browse and enrol on over 650 free courses but you can also watch Evan Davis exploring the state of British manufacturing; explore the frozen planet; or get to know the science and history of the Olympics - all from one website.
An update on progress (Mar 2014)
The integration of the old LearningSpace into OpenLearn has been completed, although we are still planning to roll out some of the functionality to allow you to, for example, download our content in other formats. We hope to complete this work in the next few months.
An update on progress (Dec 2012)
Unfortunately technical difficulties meant we haven’t been able to launch the full functionality in one go. In the New Year we plan to include the following on each free course:
- learning outcomes on every page
- print option
- unit reviews
- RSS feeds and alternative formats
- links to related content
- tags
- comments
We will also introduce functionality across the site which enables signed-in users to more easily manage their site experience.
Most of the content from LearningSpace has been brought across; if you've landed here after typing or searching for a LearningSpace URL then you're probably looking for something that fitted into one of these categories:
LearningSpace free courses
The content in each subject category is now divided into three columns:
- Explore (BBC programming content, topical and news stories)
- Free OpenLearn courses (over 700 courses, produced by The Open University, and shared with you for free)
- Become a student (qualifications that you can gain through study with The Open University)
You will find all the free courses listed here.
LearningSpace forums
We no longer have forums on our free study units, but we still want you to join in, comment and share your views. OpenLearn encourages you to comment on the content you're reading, rather than travel off to a different part of the site. Some of the more interesting LearningSpace debates have been imported.
LearningSpace learning journals
Learning journals are not a feature of OpenLearn, so if you want to make notes while you study you could try other services such as WordPress, Blogger.com or even Tumblr.
LearningSpace learning clubs
Learning clubs are also not a feature of OpenLearn - but you're free to create your own groups, perhaps on Facebook, or through a Twitter hashtag. Why not ask in the comments section to see if there's any groups already?
Other LearningSpace pages
Although all LearningSpace content came across, some pages - such as those which were only designed to help navigate the site - were not imported. If you're looking for something specific, you could try searching for the material here. For more information on other LearningSpace tools and features, please read our page on LearningSpace tools.
If you can't find something and would like us to look into why, alert us through the comments section on this page.
We invite you to discuss this subject, but remember this is a public forum.
Please be polite, and avoid your passions turning into contempt for others. We may delete posts that are rude or aggressive; or edit posts containing contact details or links to other websites.