Produced by The Open University, a world leader in open and distance learning, all OpenLearn courses are free to study. We offer nearly 1000 free courses across 8 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.
A growing selection of our courses offer a free Open University digital badge. Badges demonstrate your interest in a subject, a commitment to your career or provide evidence of continuing professional development.
Got a few spare minutes? Brush up on your knowledge with our range of free bite-size courses and activities.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Infection and immunity
In this free course, Infection and immunity, you will be introduced to infectious diseases and to the biological agents that invade our bodies and cause them: pathogens. You will also learn about the immune system, the human body’s vital defence against pathogens. Along the way you will learn about the scientific method and how it has helped scientists understand pathogens and aid the prevention of infectious disease. But the challenge is ongoing. Pathogens are everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes. As you will see, the fight against infectious disease remains critical for global health today.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Exploring sport coaching and psychology
This free course, Exploring sport coaching and psychology, investigates how scientific and management ideas contribute to success while also taking you on a journey through unique sporting case studies and insights that will change how you view and study sport. You will consider how the mind, the body, the environment and training techniques all contribute to optimum fitness.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Understanding mental capacity
This free course, Understanding mental capacity, covers the principles and criteria underpinning the assessment of mental capacity and decision making in the UK.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness
This free course, Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness, explores the personal skills that underpin so much work in sport and gyms. We often hear employers refer to the importance of these interpersonal relationships or ‘soft skills’ in sport and fitness, and in this unique course you’ll build valuable insights into understanding workplace communication, motivation and self-awareness and how this can increase your effectiveness and enhance how you work with others. All this is made possible by some unique film footage of coaches, trainers and instructors at work combined with engaging learning activities that accompany these case studies to benefit both your career and those you work with.
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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.
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Education & Development
Introduction to child psychology
Childhood is a time of rapid growth and development, and studying these changes is endlessly stimulating. In this free course, Introduction to child psychology, you will be introduced to the discipline of child psychology and some of the key questions that guide the understanding of childhood. These questions include 'What influences children's development?' and 'How do psychologists study the physical and cognitive changes that occur during childhood?' As you work through this material, you will also gain a deeper understanding concerning how psychologists work with young children across a range of applied settings through activities and audio-visual materials.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Living psychology: animal minds
Does your pet cat or dog experience emotions the same way you do? Can non-human animals solve complex problems? To what extent do other species have minds that are like human minds? This free course, Living psychology: animal minds, explores these, and other, issues in the psychology of animal minds. Studying animal minds is of great importance to psychologists as humans are, of course, also animals. Researching other species can provide extremely useful insights into how human minds developed throughout evolutionary history.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
An introduction to death, dying and grief
Explore interesting and challenging ideas around death, dying and grief. This free course, An introduction to death, dying and grief, invites you to think more deeply about death and dying and encourages you to think about it in different ways. This course will introduce you to different perspectives on death; ethical issues related to dying and end-of-life care; as well as expressions of grief. Please note that this course includes video about people talking personally about their experiences in relation to death and dying. If you have been affected by the issues in these videos, there are resources included in the course for further information and support.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The impact of technology on children's physical activity
This free course, The impact of technology on children's physical activity, explores the impact of technology on children’s physical activity levels. It examines the different types of technology that children have access to and the ways in which they engage with it. As part of this discussion this course looks at information from a range of different sources and evaluates this evidence to try and answer the question of whether technology is helping or hindering children’s physical activity levels.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The science of nutrition and healthy eating
This free course, The science of nutrition and healthy eating, looks at the science behind nutrition, covering aspects of biology, chemistry and physics as well as giving some insight into healthier eating. Reading food labels, choosing healthier foods, hydrating appropriately and understanding how we taste food will allow you to be more informed about the choices you make about the food you eat.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Predictive medicine
In this free course, Predictive medicine, you will learn how advances in genetics could change the way in which diseases are diagnosed and managed. The advent of predictive medicine, based on more detailed DNA profiling of individual genotypes using technologies like gene chips, rather than screening for one gene at a time, may shift the relationship between doctor and patient. People will be seeking advice on how to manage their susceptibilities or genetic risks, rather than looking for treatment for an already existing disorder.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The boundaries of care
In this free course, The boundaries of care, you will look at a number of situations which put a strain on the idea that caring is just 'being ordinary', including times when people are giving intimate care. In these special circumstances, since the normal rules do not apply, we have to develop a set of special rules to guide practice.
