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.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Badge icon
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.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Caring in hospitals
This free course, Caring in hospitals, considers the type of care offered in hospitals, using Leeds General Hospital as a case study. The course looks at the people who have roles within the hospital, how they interact with each other and patients, and what they consider to be 'care'. The different approaches and contributions to care by doctors and nurses are explored and patients give their perspective on the care they receive.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
The science behind wheeled sports
This free course, The science behind wheeled sports, focuses on cycling and wheelchair racing: what we might collectively call wheeled sports. The Scientific concepts such as force, acceleration and speed are also useful for understanding these sports. However, cycling and wheelchair racing differ from other sports in that technology more obviously plays an important role.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Badge icon
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.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Badge icon
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.
free course icon
Level 2 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Sporting women in the media
The mass media (e.g. radio, TV, internet) has become one of the most powerful institutional influences in society. This free course, Sporting women in the media, explores whether gendered inequalities exist in sport by evaluating the media coverage. The media can be highly influential in shaping perceptions about gender in sport and headlines indicative of differences in how male and female athletes are regarded in the media. In the course you’ll examine messages that the media send us about gender in sport, their potential impact and how gender ideologies can be challenged.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
Badge icon
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.
free course icon
Level 2 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Making sense of mental health problems
Over the past century there has been a radical shift in responses to people who experience mental health problems. In this free course, Making sense of mental health problems, you will learn about how key perspectives in the field have made sense of mental health problems. By directly relating key perspectives to a case study, you will reflect on how the medical perspective, psychological perspective and social need perspective come to make sense of mental ill-health.
free course icon
Level 2 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
The psychological aspects of sports injury
For many people sport is a way of life, so imagine the emotional distress that a sports injury can bring when it restricts someone's participation in sport. This free course, The psychological aspects of sports injury, examines the role of psychological factors in sports injury. You will look at both the psychological factors that can lead to a sports injury and the psychological reactions that a sports person can experience when injured, including insight from Olympic hockey gold medallist Helen Richardson-Walsh. This course is for you if you have ever experienced a sports injury, if you work with injured athletes or if you have a general interest in the area.
free course icon
Level 1 icon
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.
free course icon
Level 2 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Death and medicine: Postponement and promise
This free course, Death and medicine: Postponement and promise, helps you to explore the extent to which death and dying in western societies are medical events and what aspects of death and dying might be neglected as a consequence. The course covers the way that such things as medicine provide the context of the experiences associated with the end of life.
free course icon
Level 2 icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Factors that influence health: An introduction
What factors influence our health? A lot of attention is focused on people's behaviour - their decisions to smoke, drink, over-eat and so on - with strong messages about the changes needed to become healthier. But people's behaviour is influenced by circumstances and events, friends and family, education, job prospects, income, housing and environment. In this free course, Factors that influence health: An introduction, you will look at how these factors, these wider social determinants, work together to influence our health for good or ill.