Free courses
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 9 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Supporting older people with learning disabilities and their families
This free course, Supporting older people with learning disabilities and their families, stems from research that explored how to improve the care and support for older people with learning disabilities and behaviours that challenge others, and their families.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Caring for an older family member with learning disabilities
Whether you are a parent or sibling caring for a relative with a learning disability, this free course, Caring for an older family member with learning disabilities, is designed to help you navigate the system as they grow older. It has been developed from a cutting-edge research project that explored how to improve the care and support for ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Practice supervision and assessment in nursing
Being able to supervise and assess in the workplace are core skills needed by those supporting learners. In the context of this development, this free course, Practice supervision and assessment in nursing, has been designed to support practitioners working with students in workplace settings across nursing provision. Core to these resources are...
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Society, Politics & Law
Applying social work law to asylum and immigration
This course will present an overview of the policy and law that relates to social work with people involved in the asylum and immigration system and will introduce you to the ways in which social work practitioners can support people with insecure immigration status, refugees and asylum seekers more effectively. It will highlight some of the ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The football World Cup: where sport and politics collide
Occasionally, controversies arise that remind us of the link between sport and politics. It was once common for leading figures in the sporting world to declare that sport was, effectively, a politics-free zone. Sport was cast as the perpetual innocent party, liable to be corrupted by any connection with politics. However, it has become ...
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Money & Business
MSE’s Academy of Money
The Open University has joined forces with MoneySavingExpert (MSE) to produce this new free course to give you the skills and knowledge to master your finances. Packed with videos, audios, quizzes and activities the course covers all the key aspects of personal finance in six sessions of study that each take around two hours to complete.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Supporting female performance in sport and fitness
Do you support women’s performance in sport or fitness as a coach or parent? Are you a female athlete who wants to optimise your performance using recent research insights? If so, then this free course is for you. It addresses the problem of sports science research traditionally being male dominated and the assumption that if it works for men ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Promoting the effective management of children’s pain
This free course will focus on the promotion of effective management of children’s pain, through the use of a pain management framework. The information presented will enable you to gain knowledge and insight into evidence-based practice, in relation to delivering effective pain management for children.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Critically exploring psychology
This free course introduces you to critical thinking as a tool for psychology. As you work your way through the course you will learn what critical thinking is, and why it is important to use in the study of psychology. In particular, it will help you to think about how to use it when doing independent research. This OpenLearn course is an...
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Education & Development
Why riot? Community, choices, aspirations
This free course was made in the summer of 2021 in the aftermath of street disturbances in working class areas of Northern Ireland. It was produced with young people from Belfast and local community activists, for young people aged 14+. The course aims to help young people think about what community means to them; to identify issues they are...
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Money & Business
The business of football
This free course, The business of football, was produced by The Open University working in partnership with The English Football League Trust. If you are fascinated by men's and women's football and interested in discovering more about business and management, then this engaging and stimulating course is for you.
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Society, Politics & Law
Applying social work law with children and families
This course will introduce you to the law as it applies to social work with children and families in the United Kingdom. You will learn about varying definitions of childhood and family and then explore underpinning principles of the law relating to child rights and parental responsibilities. You will look at the key legislation relating to ...