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.
- All topics
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level 1: introductory icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Introducing relational care
‘Relational care’ is a developing approach to care which can help address many of the challenges faced by the older adult care sector. It provides benefits not only for older people but also all those involved in their care. This free course is for providers, managers and staff of older adult residential and day care facilities. It explains ...
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level 3: advanced icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
The MMR vaccine: public health, private fears
A decade ago, the possibility of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism hit the media. Fear of the vaccine spread rapidly and, despite an almost unanimous consensus that the claim was unfounded, still persists today. In this free course, The MMR vaccine: public health, private fears, we'll examine why this controversy took on such a life of ...
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level 2: intermediate icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
From sound to meaning: hearing, speech and language
Human communication is vastly more complex than that of any other species we know about. It is so complex that linguists are only just beginning to identify the processes in the brain that are related to understanding language. This free course, From sound to meaning: hearing, speech and language, looks at how language is understood by taking an...
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Society, Politics & Law
Psychological research, obedience and ethics
In this free course, Psychological research, obedience and ethics, you will learn about the importance of ethics in research that is undertaken by psychologists. You will read about the famous study on obedience conducted by Stanley Milgram, and watch two psychologists talk about their research with meerkats and chimpanzees.
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level 3: advanced icon
Health, Sports & Psychology
Understanding service improvement in healthcare
This free course, Understanding service improvement in healthcare, will help you to understand what people mean by the terms ‘service’ and ‘improvement’ in relation to healthcare. The course will help you to think about how those involved in healthcare, whether as practitioners or service users, can monitor the progress of any initiative to ...
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level 1: introductory icon
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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 ...
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Education & Development
Accessibility of eLearning
It is part of a teaching professional's skills to understand the needs of a diverse population of students. This free course, Accessibility of eLearning, introduces the challenges for disabled students who may use computers in different ways when taking part in eLearning or may need alternative teaching methods. It covers the technology and ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
An introduction to design engineering
This free course, An introduction to design engineering, looks at the way in which engineers use ideas and approaches from the discipline of design thinking to inform their work. The complexity that people bring to design problems is introduced, along with some basic methods of dealing with such complexity.
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Money & Business
Business communication: writing a SWOT analysis
This free course, Business communication: writing a SWOT analysis, is designed to develop your writing skills for business. You will be taken step by step through the process of writing a SWOT analysis, with clear advice on selecting key information from a case study text, making concise notes, choosing an appropriate structure and using ...
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level 2: intermediate icon
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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level 3: advanced icon
Money & Business
Decision trees and dealing with uncertainty
This free course introduces basic ideas of probability. It focuses on dealing with uncertainty in a financial context and explores decision trees, a powerful decision-making technique, which can help you to simplify and formulate business decisions. The course also includes videos that introduce the key ideas and guide you through numerous ...
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level 3: advanced icon
Money & Business
Managing and managing people
This free course, Managing and managing people, will introduce you to the world of management. We will be looking at a range of topics, including what managers do, what skills they require, and how you can develop as a manager.