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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Health, Sports & Psychology
A question of ethics: right or wrong?
This free course, A question of ethics: right or wrong?, discusses ethical and professional principles in sport and fitness environments. Working closely with individuals and developing relationships is an inherent and often satisfying part of the work of a sports coach or exercise instructor. However, it can bring about ethical and professional...
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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 ...
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Money & Business
Commercial awareness
This short course encourages you to look across your organisation, at your place within it and the value you create. It considers how getting different perspectives and widening existing ones within your organisation can enhance commercial awareness.
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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 ...
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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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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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Health, Sports & Psychology
Recovery strategies in sport and exercise
The ability to recover quickly from an intensive training session or match can be extremely advantageous to sports performers. Sport and fitness participants are increasingly using strategies such as ice baths and compression clothing to enhance their recovery from intensive exercise, but how effective are these strategies? Do they really speed ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Emotions and emotional disorders
In this free course, Emotions and emotional disorders, you will learn about some of the disorders related to the feelings of stress, sadness and anxiety including how these disorders are diagnosed, their biological correlates, and evidence of their possible causes.
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Money & Business
Human resources: recruitment and selection
Does the recruitment and selection process fill you with dread? Discrimination and equal opportunities legislation can make this area feel like a minefield. If you are faced with appointing a new employee then this free course, Human resources: recruitment and selection, will provide a straightforward guide to the process: from writing job ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Investigating psychology
One of the keys to understanding psychology is to know about its history and core questions. This free course, Investigating psychology, allows you to explore psychology using an interactive resource. You can follow links to people, contexts, perspectives and methods to discover information, images and links from across psychology. The resource ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
IT: Information
BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN. We live in an era where news has become almost instantaneous. This free course, IT: Information, will look at how news is gathered and the technology that's used for its dissemination. You will also be encouraged to examine how information might be manipulated by questioning its reliability.
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Languages
Language and creativity
This free course is an introduction to the relationship between language and creativity, to the roles that linguistic creativity plays in culture and society, and to the different approaches to its study.