David Lucey

‘For anyone who is thinking about learning on OpenLearn, I'd recommend you give it a chance. It's an amazing resource - the materials are freely available and there's something for everyone!’ 

   











‘For anyone who is thinking about learning on OpenLearn, I’d recommend you give it a chance. It’s an amazing resource - the materials are freely available and there’s something for everyone!’ This is David Lucey who, up until 12 months ago, had never been an OpenLearn user, despite being involved in educational institutions for much of his life!

‘I completed my Leaving Certificate [final exam of secondary school in Ireland] in 2005 and I’ve done a lot of further courses, both online and offline, since then and enjoyed them all,’ he explained. ‘I’ve learned lots about different things – wellness, fitness, creative writing, computer literacy, community participation, photography, healthy eating and mindfulness. My favourite courses on OpenLearn have been Challenging ideas in mental health, Starting with psychology, Coping in isolation: Time to Think and An introduction to crime and criminology... all interesting topics that I wanted to learn more about.’

And that was one of the reasons he turned to OpenLearn in the first place because, as he explains ‘...it offers a wide range of courses that were simply unavailable at my local education centre. I wanted to learn about new things to get a clearer picture of what fields of interest I might be interested in pursuing in the future, without having to pay while figuring it out!’

After being out of the classroom environment for 15 years or more, it also gave David a chance to get used to studying again, something familiar to many learners on the site. ‘A friend googled the term “free courses” and OpenLearn came up as one of the top results, but when I looked at the site, what interested me the most was the wide range of courses available. I was really surprised at how much OpenLearn had to offer... the resources are amazing!’ he added – and we’re obviously delighted to hear that!

But David also had a very personal reason for seeking out online learning, and an interest in one area in particular, which we’re glad we were able to support. ‘My Dad suffered from anxiety and depression,’ David shared with us, ‘and he was in and out of hospital from 1996 until he passed away in 2014.

‘He was never encouraged to talk about his mental health by his extended family, so I thought I might get a better understanding of what it was like for him by researching the subject, while someone else – a support worker I used to know – also suffered with anxiety, and I thought I might be able to get a better understanding of her too through some research.’

Following his discovery of what OpenLearn has to offer, happily for us, David has been keen to share his experiences. ‘I’ve told other people about OpenLearn, and my friends and family are all supportive of my learning on OpenLearn.’ But that’s not the end of his journey back into education...

‘In the future I hope to work in the field of psychology or wellness, and maybe a side job in data entry, and I hope to go to college and do evening classes in a few years time.

‘I also want to explore the tourism and media studies content on OpenLearn, as I think that would be really helpful, but I will definitely do more courses, if they interest me. It’s good to be open-minded about new things.’ We couldn’t agree more David – here’s to many more, and to building on those OpenLearn foundations.

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  An introduction to crime and criminology

  The course goes on to consider how social scientists and criminologists, in particular, study and seek to understand problems of crime. The course invites you to develop what can be called your 'criminological imagination'. This, in part, involves viewing criminological issues or problems from multiple perspectives but also encourages you ...

  Learn more to access more details of An introduction to crime and criminology
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  Starting with psychology

  The most 'important and greatest puzzle' we face as humans is ourselves (Boring, 1950, p. 56). Humans are a puzzle, one that is complex, subtle and multi-layered, and it gets even more complicated as we evolve over time and change within different contexts. When answering the question 'what makes us who we are?' psychologists put forward a ...

  Learn more to access more details of Starting with psychology
• 

  Play, learning and the brain

  This free course, Play, learning and the brain, examines the area of brain-based learning, with a particular focus on the development of the young child's brain, and is of particular relevance to those who work with young children. We begin by looking at the structure and functions of the brain, and the impact that sensory deprivation can have ...

  Learn more to access more details of Play, learning and the brain