Find out more about The Open University's Arts and Humanities courses
I’m a former Module Chair for YXM130 and I love that this module lets you experiment with different subjects and build a really informed understanding of what it is that interests you. If I was to study this module, I would be interested in studying courses that would help to expand my knowledge of music, theatre and literature. This is because I am a musician and singing teacher, I enjoy the theatre, both as an audience member and actor, I have a keen interest in how the arts interact with society and enjoy analysing works of fiction.
I would consider studying the OpenLearn courses below to help me discover and understand more about the following:
- Areas of music I am less familiar with and exploring how to be a better teacher.
- I am familiar with Shakespeare but don’t know As you like it so am enthusiastic to learn more!
- How the arts interact with society at large.
- How to improve my skills in analysing works of fiction.
- Moving from appreciating literature to perhaps creating some and so I would like to learn about how to write fiction.
Free courses in Music, theatre and literature...
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Discovering music: the blues
Learn more to access more details of Discovering music: the bluesThis free course, Discovering music: the blues, will introduce you to a musical tradition with roots in the nineteenth century but which is still relevant to making music today. You will learn about how the lyrics of blues songs reflect the social environment in which they were created, and about the musical techniques that underpin the ...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Recording music and sound
Learn more to access more details of Recording music and soundThis free course, Recording music and sound, provides an historical introduction to music and sound recording in the creative industries and offers some guidance about making your own recordings. Many of the processes that have been developed and the issues that have been raised in the first 150 years of recording are still relevant today, and a...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Reading Shakespeare's As You Like It
Learn more to access more details of Reading Shakespeare's As You Like ItDo you enjoy watching Shakespeare's plays and like the idea of finding out more about them? This free course, Reading Shakespeare's As You Like It, will guide you through some of the most important speeches and scenes from one of Shakespeare's best-loved comedies.
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Approaching plays
Learn more to access more details of Approaching playsDo you want to get more out of drama? This free course, Approaching plays, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary plays. You will learn about dialogue, stage directions, blank verse, dramatic structure and conventions and aspects of performance.
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Janis Joplin and the Sexual Revolution
Learn more to access more details of Janis Joplin and the Sexual RevolutionThis free course, Janis Joplin and the Sexual Revolution, will introduce you to issues around the sexual revolution and how this, and other contemporary social revolutions of the 1960s, impacted upon American rock musician Janis Joplin (1943-1970). You will investigate the extent to which the contemporary sexual revolution brought about ...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the Acts
Learn more to access more details of Exploring Virginia Woolf’s Between the ActsThis free course introduces Virginia Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941), with the aim of understanding how she writes about time, memory, and ideas about identity. It also considers why Woolf’s fiction is often considered difficult. Selected extracts from her essays on writing help to clarify some of these perceived difficulties, ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd
Learn more to access more details of Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding CrowdThis free course, Exploring Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd, is designed to tell you something about Hardy's background, and to introduce you to the pleasures of reading a nineteenth-century novel. Why do we believe in fictional characters and care about what happens to them? You will discover some of the techniques that Hardy ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Start writing fiction: characters and stories
Learn more to access more details of Start writing fiction: characters and storiesStart writing fiction is a free course that helps you to get started with your own fiction writing, focusing on the central skill of creating characters.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Am I ready to be a distance learner?
Learn more to access more details of Am I ready to be a distance learner?Distance learning can open up opportunities for study. You might have not studied for a while, you might be returning to education, or you might not have had the chance to study at a higher level before. This free course, Am I ready to be a distance learner?, will help to boost your confidence. You'll explore useful skills so you can discover ...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Discovering music through listening
Learn more to access more details of Discovering music through listeningThis free course, Discovering music through listening, will introduce you to the musical elements used by musicians to create a piece of music: pulse, tempo, metre, harmony, structure, texture, timbre and dynamics. You'll learn how to identify the different musical elements by taking a particular approach to listening to the music, known as ...
Level: 1 Introductory
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Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems
Learn more to access more details of Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poemsThis free course, Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems, looks at the short poems in German that were set to music by Franz Schubert (17971828) for a single voice with piano, a genre known as 'Lieder' (the German for 'songs'). Once they became widely known, Schubert's Lieder influenced generations of songwriters up to the present day. ...
Level: 2 Intermediate
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Creative writing and critical reading
Learn more to access more details of Creative writing and critical readingThis free course, Creative writing and critical reading, explores the importance of reading as part of a creative writer’s development at the postgraduate level. You will gain inspiration and ideas from examining other writers’ methods, as well as enhancing your critical reading skills. Examples will cover the genres of fiction, creative ...
Level: 3 Advanced
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Reception of music in cross-cultural perspective
Learn more to access more details of Reception of music in cross-cultural perspectiveMusic is created to be performed, in most cases for an audience, whether in a concert hall, at a street fair or through a radio. But how those listeners receive a piece or style of music influences future music production. This free course, Reception of music in cross-cultural perspective, explores how audience reception, changing social ...
Level: 3 Advanced
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Why teach art?
Learn more to access more details of Why teach art?What value does art have in the school curriculum? The answer is provided by this free course, Why teach art? Aimed primarily at colleagues teaching art in schools, it explores the justification for including art in the school curriculum together with some of the current criticisms commonly heard.
Level: 1 Introductory
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Creativity, community and ICT
Learn more to access more details of Creativity, community and ICTWhat do you think being creative means? This free course, Creativity, community and ICT, engages with the debates surrounding the term 'creativity' and explores ways in which ICT creates new opportunities for creativity and collaborative working. The course would be of interest to teachers, parents and carers, and can be studied on an individual...
Level: 1 Introductory
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