NewsletterProduced 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 8 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.
A growing selection of our courses offer a free Open University digital badge. Badges demonstrate your interest in a subject, a commitment to your career or provide evidence of continuing professional development.
Got a few spare minutes? Brush up on your knowledge with our range of free bite-size courses and activities.
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Education & Development
Youth justice in the UK: children, young people and crime
This free course will introduce you to the many ways of working with children in trouble with the law. You will learn about the emergence of the youth justice system in England and Wales and how it has changed over the years. A comparative approach provides opportunities to learn about the approaches taken in Northern Ireland and Scotland. You will explore topical issues surrounding young people and crime, such as how rates of victimisation and offending vary, with particular reference to the ways age, gender, race and social class shape young people’s experience of crime.
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Education & Development
Becoming an ethical researcher
This free course, Becoming an ethical researcher, explores the ethics of planning, carrying out and reporting research which involves human participants. It will sensitise you to issues that a researcher should consider to support ethical and well-justified decision-making. A wide variety of research scenarios will be used to stimulate individual reflection and discussion on the course forum, participation in which, together with successful completion of quizzes, will contribute to gaining a digital badge.
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Education & Development
Supporting children's mental health and wellbeing
Do you have a professional or personal interest in the mental health issues affecting young children? Are you working with children or are you a parent or carer? This free course, Supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing, is designed to give insight into the factors that are contributing to our youngest citizens’ poor mental health; examining factors from a national and global perspective. By the end of the course you will have gained knowledge about strategies and interventions that will help you to understand how you can support children’s mental health and improve their wellbeing.
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History & The Arts
The American Civil Rights Movement
In this free course, The American Civil Rights Movement, you will learn about the mass movement for racial equality in the United States that reached its zenith during the 1950s and 1960s. During this turbulent period in United States history, black Americans sought to overturn deeply entrenched systems of racial segregation and discrimination. This course discusses the key events in this campaign for social justice, drawing on a wide range of primary sources. In doing so, it assesses the achievements, shortcomings and revolutionary qualities of the civil rights movement. Use of racial language and terms This course deals with topics involving racial issues. Since the societies being studied were characterised by deeply-held and widespread racist views, this course contains language that is also racist. Although these may provoke a strong personal response, we believe it is necessary to engage with such attitudes to reach a clear understanding of the past. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A113 Revolutions.
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Education & Development
Addysg gynhwysol: deall yr hyn a olygwn (Cymru)
Ni waeth pa ysgol y byddwch yn eich canfod eich hun ynddi, bydd y ffordd y mae'n ymdrin ag addysg gynhwysol yn ffactor bwysig wrth bennu diwylliant ei hamgylchedd dysgu ac addysgu.
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Education & Development
Gwaith Tîm: Hyfforddiant i Lywodraethwyr (Cymru)
Mae llywodraethwyr yn chwarae rôl hanfodol yn y system addysg yng Nghymru fel rhan o waith tîm ehangach tuag at yr un nod: sicrhau bod plant yng Nghymru yn cael addysg ardderchog.
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Education & Development
Cyflwyniad i arweinyddiaeth i lywodraethwyr (Cymru)
Mae'r cwrs hwn yn rhoi cyflwyniad byr i faes cynhwysiant addysgol. Gallwch hefyd weld y cyrsiau eraill yn y casgliad hwn Cyflwyniad i arweinyddiaeth i lywodraethwyr a Gwaith tîm: cyflwyniad i lywodraethwyr ysgol.
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Education & Development
Teamwork: an introduction for school governors (Wales)
This course will introduce you to the importance of teams and partnership in an educational context. This Badged Open Course is part of a collection of training resources for school governors in Wales.
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Education & Development
An introduction to leadership for school governors (Wales)
This free course, An Introduction to Leadership for Governors, provides a brief introduction to the field of educational leadership. This Badged Open Course is part of a collection of training resources for school governors in Wales.
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Education & Development
Inclusive education: knowing what we mean (Wales)
This course introduces school governors to the contested area of educational inclusion. This Badged Open Course is part of a collection of training resources for school governors in Wales.
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Education & Development
Exploring innovative assessment methods
This course is particularly relevant for teachers, trainers and educators who are looking for new and innovative methods to teach and ------ learners at a distance when they are not physically in school or on a campus. This free course introduces the use of innovative methods for ------ment within secondary, further and higher education. The course is highly practical in nature and guides educational and training professionals through the process of introducing flexible formative and summative ------ments that can meet the needs of a standardised curriculum. The course will be particularly useful for educators who work in secondary schools and teachers and lecturers who work in further and higher education colleges or universities. The course provides a practical approach to introducing innovative flexible ------ment methods that are designed to improve the effectiveness of the ------ment.
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Languages
Teaching Spanish pronunciation
Welcome to this free course Teaching Spanish pronunciation.This short course is aimed at teachers of Spanish working in the United Kingdom who wish to extend their theoretical knowledge on teaching Spanish pronunciation. It offers ideas and practical skills that can be used in the classroom, be that virtual or face-to-face. This course will explore intelligibility, fluency, foreign accent, language variation, articulation and acoustics. The course is suitable for all levels of linguistic competence and at all levels of education. The course is divided into 5 weeks.