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 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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Health, Sports & Psychology
Making sense of mental health problems
Over the past century there has been a radical shift in responses to people who experience mental health problems. In this free course, Making sense of mental health problems, you will learn about how key perspectives in the field have made sense of mental health problems. By directly relating key perspectives to a case study, you will reflect on how the medical perspective, psychological perspective and social need perspective come to make sense of mental ill-health.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Mastering systems thinking in practice
This free course, Mastering systems thinking in practice, provides a primer for someone wanting to take the postgraduate qualifications in Systems Thinking in Practice. It will help you develop new ways of thinking about and approaching situations that cross multiple discipline and skill boundaries. You will learn to think more holistically about complex and messy situations, understanding the roles other people play, taking account of the interconnectedness of all the components making up the problem situation and working more collaboratively
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Exploring sport coaching and psychology
This free course, Exploring sport coaching and psychology, investigates how scientific and management ideas contribute to success while also taking you on a journey through unique sporting case studies and insights that will change how you view and study sport. You will consider how the mind, the body, the environment and training techniques all contribute to optimum fitness.
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Languages
Beginners’ Spanish: Getting around
Do you want to improve your language skills and communicate more easily and effectively in Spanish? This free course, Beginners’ Spanish: Getting around, concentrates on Spanish as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into Hispanic societies and cultures through authentic printed and audio materials. This OpenLearn course focuses on public spaces and how to get by in a Hispanic city.
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Languages
Beginners’ German: Places and people
Do you want to learn the basics of the German language? This free course, Beginners’ German: Places and people, will take you on a journey through German-speaking countries. You will read and hear about a range of places and people. This OpenLearn course will give you the opportunity to develop language skills which will help you to cope in a range of situations.
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Languages
Intermediate Spanish: Understanding spoken Spanish
Welcome to this free course, Intermediate Spanish: Understanding spoken Spanish, which is aimed at intermediate learners of Spanish with an interest in language and culture. The six-hour course is designed to develop your understanding of spoken Spanish through six video portraits of people living in Spain. It introduces you to naturally spoken language, and gives clear advice on how to use authentic video resources as a useful and enjoyable learning tool. Through completing various activities you will improve your active use of the language, and develop the confidence to access further audio-visual resources and take your Spanish studies to a higher level.
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Languages
Intermediate German: Understanding spoken German
This free course, Intermediate German: Understanding spoken German, is aimed at intermediate learners of German with an interest in language and culture. The six-hour-course is designed to develop your understanding of spoken German through video portraits of people in the German cities of Hamburg and Passau. It introduces you to naturally spoken language, and gives clear advice on how to use video resources as a useful and enjoyable learning tool. Through completing varied activities you will improve your understanding and active use of the language, and develop the confidence to access further resources and take your German studies to a higher level.
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Languages
Intermediate French: Holiday plans
This free course, Intermediate French: Holiday plans, is taken from Ouverture, a language course that concentrates on French as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into French society and culture through authentic printed, audio and video materials. The course will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in French. Intermediate French: Holiday plans focuses on the French on holiday.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Making sense of ourselves
This free course, Making sense of ourselves, introduces you to well-known psychological topics by asking and answering everyday questions, such as Why don’t we like one another? Why would I hang around with you? Do you see what I see? What’s the point of childhood? You’ll learn how psychologists can go about addressing these questions using different research tools and approaches.
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Languages
Beginners’ German: Food and drink
This free course, Beginners' German: Food and drink, provides materials at German for beginners level that support the development of listening, reading, writing and speaking skills. The content focus is on food, restaurants and eating habits. The course also gives examples of how grammar, vocabulary, cultural aspects and study skills are taught in the Beginners' German module.
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Languages
Intermediate French: Understanding spoken French
This free course, Intermediate French: Understanding spoken French, is aimed at intermediate learners of French with an interest in language and culture. It is designed to develop your understanding of spoken French through six video portraits of people living in the Touraine region in France and in Brussels in Belgium. It introduces you to naturally spoken language, and gives clear advice on how to use authentic video resources as a useful and enjoyable learning tool. Through completing various activities you will improve your active use of the language, and develop the confidence to access further audio-visual resources and take your French studies to a higher level.
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Education & Development
Being an OU student
In the course, you’ll get a flavour of what OU study is actually like, learn about how you’ll be supported, the technologies you’ll use and start to develop the skills you’ll need to succeed.
