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
Race and Youth Policy: working with young people
How should we, as a society, best respond to and prevent gang and knife crime and violent extremism? Is it fair to target Black and Muslim Asian youth populations, via social policy, as being groups most at-risk from committing gun and knife violence and acts of terrorism? Within a context of major cuts to generic young people’s services, is it justifiable for government policy and funding priorities to only focus on youth programmes, tasked with preventing radicalisation and gang violence? This course will look at the meaning of social policy, how it works as a mechanism of persuading people to behave in specific ways, its role in shaping our understandings of young people, and the role practitioners can play in mediating and influencing policy. In particular, this course will examine the racialisation and criminalisation of youth social policy as it pertains to Black and Muslim Asian British youth.
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Education & Development
Engaging with postgraduate research: education, childhood & youth
In this free course, Engaging with postgraduate research: education, childhood & youth, you will build on your understanding of how to evaluate research by thinking about a fundamental part of the research process: research perspectives and approaches. Some of the different ways of researching situations that can ----- when working in education and working with children and young people will be examined. You will explore distinct and influential ways in which people think about and study the complexities around working with children and young people, the practices involved in learning and teaching and the structures that support and impact on them. You will become familiar with the different theoretical tools used in research, which will enable you to begin to interrogate research literature and the research process itself.
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Education & Development
All my own work: exploring academic integrity
Are you currently studying? This free course, All my own work: exploring academic integrity, is designed to help you build confidence in producing your own work for academic purposes. You will explore what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, and learn how and when to reference. The course also includes an interactive to work through, which will help you to identify the potential temptations and challenges you may face when working on assignments. By the end of the course you should have developed an understanding of what appropriate academic practice is and feel more confident in producing your own work for academic purposes.
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History & The Arts
Census stories: Bringing statistics to life in Milton Keynes
This free course brings national census data to life by highlighting the vibrant stories of the diverse residents of Milton Keynes. This ‘new town’ with an increasingly mixed population, serves as a rich case study for understanding demographic changes in ethnicity and religion across the UK. The approach can be applied in any local context. It encourages reflection upon personal lived experience and its relationship to the complexities of identity, ethnicity and religion, as observed in the census statistics over time.
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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 Revolutionsand is part of a set of four OpenLearn courses, covering Revolutions of the Sixties. Transcript
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Education & Development
Being an OU student
The induction course for new OU students, covering the essentials for starting your undergraduate studies.
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Languages
Beginners’ Tamil: a taster course
This free course, Beginners’ Tamil: a taster course, provides a brief introduction to the Tamil language and its scripts and sounds. You will learn how to greet people and introduce yourself, as well as how to ----- from one to ten. You will also be introduced to Tamil society and culture and will learn about the food and music popular in Tamil-speaking societies. This introductory course offers you a chance to start an exciting new learning experience and learn a new language, with a range of activities.
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Education & Development
Working with diversity in services for children and young people
This free course, Working with diversity in services for children and young people, will provide you with an understanding of the ways in which diverse and intersecting social identities structure the lives and experiences of children and young people, and the implications of those identities for professional practice. Although designed primarily for those working with or supporting children or young people, whether in a paid or voluntary role, it will also be of interest to those who wish to improve their understanding of services for children and young people.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Challenging ideas in mental health
Take a new and different look at mental health. This free course, Challenging ideas in mental health, invites you to think differently about life's dilemmas by taking account of the views of all concerned, especially people experiencing mental distress. It explores ideas and practice in mental health, and will appeal to a wide range of people.
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Money & Business
MSE’s Academy of Money
The Open University has joined forces with MoneySavingExpert (MSE) to produce this new free course to give you the skills and knowledge to master your finances. Packed with videos, audios, quizzes and activities the course covers all the key aspects of personal finance in six sessions of study that each take around two hours to complete.
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History & The Arts
Simone de Beauvoir and the feminist revolution
In this free course you will study the ideas of philosopher Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986). In doing so you will also briefly study the philosophy of Beauvoir’s lifelong partner, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The type of philosophy that links them is called ‘existentialism’. Beauvoir and Sartre are the foremost philosophers of French existentialism. You will read extracts of Beauvoir’s work and learn about the existential view of the human being as free and responsible for his or her actions. You will discover that Beauvoir argues that women are generally conceived of as ‘Other’, that is different from a supposed neutral human being. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A113 Revolutions63and is part of a set of four OpenLearn courses, covering Revolutions of the Sixties64. Transcript
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Innovation in health and social care practice
This free course, Innovation in health and social care practice, focuses on how digital technology and innovation changes the expectations and job roles for health and social care practitioners. You will learn about what these expectations might be on practitioners and also about common responses and criticisms that may ----- from transforming practice through technology.