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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 ...
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Education & Development
Supporting babies and toddlers
The first two years of a child’s life are a time of incredible change and development. This free course helps practitioners to understand these changes and explore how they can support babies and toddlers in early childhood settings. This course draws on research and expertise from early childhood academics at The Open University and ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Introducing International Relations
In this free course you will be introduced to the subject of International Relations (IR). You will learn how IR seeks to analyse vital global problems and the key actors and issues involved. In the course you will explore two contemporary case studies: the competition between great powers like the USA and China for access to Africa’s resources;...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Psychology around the world
Psychology around the world looks at some of the ways people think in similar and different ways depending on where they live and their culture. The course starts with some general questions of how similar and different people’s psychology might be in different times and places. This is then followed with some key examples: how people perceive ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Introduction to quantum computing
Quantum computing is a developing field with enormous potential societal and economic impact. In the future, quantum computers will enable us to solve a range of complex problems that are currently intractable, potentially revolutionising key sectors including medicine, finance and the pharmaceutical industry. In this free course you will learn ...
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History & The Arts
Women transforming classical music
Women transforming classical music is a free course aimed at helping individual performers, ensembles and organisations within the classical music industry to diversify their repertoire by including more works by women composers. The 6-week course considers the male-dominated nature of the contemporary classical music industry and how to ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Exploring criminology: problem-solving courts
Social life is characterised by various relationships – those with family and friends, neighbours, wider communities and those people have with social institutions such as governments, schools or universities. But what happens when things go wrong in social relationships – how do societies deal with that? When social relationships rupture, the ...
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Education & Development
Supporting children’s learning in primary education today
This free course explores different aspects of learning and teaching in primary education. It gives opportunities to engage with different types of activities that are designed to develop an understanding of learning and teaching in primary education.
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Society, Politics & Law
Pluralism in Economics: inequalities, innovation, environment
This course will show you the variety within Economics which is used to understand and tackle some of the biggest challenges we face globally: tensions between growth and inequalities, market power and innovation, whether economics has what it takes to solve environmental challenges.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Electromagnetism: testing Coulomb’s law
This free course explores Coulomb’s law, the physical law that governs the force between electric charges, and shows how it can be verified experimentally. As a prerequisite you will need some mathematical knowledge of vectors. This free course is an adapted extract from the Open University course SM381 Electromagnetism.
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Money & Business
Retirement planning made easy
This free course on money and retirement planning has been produced by The Open University in collaboration with Legal & General.
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Money & Business
Midlife MOT: wealth, work and wellbeing
Introducing your Midlife MOT. Your midlife years – that is, when you’re between about 40 and 60 – will probably be a very hectic time indeed. You might have ended up in a challenging job, or you might be working hard to get one. You could be looking after the kids, your parents or maybe both. Maybe you’re putting time and energy into a whole new...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Transport and Sustainability
This free course, Transport and sustainability, explores the issues around sustainable transport and how the role of technology and society can interact to lower the overall impact of transport.
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Education & Development
Supporting adult learners’ positive mental health
This free course provides educators with an introduction to adult learners’ mental health. The course is designed to develop understanding of the impact mental health has on learning, as well as to explore the variety of strategies that can be employed to support adult learners experiencing a range of mental health related challenges.
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Money & Business
Corporate fraud and criminal behaviour
Corporate crime can cause financial losses to a business, damage its reputation, and may result in the loss of customers. This course explores how fraud, insider dealing, bribery, money laundering, and other types of corporate wrongdoing occur. It also outlines what legal measures exist to prevent and respond to them. You’ll learn about ...
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Nature & Environment
An introduction to floodplain meadows
This free course, An introduction to floodplain meadows, explores how these traditional landscapes can deliver a range of nature-based solutions that will improve our environment. The course will help you to learn about this unique environment, increasing your ecological knowledge, developing your skills in critical reasoning, and offering you ...
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History & The Arts
What can philosophy tell us about race?
Categorising human beings into races has had, and continues to have, an enormous impact on people’s lives. Many societies have been shaped by racial divisions and racial discrimination. Race continues to affect people’s experiences and personal identities today. This free course, What can philosophy tell us about race?, will introduce you to ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Developing a research question in International Relations
This free course, taken from the MA in International Relations (Part 2), explores why research questions matter and what makes a good research question. Research questions are vital for any academic inquiry, yet writing a good one is not easy. A well-designed question enables you to clearly define and communicate a focused area of research in a ...