All our free courses
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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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level 1: introductory icon
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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 ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Mental health in society
In this free course, Mental health in society, you will explore and critically reflect on mental health. You will explore the relationship between the lived experiences of individuals, and the society and environment in which they live. Different perspectives, approaches and models of understanding and critiquing mental health will be explored ...
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Money & Business
Financial statement analysis and interpretation
This free course, Financial statement analysis and interpretation focuses on how the users of financial statements draw inferences about the financial position and performance of a reporting entity. To understand the information presented in financial statements, users need to carry out different types of analysis. They require past as well as ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Doping: a contemporary sports issue case study
In this free course, doping (performance enhancing drugs, or PEDs) is used as an example of how contemporary issues in sport might be studied. Doping is used to illustrate how you can think about the debates involved in an issue and this will help you develop appropriate skills to discuss other contemporary issues in sport.
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Science, Maths & Technology
White dwarfs and neutron stars
Stars live their lives for millions or billions of years but will eventually die. Low mass stars (like the Sun) will end their lives producing so-called planetary nebulae, and leave behind a collapsed core known as a white dwarf. More massive stars will end their lives by exploding and producing a so-called supernova remnant, and leave a neutron...