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Money & Business
Supply chain sustainability
To survive in today’s competitive environment, organisations need not only have an efficient and effective supply chain for the context in which they operate, they also have to consider issues of sustainability in their supply chain strategies. These issues are a consideration beyond those of environmental sustainability and also encompass ...
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History & The Arts
Studying the arts and humanities
This free course is an introduction to studying the arts and humanities. It takes you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and improve your confidence as an independent learner.
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Nature & Environment
Studying mammals: Return to the water
Some of the most unusual and versatile of all the mammals are the groups that live, feed and reproduce underwater. In this free course, Studying mammals: Return to the water, we will see how these formerly land-based mammals adapted to a return to the water, discussing such challenges as breathing, movement and communication. This is the seventh...
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Digital & Computing
Introducing ICT systems
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) systems now dominate our everyday lives. This free course, Introducing ICT systems, will explain what constitutes such a system and how ICT systems work. You will also look at how ICT systems convey, store and manipulate data, and how they process data. Finally you will learn how these systems ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Climate change: island life in a volatile world
What impact will global warming really have? This free course, Climate change: island life in a volatile world, examines the potential problems faced by the people of the Pacific Island of Tuvalu as a result of rising sea levels. Where would you go if your island is only a few feet above sea level? Who would you blame?
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Science, Maths & Technology
Numbers, units and arithmetic
Do fractions and decimals make you apprehensive about maths? Do you lack confidence in dealing with numbers? If so, then this free course, Numbers, units and arithmetic, is for you. The course will explain the basics of working with positive and negative numbers and how to multiply and divide with fractions and decimals.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Living without oil
Crude oil is currently our most important global source of energy. It is vital in the manufacture of many modern materials. But the worlds supply of oil is finite, its price is unstable and our reliance on oil has damaging environmental consequences. This free course, Living without oil, explains why developing alternatives to oil is an ...
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Education & Development
Children and young people’s participation
Listening to children is a first step in the participation agenda, which is reasonably well established. By contrast, enabling children to share in decision making lags some way behind. This free course, Children and young people's participation, emphasises that the adoption of an integrated approach to participation by different sectors of the ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Race, ethnicity and crime
This free course, Race, ethnicity and crime, briefly examines the relationships between race and ethnicity, and crime, criminalisation and criminal justice. It considers the relationship between crime and cultural difference; the notion of 'criminalisation' and how its processes affect individuals and their opportunities; and the lived ...
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Education & Development
The range of work with young people
This free course, The range of work with young people, identifies some features that we might use to describe the various settings where work with young people takes place. This encourages us to identify similarities and differences between settings. It then introduces some theoretical perspectives to help us review these settings and thus ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Pain and Aspirin
What causes pain and how do we stop it? This free course, Pain and Aspirin, looks at how the human body responds to the release of certain chemicals and as a result feels pain. Pain can be reduced by inhibiting the formation of such chemicals and you will learn how the molecular structure of aspirin has been formulated to help in this process.
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History & The Arts
National identity in Britain and Ireland, 1780–1840
What is a ‘nation’? What is a ‘state’? Where have these ideas come from and how have they developed over time? This free course, National identity in Britain and Ireland, 1780-1840, explores how the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland was formed. It then moves to analyse the distinctions between the terms ‘nation’ and ‘state’. Finally, it ...
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Nature & Environment
An introduction to energy resources
Energy resources are essential for any society, be it one dependent on subsistence farming or an industrialised country. There are many different sources of energy, some well-known such as coal or petroleum, others less so, such as tides or the heat inside the Earth. Is nuclear power a salvation or a nightmare? This free course, An introduction ...
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Money & Business
Facilitating group discussions
Gain an insight into facilitating meetings and discussions in the workplace. In this free course, Facilitating group discussions, you will look at some of the behaviours effective facilitators exhibit. Informative and engaging videos will introduce you to examples of facilitation in practice.
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Nature & Environment
Studying mammals: A winning design
The term mammal encompasses a huge variety of animals, including humans. But what makes a mammal a mammal? This free course, Studying mammals: A winning design, explores some of the features, such as reproduction, lactation and thermoregulation methods, that mammals have in common. It is the first in a series of ten Studying mammals courses....
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Nature & Environment
Studying Darwin
Please note that this is not a course containing teaching materials. It collates links to a variety of courses and other resources about natural selection, its relevance to different environments and animal species, and the theory's influence on future scientists, psychologists and philosophers. It will be of interest to anyone wishing to study ...
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Languages
Cultures
In this free course, Cultures, you will address the question of traditional music and music from the francophone world, and you will examine the place they occupy in the world of artistic creation. The course is divided into three sections: 'Is traditional music, current music?', 'The musical heritage of Normandy' and 'Music of the francophone ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Starting with psychology
The most 'important and greatest puzzle' we face as humans is ourselves (Boring, 1950, p. 56). Humans are a puzzle, one that is complex, subtle and multi-layered, and it gets even more complicated as we evolve over time and change within different contexts. When answering the question 'what makes us who we are?' psychologists put forward a ...