All our free courses
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Nature & Environment
Climate change
Climate change is a key issue on today's social and political agenda. This free course explores the basic science that underpins climate change and global warming.
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Languages
Intermediate Spanish: Understanding spoken Spanish
This course 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...
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Languages
Intermediate French: Holiday plans
This course 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...
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Money & Business
Building relationships with donors
Legacy fundraising and big-gift seeking are part of the professional fundraiser's role. This free course, Building relationships with donors, will help you to gain the skills necessary to persuade individuals to become donors. How do you change people's ideas about methods of giving, moving them from casual street donations to regular direct ...
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History & The Arts
Brighton Pavilion
In this free course, Brighton Pavilion, you will examine the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and its relationship to nineteenth-century Romanticism and exoticism. You'll begin with a biographical discussion of the Prince of Wales, afterwards Prince Regent and eventually King George IV, to whose specifications the Pavilion was built. With the help of...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Bayesian statistics
This free course is an introduction to Bayesian statistics. Section 1 discusses several ways of estimating probabilities. Section 2 reviews ideas of conditional probabilities and introduces Bayes’ theorem and its use in updating beliefs about a proposition, when data are observed, or information becomes available. Section 3 introduces the main ...
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History & The Arts
Wilberforce
William Wilberforce, the politician and religious writer, was instrumental in the abolition of slavery in Britain. This free course explores Wilberforce's career and writings and assesses their historical significance. In particular, it examines the contribution that Evangelicalism, the religious tradition to which Wilberforce belonged, made in ...
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Languages
Advanced Spanish: Protest song
This course will develop your knowledge and understanding of the societies and cultures of Spain and Latin America and extend the practical skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The course focuses on protest song, a musical genre that has played an important role in Hispanic society.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Assessing risk in engineering, work and life
Risk is something that must be taken into account at all times when practising as an engineer. We accept risk as part of everyday life so there is a need to balance the risks of an activity against the benefits that it brings. This free course, Assessing risk in engineering, work and life, investigates how we can manage risks at work, in the ...
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History & The Arts
Approaching poetry
Do you want to get more out of your reading of poetry? This free course, Approaching poetry, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, poetic inversion, voice and line lengths and endings. You will examine poems that do not rhyme and learn ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Babylonian mathematics
This free course looks at Babylonian mathematics. You will learn how a series of discoveries has enabled historians to decipher stone tablets and study the various techniques the Babylonians used for problem-solving and teaching. The Babylonian problem-solving skills have been described as remarkable and scribes of the time received a training ...
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Languages
Advanced Spanish: Arts and crafts
This course is designed to develop your knowledge and understanding of Spanish-speaking societies and cultures and extend the practical skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will examine the world of Spanish and Latin-American art and explore the difference between art and craft.
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Languages
Advanced Spanish: Art in Buenos Aires
This course uses a documentary about artists in Buenos Aires to help you to develop your listening skills. By assessing various parts of the documentary you will be able to extend your comprehension of spoken Spanish.
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Languages
Advanced German: Regional landscapes
German regions and landscapes, local traditions and the notion of Heimat are at the centre of this course. You will describe images, make notes from a variety of sources, and write a short piece about the three-nations region around Lake Constance.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Analytical science: secrets of the Mary Rose
This free course, Analytical science: secrets of the Mary Rose, teaches you about the analytical techniques that are used in the research and investigation of historical objects using the case study of the Mary Rose. It covers the use of sonar to locate shipwrecks, and the analysis of the artefacts found on the ship, and the crew and their remains.
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Education & Development
An introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER)
In this free course, An introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER), you will look at some institutional OER initiatives. These will include MIT's open courseware, Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative and The Open University's OpenLearn. You will get a flavour of how different OER initiatives design and present the content for their ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
An introduction to minerals and rocks under the microscope
In this free course, An introduction to minerals and rocks under the microscope, you will experience the study of minerals using a polarising microscope. While the study of minerals can involve electron or ion beam chemical analysis, the polarising microscope remains the prime tool for the study of rock thin sections and is the foundation of ...
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Education & Development
Accessibility of eLearning
It is part of a teaching professional's skills to understand the needs of a diverse population of students. This free course, Accessibility of eLearning, introduces the challenges for disabled students who may use computers in different ways when taking part in eLearning or may need alternative teaching methods. It covers the technology and ...