All our free courses
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History & The Arts
Art and visual culture: medieval to modern
What is art? What is visual culture? How have they changed through history? This free course, Art and visual culture: medieval to modern, explores the fundamental issues raised by the study of western art and visual culture over the last millennium. It moves from discussing the role of the artist and the functions of art during the medieval and ...
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History & The Arts
Approaching prose fiction
Do you want to get more out of your reading? This free course, Approaching prose fiction, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary texts. You will learn about narrative events and perspectives, the setting of novels, types of characterisation and genre.
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History & The Arts
Approaching plays
Do you want to get more out of drama? This free course, Approaching plays, is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary plays. You will learn about dialogue, stage directions, blank verse, dramatic structure and conventions and aspects of performance.
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History & The Arts
Approaching literature: reading Great Expectations
This free course, Approaching literature: reading Great Expectations, considers some of the different ways of reading Great Expectations, based on the type of genre the book belongs to. This is one of the most familiar and fundamental ways of approaching literary texts. The novel broadens the scope of study of a realist novel, in both literary ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
A question of ethics: right or wrong?
Explore ethical challenges with this free course. Learn about professional principles, managing relationships, and the responsibilities of coaches and instructors in fostering trust, integrity, and character development.
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History & The Arts
Aberdulais Falls: a case study in Welsh heritage
This free course, Aberdulais Falls: a case study in Welsh heritage, looks at the Aberdulais Falls in Wales, and considers the key issues affecting the decision-making of the bodies which are responsible for looking after our heritage. We examine the heritage debates: who decides what should be preserved from the past as our heritage, who is this...
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Education & Development
Exploring educational leadership
This free course, Exploring educational leadership, provides an overview of the field of educational leadership and management. You will explore: the relationships between management and leadership; the scope of the field; different world views that underpin educational leadership research and practice; and some key concepts such as agency, ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Living psychology: animal minds
Does your pet cat or dog experience emotions the same way you do? Can non-human animals solve complex problems? To what extent do other species have minds that are like human minds? This free course, Living psychology: animal minds, explores these, and other, issues in the psychology of animal minds. Studying animal minds is of great importance ...
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Money & Business
Commercial awareness
Boost your commercial awareness with this free short course. Explore your organisation’s purpose, understand your role within it, and learn how different perspectives can enhance the value you create.
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History & The Arts
The poetry of Sorley MacLean
Sorley MacLean (1911-1996) is regarded as one of the greatest Scottish poets of the twentieth century. This free course, The poetry of Sorley MacLean, will introduce you to his poetry and give you an insight into the cultural, historical and political contexts that inform his work. MacLean wrote in Gaelic and the importance of the language to ...
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History & The Arts
Recording music and sound
This free course, Recording music and sound, provides an historical introduction to music and sound recording in the creative industries and offers some guidance about making your own recordings. Many of the processes that have been developed and the issues that have been raised in the first 150 years of recording are still relevant today, and a...
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Languages
Beginners’ French: A trip to Avignon
This course helps you to acquire the basic language to find your way around a French town. You will learn how to understand and give directions, ask about accommodation, book a hotel room at the tourist information office and get information about what to see and do in the local area. You will visit some museums in Avignon and buy a film for ...
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Languages
Why study languages?
Learning languages and finding out about other countries can be fun, as well as useful, and this course is an introduction to the differences in culture and language about which we all need to be aware. There are 10 independent sections: any selection of them can be studied in any order. Some are about why knowledge of other languages and ...
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Health, Sports & Psychology
The impact of technology on children's physical activity
This free course, The impact of technology on children's physical activity, explores the impact of technology on children’s physical activity levels. It examines the different types of technology that children have access to and the ways in which they engage with it. As part of this discussion this course looks at information from a range of ...
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Languages
Intermediate French: 14 July
This course is taken from Ouverture, a language module 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. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Software and the law
In this free course, Software and the law, you'll look at the laws relevant to software and its use, taking a global perspective. A major part of this course is devoted to intellectual-property law, the issue of who owns software and digital content and how that ownership can be protected using instruments like copyright and patents. We also...
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Society, Politics & Law
Introduction to critical criminology
This free course, Introduction to critical criminology, provides a brief introduction to critical criminological thinking. It defines the ways in which critical criminologists take a 'critical stance' on the fundamental concepts, practices and institutions associated with crime and criminal justice systems.
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Nature & Environment
Life in the Palaeozoic
Fossils are a glimpse into the distant past and fascinate young and old alike. This free course, Life in the Palaeozoic, will introduce you to the explosion of evolution that took place during the Palaeozoic era. You will look at the many different types of creatures that existed at that time and how they managed to evolve to exist on land.