All our free courses
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Nature & Environment
‘Land grab’: an environmental issue?
This free course, ‘Land grab’: an environmental issue?, explores how environmental problems are entangled with economic and political issues and offers tools for making sense of the complexity that results. The case of land grab illustrates how everyday issues such as food prices are caught up in connections that link different places, different...
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History & The Arts
Dutch painting of the Golden Age
Seventeenth-century Dutch painting stands out from other art of the same period and even more so from that of previous centuries on account of its apparently ‘everyday’ character. Works by artists such as Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and Jacob van Ruisdael seem to offer a faithful picture of life in the Netherlands at the time. In studying ...
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Languages
Language in the real world
This free course, Language in the real world, explains and illustrates why a knowledge about how language works (i.e. ‘linguistics’) is helpful – some might say essential – for different aspects of our everyday lives. It provides an introduction to ideas around what language is and to the field of Applied Linguistics, which is dedicated to ...
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Nature & Environment
Introducing environmental decision making
Many of the decisions we make have implications for our environment, particularly those concerning natural resources and waste. Taking account of environmental factors in decision making can be both complex and challenging. This free course, Introducing environmental decision making, considers decisions in their broader contexts and advocates a ...
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Money & Business
Liquidity management
In this free course you will focus on liquidity management, one of the fundamental aspects relating to risk management that has come under intense scrutiny in the past few years.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Understanding service improvement in healthcare
This free course, Understanding service improvement in healthcare, will help you to understand what people mean by the terms ‘service’ and ‘improvement’ in relation to healthcare. The course will help you to think about how those involved in healthcare, whether as practitioners or service users, can monitor the progress of any initiative to ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Sound for music technology: An introduction
Whether you're a professional musician, play music with your friends on the weekends or just like to listen to CDs, music technology affects your life. In this free course, Sound for music technology: An introduction, you will learn some of the basics of music technology, starting with what sound is, how it is created and how it travels.
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Education & Development
Teaching citizenship: work and the economy
The issue of 'citizenship, work and the economy' is often neglected in everyday discussions of citizenship. But a moment's reflection should demonstrate how important it is. The vast majority of us will spend the bulk of our adult lives working in some context or another, and our engagement with economic activity more generally is obvious (and ...
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Education & Development
Learning to teach: making sense of learning to teach
This free course, Making sense of learning to teach, is the first of four courses which comprise the course Learning to teach. It draws on what we know about how people learn to become teachers. It explores the different approaches to teacher education and the different routes into teaching. It will help you to understand the philosophical and ...
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Education & Development
Learning to teach: mentoring and tutoring student teachers
This is the second of four courses which comprise the course Learning to teach. Traditionally student teachers are supported by a mentor in school and a tutor from a university. Both play distinctive and important parts in the teachers development. This free course, Mentoring and tutoring student teachers, examines each role in detail and ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Mosquito resistance to insecticides
Learn about how allele frequency can change rapidly in a population in response to selective pressure by considering how evolutionary change can occur in insects that are exposed to insecticides. This free course, Mosquito resistance to insecticides, further demonstrates how traits that are advantageous in one environment can have effects that ...
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Education & Development
Literacy, social justice and inclusive practice
This free course, Literacy, social justice and inclusive practice, explores some of the tensions and debates linked to the aim of achieving literacy for all, using specific examples. It focuses on current significant debates related to the teaching of the technical aspects of literacy to a ‘sufficient standard’ and debates related to becoming a ...
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Money & Business
Managing virtual project teams
Many projects are now ‘virtual’, i.e. some or all of the team are located remotely and may be working in different time zones. The project manager needs all the traditional soft skills, and more. This free course, Managing virtual project teams, looks at knowledge and techniques which underpin team selection and then consider the additional ...
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Money & Business
Project governance and Project Management Office (PMO)
Whether a project is large or small, innovative or similar to other projects, governance and administrative support will be needed. The type of governance, and level of support, will vary considerably between projects of different types and complexity. This course, Project governance and Project Management Office (PMO), considers project ...
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Money & Business
Understanding different research perspectives
This free course, Understanding different research perspectives, explores the development of the research process looking at the different perspectives from which an issue or phenomenon can be investigated; and highlights the main methodologies that can be used to investigate a business issue. By looking at different perspectives/approaches to ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Information security
Information security underpins the commercial viability and profitability of enterprises of all sizes and the effectiveness of public sector organisations. This free course begins by explaining why information security and its management are important for any modern organisation and to every individual. You need to be familiar with an ...
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Education & Development
Assistive technologies and online learning
In this free course, Assistive technologies and online learning, you will explore some of the technology that disabled students use when accessing computers. We will take a look at the tools and techniques that make it possible for disabled students to engage with online learning.
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Money & Business
Difference and challenge in teams
This free course looks at how teams ‘travel’ together on a journey of development. Those journeys are hardly ever smooth. The course encourages you to recognise difference and challenge amongst individuals in the team who are pulling in different directions. It will help you identify where such challenges can be embraced for the benefit of your ...