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History & The Arts
Have you ever wanted to write?
Everyone has a story worth telling. Whether you dream of writing a novel, memoir, travel journal, script or poem, this collection will spark your creativity, help you develop your writing skills, and support you to take the first steps towards bringing your ideas to life.
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Science, Maths & Technology
The Perseid meteor shower
The Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak overnight on 12–13 August 2026, offering one of the best opportunities of the year to spot ‘shooting stars’. Find out more about meteors, the constellation Perseus and what meteors have to do with ancient Egypt...
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History & The Arts
Latitude and Longitude
When people began to travel long distances over deserts or seas, they needed a way to fix their position. Accordingly, a global grid was developed, incorporating lines of latitude and longitude.
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History & The Arts
10 things that ended in 2006 (when OpenLearn was born)
OpenLearn was born in 2006 but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) some things ended this same year. We look back as part of our ten year anniversary celebrations.
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Society, Politics & Law
The Commonwealth collection
As the Commonwealth Games take centre stage, explore a world of learning with our curated collection of free courses, articles, and videos across the Commonwealth.
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Society, Politics & Law
You and your world: Introducing the social sciences
How can the social sciences help you think about the world around you? This free course introduces you to skills and knowledge that can help you question, understand and contribute to society. This course starts by acknowledging the ever-changing nature of society and social relationships and then asks you to think about your own place in ...
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History & The Arts
Start writing fiction
Have you always wanted to write, but never quite had the courage to start? This free course, Start writing fiction, will give you an insight into how authors create their characters and settings. You will also be able to look at the different genres for fiction.
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History & The Arts
VE Day
On 8th May 1945, Europe celebrated the end of the Second World War. To mark this, we've put together a variety of resources on this time in history.
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Languages
Commemorating Lord Byron on the streets of London
We look back at the 200th anniversary of Lord Byron’s death and explore the history of his commemoration, and how this sheds light on our understanding of English heritage.
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History & The Arts
Religion as Social Control - Karl Marx
Why did Karl Marx thought religion was like Opium? Had Marx got his way, society would be so happy being revolutionaries, there’d be no need for religion. This 60 second animation explains more.
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History & The Arts
Opening up history
Delve into our Opening up history series: a collection of interviews with historians from The Open University. Read about their research ranging from the political culture in 18th century Ireland to anti-nuclear activism during the Cold War.
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History & The Arts
Troy Story: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
Interested in Greek myths? We've condensed the epic narrative of Homer's poems the Iliad and the Odyssey into short animations voiced by the dulcet tones of Don Warrington.