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History & The Arts
Getting started on classical Latin
This free course, Getting started on classical Latin, has been developed in response to requests from learners who had had no contact with Latin before and who felt they would like to spend a little time preparing for the kind of learning that studying a classical language involves. The course will give you a taster of what is involved in the ...
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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
An introduction to music theory
Gain an understanding of the basic building blocks of musical theory and notation. This free course, An introduction to music theory, will introduce you to music staves, clefs, rhythmic and pitch values, rhythmic metre and time signatures. This OpenLearn course provides an introduction to music theory pitched at a level equivalent to Grades 1–3 ...
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History & The Arts
Hitler's rise and fall: Timeline
Track the key events in Adolf Hitler's life, including his childhood in Austria, his decisions as Fuehrer of Germany, his leadership in the Second World War, and his eventual suicide.
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level 1: introductory icon
History & The Arts
Getting started on ancient Greek
This free course, Getting started on ancient Greek, offers a taster of the ancient Greek world through the study of one of its most distinctive and enduring features: its language.The course approaches the language methodically, starting with the alphabet and effective ways to memorise it, before building up to complete Greek words and sentences...
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
The Enlightenment
The free course will examine the Enlightenment. To help understand the nature and scale of the cultural changes of the time, we offer a 'map' of the conceptual territory and the intellectual and cultural climate. We will examine the impact of Enlightenment on a variety of areas including science, religion, the classics, art and nature. Finally, ...
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Early modern Europe: an introduction
The early modern period from 1500 to 1780 is one of the most engaging periods for historical study. Beginning with the upheavals of the Reformation, and ending with the Enlightenment, this was a time of fundamental intellectual, social, religious and cultural change. At the same time, early modern Europe was rooted in and retained many of the ...
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History & The Arts
A freelance career in the creative arts
A freelance career in the creative arts is a free badged course which lasts 8 weeks, with approximately 3 hours’ study time each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week, there’s nothing to stop you pushing on and completing another week’s study. This course has a specific focus on the ...
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History & The Arts
Understanding musical scores
This free course, Understanding musical scores, provides a general introduction to how to understand a musical score, and insights into what professional musicians do with the notation that these contain. You’ll learn how to connect the notation you see with the music you hear, from short familiar melodies to a full orchestral score.
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History & The Arts
Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
What does Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus tell us about the author and the time at which the play was written? This free course, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, will help you to discover the intricacies of the play and recognise how a knowledge of the historical and political background of the time can lead to a very different ...
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History & The Arts
Art and life in ancient Egypt
Around 1350 BC, the Egyptian grain accountant Nebamun commissioned the walls of his tomb-chapel to be painted with scenes depicting his afterlife, and the world in which he lived. Nebamun worked in the temple of Amun at Karnak during the reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1390-1352 BC). Amenhotep was one of the most important kings of the 18th Dynasty, ...
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History & The Arts
Health and wellbeing in the ancient world
This free course, Health and wellbeing in the ancient world, investigates the health of people in ancient Greece and Rome, using both literary and archaeological evidence to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.