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History & The Arts
Queen Victoria on William Shakespeare
What did the Queen of England think of the Bard of Avon? We dip into her diaries to find out...
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History & The Arts
How did Newcastle celebrate the 200th anniversary of Shakespeare?
The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare is being well marked around the nation, and around the globe (and the Globe). But how was the 200th anniversary marked?
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Science, Maths & Technology
Throwing light on research by South & Central American scientists
Latin American scientists are coming together to promote their work more widely. Felix Moronta explains how.
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Medicine transformed: on access to healthcare
Access to healthcare is important to all of us. Did the arrival of state medicine in the twentieth century mean that everyone had access to good medical services? If you fell sick in 1930 where could you get treatment from a GP, a hospital, a nurse? This free course, Medicine transformed: On access to healthcare, shows that in the early ...
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Robert Owen and New Lanark
Childcare, education, working conditions, healthcare, crime: these issues are hotly debated in today's society. They are also issues that Robert Owen, seen by some as a visionary and by others as a knave and a charlatan, sought to address in the early 1800s. This free course, Robert Owen and New Lanark, uses a series of essays written by Owen to...
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems
This free course, Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's poems, looks at the short poems in German that were set to music by Franz Schubert (17971828) for a single voice with piano, a genre known as 'Lieder' (the German for 'songs'). Once they became widely known, Schubert's Lieder influenced generations of songwriters up to the present day. ...
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level 2: intermediate icon
History & The Arts
David Hume
This free course, David Hume, examines Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, 'Of the immortality of the soul'. More generally, it examines some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth ...
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level 1: introductory icon
History & The Arts
Delacroix
In this free course, Delacroix, you will be introduced to a variety of Delacroix's work and will see how his paintings relate to the cultural transition from Enlightenment to Romanticism. You will study Delacroix's early career, his classical background, the development of Romantic ideas and their incorporation into his work. You will have the ...
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level 3: advanced icon
History & The Arts
Philosophy: the nature of persons
What is a person? This free course, Philosophy: the nature of persons, examines this philosophical question concerning the nature of personhood. You will examine whether a 'person' is the same as a 'human being', and look at whether it is our free will that in the end defines us as a 'person'.
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History & The Arts
Who was Mary Magdalene?
She appears in all the gospels, but we're still not entirely sure who Mary Magdalene was.
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Society, Politics & Law
True stories of the 1975 EEC Referendum
As the UK prepares to vote on our future in Europe, what happened last time the public was asked? We've dug through the archives to find some stories from the 1975 EEC Referendum.
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Science, Maths & Technology
60 second adventures: Behind the scenes
Go behind the scenes with the 60-second adventures team to learn how OU academic content is transformed into informative and entertaining short animations.