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OpenLearn's response to the pandemic
Education & Development

OpenLearn's response to the pandemic

...University’s (OU) pioneering experience in distance learning to give 18 million people access to vital educational resources to help develop new skills since the UK’s first lockdown in March 2020. At the start of the first lockdown, daily visitors to OpenLearn increased overnight from 40,000 to over 200,000 and the team acted quickly to put essential learning...
View article OpenLearn's response to the pandemic
Article 10 mins
Why we’re mapping a million trees and more!
Nature & Environment

Why we’re mapping a million trees and more!

...University's Geography courses and qualifications Trees have been in the news a lot recently with political parties trying to outdo each other on tree planting pledges. As the climate crisis has risen up the political agenda, trees and tree planting have been recognised as an important response since they take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow. A recent...
View article Why we’re mapping a million trees and more!
Article 10 mins
The science of making musical instruments
Science, Maths & Technology

The science of making musical instruments

...University's Music courses and qualifications Interested in the technology of music? You can study that with The Open University What is the science of music? Music is generally thought to be an art rather than a science but what is the science behind the production of music? And can three 'tone-deaf' scientists use these principles to make musical instruments and maybe...
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Article 15 mins
Why are people superstitious?
History & The Arts

Why are people superstitious?

...University's Social Sciences courses and qualifications If so, you are not alone. Everyday superstitions are widespread, with surveys regularly finding at least a quarter of the UK population being actively superstitious. Often, they take the form of harmless habits. But it’s worth considering what superstitions are and how they come about. As we will see, they rely on...
View article Why are people superstitious?
Article 10 mins
The drive to sustainability in Higher Education
Nature & Environment

The drive to sustainability in Higher Education

...University with the first major quantitative study, the ‘Factor 10 Visions’ study ‘Towards Sustainable HE’ (Roy et al. 2005; Roy et al. 2008) followed by the Jisc-funded SusTEACH research and development project – ‘Sustainability Tools for Environmental Appraisal of Carbon impacts of HE teaching models using ICTs’ that I was involved in (Caird et al. 2015a)....
View article The drive to sustainability in Higher Education
Article 10 mins
Learning from the Global South
Society, Politics & Law

Learning from the Global South

...from the Global South is a series of six short films made to stimulate thinking about and reflection on the difference that geography makes to understanding the climate crisis and its impact..._Find out more about The Open University's Geography courses and qualifications. _ Many contexts, one journey: a virtual fieldtrip across the Global South Click on the icons within...
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Video 45 mins
How Trump tweets
Society, Politics & Law

How Trump tweets

...guides tell us this indicates immaturity and excessive excitement – but exclamation marks have become, with the prevalence of emails and texts, ubiquitous signifiers of the writer’s mood. As Jean Berko Gleason points out: “They can mitigate the brusqueness of a brief reply by indicating the writer’s enthusiasm, sincerity, surprise – it all depends on the...
View video How Trump tweets
Video 5 mins
Can natural infrastructure help Brazil beat its water crisis?
Nature & Environment

Can natural infrastructure help Brazil beat its water crisis?

...guides stakeholders through the development of strategies to restore degraded or deforested natural areas. Experts have already applied ROAM in several regions of Latin America. Other tools such as InVEST, RIOS and ROOT can also evaluate the costs and benefits of natural infrastructure, including the potential value of ecosystem services. And in Brazil, the 10-year-old...
View article Can natural infrastructure help Brazil beat its water crisis?
Article 5 mins