2,753 search results
The Open University at 45: What can we learn from Britain's distance education pioneer?
Society, Politics & Law

The Open University at 45: What can we learn from Britain's distance education pioneer?

...system.” Little wonder, perhaps, that the OU’s radically democratic experiment in open access education was greeted with widespread hostility by many commentators inside and outside Britain’s traditional class-bound universities. (The shadow chancellor of the exchequer called the idea “blithering nonsense.”). Yet somehow the OU quickly put itself on the map....
View article The Open University at 45: What can we learn from Britain's distance education pioneer?
Article 15 mins
Yachts, planes and buses... Mind the (inequality) gap
Society, Politics & Law

Yachts, planes and buses... Mind the (inequality) gap

...system for almost 6 years, or the state pension bill for 4 years, or the NHS for just over 4 years. It’s almost 5 times the size of the country’s annual welfare bill – which is currently the target of UK government spending reductions, all in the guise of ‘austerity’. There is no inevitability about the figures provided by Oxfam and many others that point to an...
View article Yachts, planes and buses... Mind the (inequality) gap
Article 15 mins
Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts
Society, Politics & Law

Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts

...think about key numbers and data which help constructing evidence of how a t-shirt is produced, from raw cotton to our wardrobe...This free course, Exploring economics: the secret life of t-shirts, aims to describe what goes into making and selling t-shirts. Which resources, which markets, who is involved, the income people get, the income and value they create are all...
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Level 1: Introductory 6 hrs
Nine days' wonder in York
History & The Arts

Nine days' wonder in York

...think of gardens; but York Minster will not be satisfied with less than an autumnal woodland, where the trees stand in clumps, with grassy levels about them, and with spacious openings to the sky, that let in the colored evening light. You could not get lost in it, for it was so free of all such architectural undergrowth as cumbers the perspectives of some cathedrals;...
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Article 10 mins
Water for life
Nature & Environment

Water for life

...Think again about the value for the total volume of water stored on Earth: 1460 000 000 km3. When dealing with large numbers such as one thousand four hundred and sixty million (1460 000 000), it is tedious to write the number in words or to keep writing all of those zeros. Worse still, it is very easy to lose some of the zeros or add extra ones by mistake. Fortunately,...
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Level 1: Introductory 15 hrs
Never trust a pirate: Christiaan Huygens’s Longitude Clocks
History & The Arts

Never trust a pirate: Christiaan Huygens’s Longitude Clocks

...think of this Relation [of Holmes’s], and if the said Captain seems a sincere man whom one can absolutely trust. For it must be said that I am amazed that the clocks were sufficiently accurate to allow him by their means to find such a tiny island [as Fuego]. On 6 March, Huygens was still pressing Moray for ‘something of the detail of what you have learned from Mr...
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Article 10 mins
Exploring the English language
History & The Arts

Exploring the English language

...thinking about language. Firstly, however, some useful ‘tools of the trade’ – you'll take a look at some vital foundations of English grammar. This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 2 study in English Language...Exploring the English language: Learning Outcomes - After studying this course, you should be able to: understand how the English language has...
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Level 2: Intermediate 9 hrs
Everyday maths 1
Science, Maths & Technology

Everyday maths 1

...think of any examples of when you might come across decimal numbers in everyday life? If you’re dealing with money and the decimal point is not placed correctly, then the value will be completely different, for example, £5.55 could be mistaken for £55.50. Likewise with weights and measures: if the builder in the last activity made a wrong measurement, the whole...
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Free course 48 hrs