Study skills
Studying can be daunting. These free courses will refresh your study skills and prepare you for success.
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Education & Development
Am I ready to be a distance learner?
Distance learning can open up opportunities for study. You might have not studied for a while, you might be returning to education, or you might not have had the chance to study at a higher level before. This free course, Am I ready to be a distance learner?, will help to boost your confidence. You'll explore useful skills so you can discover ...
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Society, Politics & Law
Reading and note taking – preparation for study
This course introduces different techniques to help you to alter the way you read and take notes according to the type of material you are studying.
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Education & Development
Learning how to learn
This course invites you to apply various ideas and activities to your own study and increase awareness of your own learning. Most learning has to be an active process and this is particularly true of learning how to learn.
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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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Education & Development
English: skills for learning
Develop the English reading and writing skills needed for university success.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Data analysis: visualisations in Excel
Evidence comes in the form of qualitative or quantitative data about the world around you. It is not always obvious, however, how to structure, aggregate, analyse or interpret the data to help you make decisions. In this free course, you will look at how to use data to make decisions in a systematic way using Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel ...
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Education & Development
Succeeding in postgraduate study
This course will help you to become familiar with the requirements and demands of postgraduate study and to develop the skills and confidence to pursue your learning further.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Mathematics for science and technology
Maths is intimately entwined with science and technology, whether it is used to analyse data collected on plants in the Amazon rainforest, to calculate the trajectory of a comet or design a bridge to connect two countries. This means that science and technology go hand-in-hand with maths, and that a firm grasp of maths is crucial for studying ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Succeed with maths: part 2
This free course, Succeed with maths: part 2, is a sequel to Part 1, in which you will continue to develop your mathematical knowledge and skills using everyday examples. The course takes a look at measurement of length, mass and volume, negative numbers and how to use these, scientific notation (based upon powers of 10), shapes and how to ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Succeed with maths: part 1
If you feel that maths is a mystery that you want to unravel then this free course is for you. It will guide you through how numbers are put together, give you confidence with using percentages, fractions and negative numbers and provide you with problem solving skills for your everyday life and the wider world.
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Education & Development
Succeed with learning
This course is for people who want to feel more confident about their learning skills. Informal in approach, the course builds on each person's own qualities, knowledge and skills to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of learning and of their own potential. It introduces some core ideas about learning and academic study, and some ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Basic science: understanding experiments
Develop science-based skills through simple and exciting physics, chemistry and biology experiments.
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At The Open University, we're pioneers of flexible learning that's respected by employers and affordable for you. That's why more than 170,000 students are studying with us right now.
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