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
Talk the talk
This free course introduces the mechanics of effective, persuasive oral presentations, by giving you the opportunity to analyse examples and then create your own. Using resources such as TED Talk videos, you will see how experts deliver professional talks and famous speeches, observe what works, and identify how language connects ideas and keeps...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Basic science: understanding numbers
This free course, Basic science: understanding numbers, explains how you can use numbers to describe the natural world and make sense of everything from atoms to oceans.
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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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Languages
Describing language
This course introduces you to the basics of describing language. Using examples from English, you’ll learn how words are built, how they fit together to make sentences, and what labels like noun, verb and adjective mean. You’ll see how language patterns in regular ways and how the meaning of a sentence is more than the sum of its parts. This ...
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Education & Development
Multidisciplinary study: the value and benefits
This free course, Multidisciplinary study: the values and benefits, explores the advantages of studying more than one subject and will help you to decide if multidisciplinary study is for you. Featuring videos with students on the Open University’s ‘Open’ qualifications, you will learn about the unique skills you can gain from studying a ...
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Science, Maths & Technology
Introduction to algebra
This free course is an introduction to algebra which builds on the idea of using letters to represent numbers. Section 1 looks at finding, simplifying and using formulas and includes useful tips on learning algebra. Section 2 introduces some of the terminology used in algebra and techniques such as evaluating and checking equivalence of ...
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Languages
How to learn a language
This course introduces the skills and strategies for language learning, setting realistic goals when learning languages and keeping motivated, practise speaking skills and vocabulary learning strategies. It will enable you to evaluate resources and create a virtual immersion environment.
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Society, Politics & Law
Getting started with SPSS
Handling statistical data is an essential part of psychological research. However, many people find the idea of using statistics, and especially statistical software packages, extremely daunting. This free course, Getting started with SPSS, takes a step-by-step approach to statistics software through seven interactive activities. No statistics ...
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Education & Development
Developing good academic practice
This free course, Developing good academic practice, is intended to help you develop good academic practices in your studies and when producing assignments and completing assessments. Although designed as a course to work through, the content can also be used to dip in and out of, if you feel you need to improve your skills in a particular area.
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Education & Development
Taking your first steps into higher education
What is university study like? Is it for me? If you are asking yourself these questions, this free course is for you. Taking your first steps into higher education provides insights into how subjects are studied at university. This introduction to carefully selected materials helps you decide what you might want to study. You will be ...
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Education & Development
All my own work: exploring academic integrity
Are you currently studying? This free course, All my own work: exploring academic integrity, is designed to help you build confidence in producing your own work for academic purposes. You will explore what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, and learn how and when to reference. The course also includes an interactive to work through, which will ...
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Society, Politics & Law
You and your world: Introducing the social sciences
How can the social sciences help you think about the world around you? This free course introduces you to skills and knowledge that can help you question, understand and contribute to society. This course starts by acknowledging the ever-changing nature of society and social relationships and then asks you to think about your own place in ...
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