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 an apprentice distance learner?, will help to boost your confidence. You'll explore useful skills so you can discover how ready you are to study and how to develop your study skills in six steps to become a successful apprentice distance learner.

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 help you to identify the potential temptations and challenges you may face when working on assignments. By the end of the course you should have developed an understanding of what appropriate academic practice is and feel more confident in producing your own work for academic purposes.

This free course, Are you ready for postgraduate study, will help you to become familiar with the requirements and demands of postgraduate study and ensure you are ready to develop the skills and confidence to pursue your learning further.

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.

Are you about to undertake a PhD in science, technology or mathematics? If so this free course, Postgraduate study skills in science, technology or mathematics, will help you to examine your work processes. You will consider and develop the nature of postgraduate work and look at the planning of work needed at doctoral level.

In this free course, Learning to learn: Exploring learning, we encourage you to consider two additional perspectives that can illuminate your learning. The first is the perspective that other people you know can provide; the second is the perspective that can be provided by academic theories about learning. We think that these two perspectives can help you prepare for personal change.PLEASE NOTE: as part of OpenLearn's ongoing review of content, this course will be deleted on Friday 28th February 2020. An updated and improved version of the course can be found here:https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education-development/succeed-learning/content-section-overview

Introducing music research provides you with insights into the wide variety of possibilities for studying music at postgraduate level. In this free course you will explore diverse musical topics through four themes: inclusions and exclusions, practice, technology, and community. You will encounter music from different times, places and genres while being introduced a range of scholarly perspectives on music.