User Stories

Discover how learners, educators and organisations use OpenLearn Create to bring their open educational resources to life. Let their stories inspire how you build and share your own open online courses.

EStars

Designed for educators with little or no prior esports experience, Esports A–Z: An Educator’s Guide to the Esports Industry provides the knowledge needed to contextualise esports within learning environments – not as gameplay instruction, but as a case study for business, digital literacy, entrepreneurship, teamwork and career readiness. It explores the commercial ecosystem behind competitive gaming, including publishers, teams, leagues, events, media, sponsorship, technology, data, production and governance. Educators will gain a clear understanding of how esports operates as an industry and how it intersects with sectors such as sport, entertainment, media, technology and the creative industries.

EStars, a global provider of educational esports, worked with the Partnership Learning team at The Open University to build a badged course that examines how esports can boost engagement, develop digital and transferable skills, support wellbeing and inclusion, and help educators to design purposeful, sustainable esports programmes for their school or educational setting.

EStars

Made By Dyslexia

Made By Dyslexia is a global charity led by successful dyslexics and they are the world’s largest community of dyslexic people and their allies.

Their mission is to teach the world the brilliance of Dyslexic Thinking – a new school of thought where you can learn the intelligence the world needs now – and to empower it in every home, every workplace, and every school. Through bold campaigns, game-changing partnerships, and impactful online courses, Made By Dyslexia is redefining dyslexia by informing, teaching and inspiring a global movement for change.

Made By Dyslexia worked with the Partnership Learning team at The Open University to create a collection of short courses, covering a wide range of professions, that help people learn about Dyslexic Thinking, and understand why and how it can turbo-charge success across different industries.

These courses are designed to inspire learners by exploring how Dyslexic Thinkers think, view and operate in the world to achieve the amazing things they do.

DyslexicU University of Dyslexic Thinking

Rewilding Europe Learning Hub

Rewilding Europe offers a hopeful vision for restoring our natural world. It's a movement that's gaining momentum, driven by a growing desire to revitalise nature and address pressing challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss.

The Rewilding Europe Learning Hub sets out to unite people and organisations of all backgrounds and descriptions and engage them in the process of protecting and restoring the natural world.

The Hub provides a wealth of resources to help people learn about and engage with this exciting movement – a website that allows people to find out more about landscapes, news and publications – and a Rewilding Leadership Academy that explores rewilding principles and practices, connects with experts and highlights real-world examples.

Rewilding Europe worked with the Partnership Learning team at The Open University to create a course that provides a comprehensive grounding in rewilding. Learners explore the rewilding movement and what sets rewilding apart from other forms of conservation, as well as learning about the ecological, economic and social aspects of rewilding in terrestrial, freshwater and marine settings.

Rewilding Europe Learning Hub

Digital Energy Essentials

Digital Energy Essentials is a collection of 12 badged courses developed by the Every1 Project in conjunction with the Partnership Learning team at The Open University. The courses aim to enable all European citizens to actively engage in the digital energy transition.

The Every1 Project, funded by the European Union, set out to enable inclusive participation in the digital energy transition by identifying knowledge gaps, developing accessible learning pathways, and strengthening learner collaboration.

The project began by mapping learner profiles, identifying what they know, how they seek information, and where they face challenges. By evaluating existing and emerging solutions, Every1 defines practical use cases that highlight the knowledge and skills learners need to take on impactful roles in the energy landscape.

These insights informed tailored learning pathways, supporting the development of accessible capacity-building materials, including the online courses in this collection. Learners explore what digital energy is and the reasons behind moving towards digitalising our production and consumption of energy as well as what smart devices are and how they support a better understanding of how and when we consume energy.

Digital Energy Essentials

Tree Value Visions

Providing self-directed training for an open access tool, the Tree Value Visions course supports learners to integrate social values into the planning and management of urban treescapes. It is designed to support local decision-making on tree management and planting by generating evidence and insight about how trees are valued in a locality, and how they could be valued in future.

The free online training, includes a range of audio and visual materials, showing potential users how to practically use the tool and to understand its academic concepts. Completing the interactive, optional and quizzes releases a Statement of Participation, allowing employees to take the course as part of their annual Continuing Professional Development, at no cost to the employer. The course was key to the wider research and knowledge exchange project being successfully funded by UKRI, DEFRA, the Welsh and Scottish governments, and the Forestry Commission.

Tree Value Visions

Teach Kids Spanish

LingoLina has published a series of online courses for parents and educators on how to teach children Spanish in a natural way that mirrors how they acquired their first language. The research-backed methods focus on making the language-learning experience effortless, effective and enjoyable. By using bilingual immersion, play, activities and stories, the curriculum avoids traditional grammar and vocabulary drills that are often stressful and exhausting for young learners.

Camille Kleinman, the creator of LingoLina, collaborated with The Open University’s OpenLearn Create team to build structured, accessible and evidence-based courses that enable learners to earn a statement of participation. LingoLina plans to publish more free courses on OpenLearn Create, including both language-learning theory and practical lessons to help children, teens and adults learn a second language without struggle or stress. LingoLina’s mission is to help people speak to the world, opening doors to friendships, cultures and a lifetime of global connection.

Teach Kids Spanish