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Science, Maths & Technology
Design in a nutshell
Get the lowdown on 6 key design movements and share your design alter-ego
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Education & Development
Design thinking cards
The welcome pack that is sent with our first level module (U101) is designed to get you thinking differently about objects that are familiar to us all.
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level 1: introductory icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Design thinking
Are you ever frustrated with something that you thought you could design better? This free course, Design thinking, will show you how to structure your natural creativity to come up with solutions to all kinds of problems, and have fun in the process too!
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Science, Maths & Technology
Design ecologies animation
This animation explores why a whole systems approach to design is important. It uses the example of a smartphone to illustrate the need to shift from linear to regenerative resource flows.
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Science, Maths & Technology
A brief introduction to co-design
Co-design is becoming important in the face of complex social, political, environmental, educational and technological issues.
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level 1: introductory icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Design
This free course looks at the process of design, from assessing the complexity of design as an activity to exposing the difficulty in making general conclusions about how designers work. You will be able to identify innovation in a wide variety of designed objects and evaluate the impact of this innovation.
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Education & Development
Essential skills for OU study
Feeling prepared for your module? Our short collection of free courses covers the essential skills to get the most from your studies.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Design a school
As a new academic year gets under way, some schools are settling in to new premises. But what sort of choices and trade-offs are made during the design process?
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level 1: introductory icon
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Money & Business
Working in teams
This free badged course, Working in teams, will help you consider your experience of working in teams and the different roles you play in them. It will increase your confidence in marketing this key skill to employers as well improve your ability to perform well in teams you are currently part of.
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level 1: introductory icon
Science, Maths & Technology
Algorithmic Design
This course explores the creative potential of designing with algorithms. This is part of the new BDes Design qualification at The Open University. Learn to think algorithmically and tweak code to create your own wallpaper patterns and be part of contemporary design practices. Through hands-on graphical experimentation using p5.js JavaScript, ...
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level 3: advanced icon
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Education & Development
Becoming an ethical researcher
This free course, Becoming an ethical researcher, explores the ethics of planning, carrying out and reporting research which involves human participants. It will sensitise you to issues that a researcher should consider to support ethical and well-justified decision-making. A wide variety of research scenarios will be used to stimulate ...
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Nature & Environment
Climate change and renewable energy
Human-induced climate change and resulting extreme weather events are an increasing and serious threat to the Earth’s ecosystems. This free course, Climate Change and Renewable Energy, describes the basic science of the greenhouse effect and how it has been modified by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. It describes the ...