The Open University

Free courses from the Open University

This time we are look at the really impressive range of free learning resources that are available from the Open University. These are free courses which are offered in addition to the paid-for degree material for which the OU is renowned.

The Open University was 50 years old this year. If you want to learn more about the history of the Open University there is a fascinating BBC Radio 4 "Archive on 4" documentary on "The University of the Air" which you can listen to at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00055r6 or by searching for this on the BBC Sounds app.

The Open University website is http://www.open.ac.uk/. From this you can see that the OU offers an excellent range of free courses called 'OpenLearn' - see http://www.open.edu/openlearn/free-courses. These are produced by The Open University, which is regarded as a world leader in open and distance learning. There are nearly 1,000 free OpenLearn courses across 8 different subjects. These courses are available to start right away, and they are offered at three levels - introductory, intermediate or advanced. The time commitment varies from one hour to up to 100 hours of study time in total (most are less than 15 hours).

The subject areas are set out at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/subject-information and are:

• Health, Sports and Psychology - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind
• Education & Development - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/education
• History & The Arts - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts
• Languages - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages
• Money & Business - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management
• Nature and Environment - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment
• Science, Maths & Technology - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology
• Society , Politics and Law - https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society

More information about studying in this way is at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/about-openlearn/try

Open University programmes on TV, radio and online

In addition to these free courses, the OU has a unique partnership with the BBC, co-producing some really interesting content for radio, television and online channels. To see what’s coming up in next few days and what you can catch up with via BBC iPlayer, take a look at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/tv-radio-events.

• The full TV programmes guide is at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/tv (currently 125 items)
• The full Radio guide is at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats-on/radio (currently 40 items)

This topic is also available as a PDF which you can see and download by clicking on the image below at the bottom of this webpage, or via this link