History can offer us a unique insight into the public health problems, policies, and practices of the past, and is of critical importance to our understanding of healthcare in the contemporary world.

This online course will offer you an opportunity to bring the past into conversation with the present, enabling you to set the changing nature of public health in post-war Britain in context with changes seen today.

From the Tudors to the 20th century you’ll join expert historians, curators and food scientists from the University of Reading and Historic Royal Palaces, and indulge in the changing tastes of successive generations of royalty and experience the splendor of their palaces. We’ll take an intimate look behind the scenes at some of the most incredible palaces in England; Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace, Elizabeth I at the Tower of London, George I at Hampton Court Palace, George III at Kew Palace and Victoria at Kensington Palace.

Week 1: King Henry VIII and Hampton Court Palace... [-]

This course is designed to help refugees and asylum seekers get the information and the support they need to apply for and enter university in the UK. Follow Ahmad and Rassina as they guide you through the application process, helping you to understand where you want to go, and how to get there. The course is supported by a group of experts across higher education, refugee support networks, language assessment providers and refugees studying at universities.

This course is designed for refugees and asylum seekers looking to continue or start their Higher Education studies in the UK.

It would also be useful for anyone who supports or teaches refugees hoping to study at university.... [-]

How can we understand museums today? Who are museums for? How do we respond emotionally to museum objects and spaces? And how can museums play a role in the pursuit of social justice, human rights, or health and wellbeing? On this course, you will explore these questions through a range of inspirational case studies and thought-provoking ideas. Discover how modern museums seek to impact our contemporary world, learning with National Museums Liverpool, one of the UK’s leading museum services, and the University of Leicester, pioneers of museum studies for over 50 years.

This course is aimed at anyone with an interest in museums. You might be a current or prospective student, who wants to find out more about training in museum studies; a museum volunteer; or a museum practitioner. No prior knowledge or equipment is required.... [-]

From weather fluctuations to the spread of an invasive species, what problems can scientists address by analyzing these vast data collections? What are the potential benefits of business, research, and our daily lives?

Find out about possible career paths and gain insights from industry experts and research scientists working on a range of current projects. From urban planning to monitoring wildlife, explore the complexities of managing and analyzing big data to seek innovative solutions.

Week 1: Introduction to big data

This course is designed to help anyone teaching or supporting learning in the Vocational Education, and Training (VET) sector understand the benefits of blended learning and how to use technology effectively to support learners. Supported by a group of Digital Champions, you will connect with teaching and training professionals who understand the practical challenges of using blended learning. You will be aware of the importance of being able to blend digital methods into your teaching. These methods will help your learners become familiar with the digital workplaces they will be joining.

Cultural heritage is usually discussed in national or religious terms: we speak of Italian culture, Greek civilization, Islamic art, and so on. But today cities are creating their own heritage through museums, galleries, markets of artistic goods, and urban networks. Cities project themselves as cultural hubs representing and connecting entire regions, for example, Doha and the UAE, Singapore and Southeast Asia, Los Angeles and North America.

Using these and other examples, through this course you’ll explore exactly what is meant by urban cultural heritage and key concepts related to it.

Cultural Heritage in an Urbanising World

Are you interested in other countries? Do you want to study and understand other cultures? This free online course will take you on a journey through a number of periods from the medieval to the modern day, from Russia to Europe and all the way to Latin America.

Together we’ll explore eight countries by looking at some of the slogans, books, monuments, and images which emerged from them over different historical periods. You will learn about the following topics:

Technology is changing every aspect of how businesses and services, whether public or private, operate – a process known as digital transformation.

On this free online course, you will explore the impact of digital transformation and the issues arising from it, and learn how to implement digital transformation in your organization, especially where to begin.

Implement digital transformation in your organization

By the end of the course, you will:

Increasing populations and social changes are pressurizing our relationship with the environment. Property rights are embedded in power structures and land management. This course explores the different ways that nature is perceived by different types of societies and the impact of property rights on natural resource management.

This course explores three approaches to the hierarchy of property rights and applies these to environmental use and management around the world. It also includes advice on producing a policy brief for an environmental issue.

Whether you’re a budding animator or a fan of animation who wants to understand more about what happens behind-the-scenes, this free online course from the internationally acclaimed National Film and Television School (NFTS) will have something for you.

Over four weeks, our team of award-winning animators will take you through their approach to telling stories and demystify their own animation technique.

Each week, our contributors will use examples from their own work, as well as the animated films that have influenced and inspired them, to enable you to explore different forms of animation:

1 - Stop motion or stop frame animation.

2 - 2D or cel animation.

What will our future look like? Will we continue burning fossil fuels or will we live in a 100% renewable world? How can we address climate change and what policies do we need to implement?

We will provide you with model examples to make you familiar with aspects of economic modeling and state-of-the-art research on current debates in energy policy.

This online course explores these concerns, using models in environmental and energy economics. You will learn how to design models, how to interpret and use results to make informed decisions, and how to use models to assess energy and environmental policies.

This free online course will help anyone working with young people aged 5-19 to engage them in learning through simple filmmaking and animation. You’ll discover how film and animation can be used as powerful tools for encouraging active learning and enabling pupils to establish strong connections with any area of the curriculum.

Try filmmaking and animation in the classroom

During the course, you will:

What happens when a crime is allegedly committed in England and Wales? Now’s your chance to find out. On this course, you’ll follow a suspect through the journey of investigation, prosecution and adjudication. You’ll step inside the courtroom - discovering how criminal justice processes work - and learn about the criminal law and key institutions like the police and the courts.

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

Music is all around us: we listen to it while we are on our way to work, when preparing lunch or even while showering. Most people know that music has its own script – the notation. But seldom are they aware of the long tradition of this notation system.

In this course, we’ll travel back in time and explore musical notations from the Middle Ages. We will show you how to decode and transcribe early notational systems. And we will discuss the challenges and principles of music notation, referring to semiotic approaches and visual theory.

Music manuscripts and notations and their evolution through history.... [-]

Harnessing the power of the sun has been the dream of energy professionals for decades. Now, with solar photovoltaic technology becoming more and more affordable, scalable and accessible, that dream is getting closer to reality.

This online course looks at solar PV in depth, examining its potential for today and the near future, exploring the technical challenges, and assessing the commercial opportunities.

It offers you an unparalleled insight into the global solar power market and will give you the knowledge and practical details to shape and lead the future of solar energy.

What makes a great novel? How is a novel woven together? How can we best appreciate works of fiction?

Answer these questions and more with this course from The University of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

On the course, you’ll discover four of the main building blocks of modern fiction: plot, characterization, dialogue, and setting using examples from a range of texts including the four novels we shortlisted for the James Tait Black fiction prize last year. You’ll also explore the formal strategies authors use, how they came to be, and how they affect us as readers.

Are you wondering what skills you need for success in the IELTS Academic test? Maybe you want to know how IELTS examiners assess your level, or how to improve your band score? This course will help you find the answers, understand how to study for the test, and develop your academic English skills. You’ll interact with experts and learners around the world. You’ll also have the chance to try authentic IELTS practice tasks and learn what skills they’re testing and how they’re marked. IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and Cambridge English Language Assessment.

This online astronomy course will change the way you see the night sky.

You’ll examine one of the most famous constellations Orion. Starting with its nebula, where new stars and planets are formed, you’ll take a look at the seven brightest stars that make up Orion using high-quality images, including from the Hubble Space Telescope.

You’ll learn about exoplanets and the secrets to life outside our Solar System. And you’ll think about the Milky Way, considering the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present.

The course was produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education.

Process mining combines business process management with data science. Using process mining, you can analyse and visualise business processes based on event data recorded in event logs. For example, you could analyse how people use public transportation; verify whether a loan application is processed correctly by a bank, or predict when hardware parts are likely to fail. This online course will give you an introduction to this new and exciting field.

Process mining provides a critical, process-centric perspective on data, which is not available with classical data mining or machine learning techniques. For example, with process mining you can:... [-]

As extreme weather events continue to hit the headlines, it is clear that environmental issues are on the rise across the globe.

Get an introduction to sustainable development, and find out what we can do to help our environment, with this online course from Deakin University.

You’ll explore the different ways in which sustainable development can be understood, and examine the true impact of human activity on our planet.

You’ll find out about recent actions that have been taken to achieve sustainable development and the solutions that we may need to implement in the future.

Digital technologies have fundamentally changed how we learn. The web is no longer simply an information resource, but also a space for interaction, scholarship, and creativity.

In this world where knowledge is widely distributed, accessibility is determined by and dependent on the strength of an individual’s learning network. This course will equip you with the skills needed to succeed in education, in this networked age. You’ll explore our digital differences and how to address them and examine ways to grow and manage your own personal learning network.

Increasingly, we’re bombarded with all sorts of data about how society is changing. From opinion poll trends and migration data to economic results and government debt levels.

On this course from the Sheffield Methods Institute at University of Sheffield, we’ll look at ways of cutting through the confusion to decide what numbers reveal, when and why they (sometimes deliberately) mislead and determine what is ‘fake news.’

The dramatic events of the financial crisis in the late 2000s transformed the UK financial services industry. Long established institutions went out of business, others were forced into takeovers and only the intervention of governments worldwide - courtesy of eye-watering financial recovery packages - prevented the banking industry from implosion.

Now, nearly 10 years on from the crisis, it’s time to take stock and examine how the industry looks today. Most importantly, how is the industry now working for the consumer? What are the products? How competitive is the industry? Is regulation working effectively to protect consumers in the financial marketplace? Where can consumers go to get help and guidance in a changing financial environment?... [-]

The past decade has seen an explosion of new ways to understand and use location information in widely-accessible technologies. This Geospatial Revolution has created new consumer GPS tools, interactive web maps, and location-aware mobile devices. These advances make it possible for everyone to use, collect, and understand spatial information.

This online course brings together core concepts in cartography, geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial thinking, and uses real-world examples, to give you the fundamental skills to engage with geography beyond the surface-level.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:... [-]

This course looks at how to use free cash flow concepts to analyze and evaluate corporate performance in order to make better capital budgeting and acquisition decisions.

You’ll get an introduction to free cash flow and its components and learn about the cost of capital. You’ll also look at how free cash flow can be used in acquisitions, and explore some common implementation issues.

Week 1 - Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow components and the objective of the firm

Week 2 - Capital and Modified Free Cash Flow

The cost of capital, capital budgeting using free cash flow, and modified free cash flow

Week 3 - Evaluating & Integrating Acquisitions... [-]

This course looks in detail at the different ways in which mergers and acquisitions transactions are structured.

You’ll learn about legal structures, stock purchases, asset purchases, tax loss mergers and reverse mergers.

As you explore these different transaction structures, you’ll consider the legal and corporate documents involved and the tax implications for both buyer and seller.

Week 1 - Review, Documents & Legal Structures

Understand the documents like engagement letters, confidentiality agreements, term sheets, letters of intent and the structures that underpin M&A... [-]

This free online course will introduce you to the rapidly evolving world of digital marketing and the role it plays in driving awareness and sales for online businesses. We will go on a customer journey together, to discover how people use digital to search, engage, review and buy.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never arrive, which is why you need a strategy to direct your digital marketing decisions. We will provide you with a step-by-step guide to creating your own digital marketing strategy, to keep you on the right track towards engaging and retaining your most valuable customers online.

Choosing the right degree and university may feel daunting enough, without worrying about what you’re going to do after graduation. But with the graduate job market becoming increasingly competitive, it’s vital to start thinking about your long-term career and employability now.

This free online course will show you how to make the most of the time you’ll spend in higher education, with the ultimate aim of improving your prospects when you graduate.

Over three weeks, you will:

Code Club is a global network of volunteers and educators who run free coding clubs for 9- to 13-year-olds.

This short course will give you the confidence and skills to run a Code Club for young people and inspire the next generation to get excited about computing and digital making.

You’ll get practical advice and tips from volunteers, teachers, and the Code Club team, and you’ll explore the free resources which Code Club provides.

Within healthcare, there are thousands of complex and variable processes that generate data including treatment of patients, lab results, and internal logistic processes. Analysing this data is vital for improving these processes and ending bottlenecks.

On this course, you will explore how process mining can help turn this data into valuable insights by looking at different areas of process mining and seeing how it has been applied. You will even get the chance to apply process mining to real life healthcare data.

Process mining provides a critical, process-centric perspective on data, which is not available with classical data mining or machine learning techniques. Applying process mining in the healthcare environment is extra beneficial since processes are complex, and costs are high.... [-]

This free online course explores the building blocks of our political views: freedom, community, peace, justice and choice.

These words mean different things to different people – such radically different things in fact, that individuals, protest movements and entire states often go to war to assert their understanding of, say, freedom over somebody else’s.

Over five weeks, we will explore how and why words come to mean such different things, across time and space. We will look at how we come to be political, and how political ideology and propaganda pick up on the words, images and symbols we use to express our own convictions and sentiments.... [-]

People have explored and depended on the oceans of our planet for millennia. During that time the geography of our world has changed radically as coastal regions have flooded and islands have risen, or been lost beneath the waves. With 70% of the world’s surface covered by water, an unparalleled, yet largely untouched record of human life has been left beneath the sea for us to discover, from our earliest ancestors right through to present day. Over the length of this Shipwrecks and Submerged Worlds course we will learn about maritime archaeology together - exploring underwater landscapes from the ancient Mediterranean to the prehistoric North Sea, and consider Shipwrecks from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific coast of the Americas.... [-]

This course has been designed by UCAS to help you better understand the study and training opportunities open to you. The wide range of subjects, universities, and options available can be overwhelming. Exploring your choices and making decisions can be quite daunting. So we’ve put together a set of materials to help shape your thinking.

Choose the right subject and pathway for you

By signing up, you’ll discover more about your options and enhance your ability to make choices that are right for you. We’ll provide insight into choosing subjects and the different pathways that can be taken after school, through higher education or other training routes, to your chosen career path.... [-]

This online course from the British Council will provide international education agents, school counselors, and consultants with advice on all aspects of UK education. Further information is included around becoming a professional education agent for the UK if relevant for you. It will develop your knowledge of:

Making a film is a creative exploit, but just like any other business, the aim is also to make money.

The Business of Film has been created by The Open University, in association with Pinewood Studios – the leading provider of studio services to the global screen-based industries. The studios are where Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and the 24th James Bond film Spectre were recently filmed.

Using the value chain concept and important independent film case studies, the course provides a practical and in-depth exploration of the key business decisions.

Why do films fail? Why are intellectual property and copyright important? Why do films get public funding? What is the relationship between marketing, box office returns, and overall film success?... [-]

Our homes provide shelter, sanctuary and comfort, but they’re also a source of wealth. So what makes some properties more valuable than others? Find out with this course.

You’ll unlock the mystery of property values, looking at the influences that inflation and interest rates can have on house prices; and exploring the differences between price, market and investment values.

You’ll also learn about the influence proximity to various amenities have on property demand and demographics, and interpret data on property prices.

Our homes provide shelter, sanctuary and comfort, but they’re also a source of wealth. This online course asked: what makes some properties more valuable than others?... [-]

This free online course will bring together learners and practitioners interested in how the mind works. It aims to build bridges between traditionally antagonistic approaches to understanding the mind.

What is a mind?

This question has perplexed philosophers, scientists, historians and ordinary people across time and cultures.

While advances in the medical understanding of how the brain functions can shed light on neurological functions and disorders, the essential question of what the mind is speaks to a different problem.

This problem cannot be answered by a purely scientific understanding of the brain, nor by a purely philosophical or psychological approach. Many disciplines have attempted to address the question’, resulting in multiple and sometimes antithetical answers.... [-]

In this course over the next two weeks, we look to answer the question: ‘What is leadership?’ In the first week, we explore two fundamental perspectives on leadership: leader as a person and leadership as a practice. In Week 2 we examine the difference between leadership and management so you can determine whether you are a leader in a management role, a leader without a management role, or a manager who needs to become a leader. By exploring sources of power and influence, and how perception shapes behaviour, you will be able to address important issues more effectively.

This thought-provoking course will help to discover more about yourself and others as we explore:... [-]

In the second course in this two-part series, you will learn about different theoretical models that seek to explain why migration starts and why it continues. You will explore migration as a structural feature of our societies and examine individual’s choices to migrate. You will consider the role networks and institutions play in the movement of people. You will also hear from international experts about how migration theories can help us understand cases of labor migration in different world regions.

Imagine a world without research, where governments carry out policy based on hunches and manufacturers release products without testing.

Research allows us to solve problems on a global scale and make evidence-based decisions.

During this course, you’ll get an introduction to what research is, and why it’s so important to us all. You’ll learn fundamental research concepts, meet leading researchers working on real-world problems, and identify an interesting area for your own research.

What does it take to be a spy? Strong critical thinking and communication skills, a firm grasp of logic, and a love of puzzles are all useful.

This course will help you develop those abilities while exploring the exciting world of espionage. You’ll learn about code-making and breaking, encryption, logical thinking and more as you find out whether you would make a good spy.

The Gallipoli Campaign was Australia and New Zealand’s first major military engagement in World War 1. The Anzacs went on to fight in Palestine, Egypt and the Western Front and suffered one of the highest casualty rates of any allied army.

This free online course is part of the 100 Stories Project at Monash University, commemorating the Anzac centenary and exploring the cost of war. The course will coincide with ANZAC Day on 25th April and suggests new and more inclusive ways of remembering.

In this course, you will be able to identify Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez’s narrative contributions to world literature through the study of three of the author’s obsessions: power, history, and love. You will have the opportunity to enjoy reading the following works: The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother (1972), The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1981), Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), The General in his Labyrinth (1989) and Of Love and Other Demons (1994).

You will explore the characteristics of “the dictator novel”, reaching a clear understanding of the particularities of the new historical novel. You will also reflect upon the relationship between history and fiction and understand the author’s literary influences.... [-]

South Korea is at a critical juncture, particularly from global perspectives.

From a geopolitical perspective, South Korea is located in Northeast Asia, a region from which almost all security tension in East Asia emerges. Consider, for example, the long-standing Sino-Japanese rivalry and the unresolved territorial disputes in the East China Sea. It is often said that the territorial disputes between Tokyo and Beijing have reached a ‘boiling point.’ Also, the persistent security threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and long-range missiles cannot be taken lightly. Most of all, the rise of China and the United States’ “rebalance” toward Asia is likely to generate a new dimension of global power politics.... [-]

Would you like to know more about what musicians do in rehearsals and performances?

Would you like to learn different techniques for listening to and understanding music?

This free online course provides a general introduction to how to understand a musical score and insights into what professional musicians do with the notation that these contain. You’ll learn how to connect the notation you see with the music you hear, from short familiar melodies to a full orchestral score.

Focussing on works by Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, and Mahler, we’ll introduce you to a pianist, a small chamber group and a conductor who will explain how they create memorable performances from the notes on the page.... [-]

This free online course is a collaboration between the Royal Air Force (RAF) Museums and the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London. It will introduce you to some of the major turning points in the history of Britain in the post-1945 era.

Guided by Dr Ross Mahoney, Aviation Historian, RAF Museum, and Dr Emmett Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in History, Royal Holloway, the course will examine:

What is academic integrity? Why is it so important in academia? And how can you, as a student at the university, achieve with integrity and honesty?

These are some of the important questions we’ll explore over the four weeks of the course. As we do so, you will hear from the lead educator as well as the perspectives of students like you.

Specifically, each week contains videos, articles, activities, and quizzes that will help you develop the knowledge and skills needed to be a successful and ethical learner. There will also be opportunities for you to discuss your ideas with other students on the course and learn from their experiences and points of view.

By the end of the course, we hope you’ll come to understand the meaning of academic integrity and how to avoid academic dishonesty, misconduct, and plagiarism but more importantly we hope you will also embrace the values associated with academic integrity as your own.... [-]

This course will bring you to the wizard level of skill in data mining, following on from Data Mining with Weka and More Data Mining with Weka, by showing how to use popular packages that extend Weka’s functionality. You’ll learn about forecasting time series and mining data streams. You’ll connect up the popular R statistical package and learn how to use its extensive visualization and preprocessing functions from Weka. You’ll script Weka in Python – all from within the friendly Weka interface. And you’ll learn how to distribute data mining jobs over several computers using Apache SPARK.

Leadership has been studied for centuries, although its examination in modern times has largely focused on the work of senior executives in private sector, profit-making organizations. In this free online course, you will learn more about leadership in the context of public service provision, by public sector organizations, community and voluntary groups, and political bodies.

You will explore the distinctive features of leadership in public service, including its increasing focus on the generation of public value and the negotiation of different forms of public interest. You will learn some of the key skills of public leaders such as political astuteness, working in collaboration and conflict handling. Throughout, you will look at different types of public leadership, exploring the different roles of elected politicians, public servants and community activists, and how each can contribute (or detract from) the public good. You will consider different levels and contributions of leadership – from frontline police officers or social workers through to prime ministers. Finally, you will have the opportunity to examine, through a series of interviews with key stakeholders, how awareness of these key facets of public leadership is helping to change the face of policing in Britain today.... [-]

Get an introduction to studying archaeology, exploring exciting discoveries in the Vale of Pewsey, near to Stonehenge and Avebury.

We’ll be showing you around our field school – a month-long excavation at the Vale of Pewsey, which is a relatively untouched site compared to its world-famous neighbours, Stonehenge and Avebury.

The Vale of Pewsey is an archaeological treasure chest and the jewel of its crown is Marden. Built around 2,400 BC, Marden is the largest henge in the country and one of Britain’s most important but least understood prehistoric monuments.

Every object has a tale to tell and we’ll investigate how archaeologists paint a vivid picture of what life was like in Neolithic times through the astounding assortment of discoveries made in this beautiful part of England.... [-]

Assessment for Learning (AfL) is a term that’s widely used in education but applied in ways that are variable in their effectiveness. This free online course - designed for STEM teachers in primary and secondary schools, and sixth form and further education colleges - will help you understand and use it more effectively. Understand Assessment for Learning in theory and practice Through this course, you’ll understand:

This course will explore how the mind of the parent influences the developing mind of the child, from conception through infancy and into later life.

We will take you on a journey that begins in pregnancy, exploring the importance of the ability of the mother-to-be to think about her baby while still in utero, alongside the impact of emotions such as anxiety and depression.

We will then explore what the research tells us about the way in which the parent’s emotional and cognitive mind, can shape the interactional context of the baby during the first two years of life, and the impact of this interaction on the baby’s developing the mind. This will include, for example, thinking about the parent’s ability to be ‘mind-minded’ in terms of being able to treat their baby as an individual with a mind of their own.... [-]

On this practical course, you will start thinking like a scientist, by carrying out experiments at home.

You will extract the DNA from fruit, observe osmosis in action, see how different liquids behave when frozen, and bake a potato to destruction.

As you carry out these experiments, you will develop scientific skills including observation, record-keeping, data analysis and experiment control.

The course was produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education. You may also enjoy Basic Science: Understanding Numbers.

Evaporation during heating, quantified by weight

This practical, hands-on course will help you to start thinking like a scientist, by using numbers to describe and understand the natural world.

It might be the size of the Greenland ice sheet, the number of molecules in a raindrop, or the latest set of mind-boggling numbers about climate change presented in the media.

No longer will you be put off by averages or percentages, and you’ll even learn to love negative numbers. You will understand and manage numbers like a scientist. The course will introduce all the main skills you’ll need to understand and communicate scientific numbers, relate them to the real world, and share your discoveries with other learners.

You may also be interested in joining Basic Science: Understanding Experiments.... [-]

The ‘digital citizen’ is a person who has developed the skills and knowledge to effectively use the internet and digital technologies, who uses digital technologies and the internet in a responsible and appropriate way in order to engage and participate in society and politics.

We live in a world where the use of digital technology has become the norm. Effective participation in our society increasingly requires our ability to engage online. This isn’t just a question of technical ability – just as with our physical society, there are appropriate and responsible behaviours we need to acquire.

In this course, we’ll investigate and explore the concept of the digital society. We’ll look at how personal values and ethical judgments shape our online participation, and how new technologies can be applied to solve some of the problems we might face. Through all of this, we will develop your digital capabilities, and your awareness of the cultural and ethical implications of using digital technologies, and we’ll seek to establish the skills required to become an effective and successful digital citizen.... [-]

Student assistants are valuable staff members at the University of Groningen. Currently, over 700 students take up teaching duties, support role functions, governing positions, and many other responsibilities.

But, how to prepare for a job as a student assistant? What is professional behavior? How to deal with challenging situations in the classroom? How to support first-year students? These and other questions will be covered in this course.

Most people change their jobs multiple times during the course of their working lives. Many make dramatic career shifts. Identifying your transferable generic skills is key to making the most of this agile employment marketplace.

This course looks at the current career environment. Using case studies and a series of unique audit tools, the course will challenge you to:

You will also learn about credentials – contemporary recognition, usually in digital form, of the skills and capabilities you have built during your life and career. Providing evidence of what you can do can often signify more than formal qualifications. This course will teach you how to document your cumulative work and life experience.... [-]

Have you ever wondered how mathematics can be used to solve big data problems? This course will show you how. Mathematics is everywhere, and with the rise of big data it becomes a useful tool when extracting information and analyzing large datasets.

We will begin by explaining how maths underpins many of the tools that are used to manage and analyze big data. We will show you how very different applied problems can have common mathematical aims, and therefore can be addressed using similar mathematical tools. We will then proceed to introduce three such tools, based on a linear algebra framework. These tools and the problems that they address are:... [-]

Many people have big data but only some people know what to do with it. Why? Well, the big problem is that the data is big—the size, complexity and diversity of datasets increase every day. This means we need new solutions for analysing data.

This course equips you for working with these solutions by introducing you to selected statistical and machine learning techniques used for analysing large datasets and extracting information. We also expose you to three software packages so you can develop your coding skills by completing practical exercises.

Biochemistry brings together all of the sciences to study the chemical and physical processes that occur in living organisms. It truly is the science of life.

As a scientific discipline in its own right, biochemistry has a major impact on all areas of the life sciences and biochemists are in high demand among employers.

This free online biochemistry course will outline the background and history of the field and its contemporary significance in the life sciences. It’s ideal if you enjoy biology and chemistry at school, and are thinking about studying or working in biochemistry as a distinct subject.

You may be aware of 3D printing or have seen low-cost 3D printers that can create plastic toys, replicas, and objects of your own design. But did you know that 3D printing is also enabling life-saving and transforming medical procedures, which were unthinkable a few years ago? The world of medicine and biomaterials has collided with advances in 3D printing, creating a new clinical paradigm in biomedicine: 3D bioprinting. This online course tells the story of this revolution, introducing you to commonly used biomaterials and bioprinting techniques.

This online course studies the incredibly disruptive potential of blockchain technology in the energy sector. You will look at how blockchain works and start to understand the background, value proposition and geopolitical context that brought it to the center of everyone’s attention.

The course will offer a clear overview of how and why blockchain will take over the energy sector, optimizing old processes and empowering the customers like never before. This will create a new paradigm, where users can buy and sell energy from and to each other.

Discover how money flows in personal and business environments and develop the basic skills to manage your finances with this course introducing you to bookkeeping and accounting.

You’ll master common terms, basic maths and gain the ability to put your knowledge into practice. After this course, you’ll be able to perfectly balance your books and understand how concepts of profit and loss lead to revenue or debt.

Develop ideas through conversation

This course is not facilitated. Learners are encouraged to support one another, share personal experience and knowledge, and see new perspectives.

In the near future, many of us will work alongside robots. Knowledge of robotics and autonomous systems will be a helpful skill for a surprising number of today’s careers.

On this course, we’ll look at current and future developments in the field of robotics that could shape many different aspects of our daily lives. We’ll build up a picture of the principles and the fundamental challenges of robotic design, and demonstrate how research here at The University of Sheffield is working to overcome some of these challenges.

This course looked at current and future developments in the field of robotics that could shape different aspects of people’s daily lives. It built an understanding of the principles and fundamental challenges of designing robots including:... [-]

When did you last do business with someone you didn’t trust? Or who broke a promise? Building a relationship with your customer involves time, communication and commitment, but the benefits are a sure way to help your business succeed and grow.

This free online course introduces the principles of relationship marketing, revealing long-term relationships as the way to unlock value for marketers, customers and other stakeholders. Even if you have never considered marketing to be relevant to you personally, the ideas shared in this course will reveal how you can benefit from it – at work or elsewhere.

You will explore how organisations choose the right customers to engage with, how they sustain such engagement, and how and why they disengage. As well as analysing how organisations implement relationship marketing, the course will encourage you to apply its ideas to your own role even if you have little or no direct contact with customers. You’ll also be able to use these principles with potential employers.... [-]

Faced with a daily deluge of information, we have never had greater need of clear communication skills. This free course offers you a practical grounding in using a range of communication media, which will boost your personal effectiveness, save you time and reduce your stress levels.

You will discover the principles of writing influential documents for work such as reports and proposals. As you learn simple frameworks for emails and meetings you’ll immediately put them into practice and increase your productivity. You will find new confidence in your ability to make convincing presentations and conduct productive meetings – whether virtual or face to face. You will develop communication approaches that are sensitive to cultural and personal difference and are tailored to the occasion, whether online, in print or face to face.... [-]

Networking is a fundamental skill, which will help you take control of your career. This free online course introduces the principles of networking as a fundamental skill to help develop your personal brand in the world of work.

You will craft, and receive feedback on, an elevator pitch, a short statement about your role and talents. You will learn how to analyze the value of your connections, whether you are looking for a new job or seeking ways of being more effective in your current position. The course will also cover strategies for self-presentation, keeping in touch with your connections and ensuring that your networking relationships are based on mutual benefit and trust. As well as honing your interpersonal skills in essential areas such as giving and seeking information, the course will cover the fundamentals of creating and managing your digital presence for networking on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook.... [-]

Whatever the type or scale of your project, delivering great results, on time and within budget, is always a challenge. This free online course introduces you to the essential skills and processes which support successful project management in a way that allows you to apply them to your own context.

Visualise, plan, manage and evaluate projects successfully

You will learn techniques to help you visualize, plan and manage key activities and events in your project, and make links between project management and related theories of innovation, change and people management.

You will be introduced to essential tools which support project management, as well as the fundamental personal skills of team selection, management, and evaluation. The course will also cover the stage of evaluating project performance and learning for the future.... [-]

Sustainability is an embedded practice in many businesses. It recognizes the long-term benefits of acknowledging the social and environmental impacts of production and consumption. While governments encourage responsible social and environmental action, implementation is often left to individual organizations and many of these are under pressure from shareholders driven by a profit-centered return on investment (ROI) model. And so, environmental and sustainable practices often become an HR matter - it’s people that must make the difference.

This course will explore what constitutes sustainability from both ecological and business perspectives. We will investigate the emergence of sustainable approaches to human resources, known as ‘Green HR’, and identify various types of sustainability models.... [-]

This course is part of the Business Futures program, which will enable you to gain insights into three emerging trends that are disrupting traditional business practices.

The sharing economy is a 21st Century phenomenon that has shaken the status quo in accommodation, transport, personal services, media, and entertainment sectors. This course provides an introduction to the sharing economy and examines its impact on economies, businesses, and consumers. The growth of the sharing economy in many industry sectors highlights the challenges and opportunities while providing a range of options to provide innovative consumer experiences.

We no longer only buy products or experience services in physical spaces. We now often buy in-store and online using a laptop, a phone and even a watch. This course demystifies the omnichannel experience and explores how omnichannel retail and supply chains have changed the production and consumption experience for both enterprises and consumers.

We trace the evolution of the retail purchase from physical acts or transactions through to multi-channel online purchasing. Today’s technology-driven virtual and physical worlds enable transactions anytime anywhere and to anyone. We will explore how the omnichannel world differs from multichannel retailing, and how businesses can adopt omnichannel approaches to the production of goods and services.... [-]

Organisations run many business processes. They underpin what gets done, when and how, allowing them to achieve their strategic goals. Do we begin by posing the question: How can we leverage knowledge of business processes to improve organisational performance in this complex, changing the world?

Business processes are around us everywhere and they play a key role in our personal and professional lives. Explore the benefits of systematically managing business processes through business process management (BPM), how this approach differs from related disciplines and the key phases of a BPM project.

In times of austerity and shrinking public services, the task of identifying and caring for vulnerable children has never been more challenging. In this free online course, we’ll help you explore some of the issues involved in undertaking this task.

We’ll consider what we mean by risk and vulnerability, as well as how we define good enough parenting. We’ll think about how children grow and develop, and how we can provide them with containment and security via meaningful relationships and attachments. And we’ll look at the particular skills involved in communicating with children and young people. We’ll go on to learn about the characteristics that define different methods of practice and how some approaches can help us to resist risk-averse thinking. We’ll consider different possible interventions and how, in Scotland, this is managed within the Children’s Hearing System. We’ll conclude by reflecting on the current politics of caring for vulnerable children in a context of budget cuts and increasing child poverty.... [-]

Young people today face mounting problems which make working with and helping them learn, more important than ever. This course will help improve your experience working with young people. On the course, we’ll use the latest research to investigate the causes of challenging behaviour and look at strategies, helping you build a toolkit to modify behaviour. Ambition School Leadership work with a variety of experts that offer empirical knowledge and learning from within different school settings, meaning their expertise is drawn from both research and people directly working with young people.

From religious leaders to heads of state, everyone is talking about economic inequality. What form can such inequality take in different countries? What impact does it have on society? And why should it matter to you?

Has the baby boomer generation had it all?

This free online course will explore the growing concerns surrounding rising inequality in income and wealth in developed countries. You’ll scrutinize claims that the baby boomer generation has had it all, in terms of pension deals and affordable houses, while social and political changes have left younger generations struggling to find security for their accommodation and retirement income.

You’ll examine the causes and implications of growing economic inequalities and what can be done about them, by individuals, communities, and governments.... [-]

Are you a technology optimist or a technology pessimist?

The amount of technology available to children today is greater than in any previous generation, and it is more specifically designed to capture their imaginations. There is heated debate as to how the digital influx is shaping children’s development and experience.

Are social media changing the way that children form relationships? How is technology changing the way that children think, and how will it shape the classroom of the future? This exciting new course pulls together the latest evidence from experts in the field to explore these and other questions.

Join us as we delve into the lives of children and discuss the potential benefits and limitations of technology in their lives.... [-]

This free online course aims to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the role of Clinical Bioinformatics and Genomics in healthcare today. We will illustrate how the discipline of Clinical Bioinformatics provides an important bridge between the cutting edge science and the delivery of genomic medicine in clinical practice. By understanding the role of a Clinical Bioinformatician it will become clear how integral they are to ensuring the beneficial opportunities of genomic medicine are fully realised in patient care.

This is an exciting time. We are now beginning to sequence whole genomes in the clinic, the most personal information we can have on a patient. We can start to see how genome variants might impact on health and we can direct really precise medicine to individual patients. This is not without its challenges. The genome is a huge amount of information. Identifying the causative variant (the part in the genome that can cause a change in health) is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But what does this phrase actually mean? This course will take you into the world of a Clinical Bioinformatician and show you what they do behind the scenes when finding that needle in the genomic data. It will also show you what happens next and the important contribution Clinical Bioinformatician’s make to the patient’s journey.... [-]

Many social enterprises are becoming more commercial, adopting the techniques, funding or governance more usually associated with for-profit ventures. In this online course, social enterprise and microfinance experts from Université Libre de Bruxelles and their guests will shed new light on this trend. They will ask how commercialization affects the management and operations of social enterprises, and which avenues could or should be used to avoid mission drift.

Why social entrepreneurs innovate The motivations behind starting a social enterprise; new data related to inequality and happiness; the link between financial exclusion and poverty; and how social innovation has tried to tackle these problems. Microfinance practices The basics of microfinance, covering its historical roots and evolution, and the current provision of financial and non-financial services. When a not-for-profit becomes a for-profit organization How institutions evolve beyond the not-for-profit structure; case studies exploring the impact, both internally and externally, of such a transition; and the concept of mission drift. Sources of financing, mission drift and zoom out How different sources of financing impact the social mission of microfinance institutions; the different strategies and practices to avoid mission drift in social enterprises; and what is specific to the commercialization of microfinance and what is common to all social enterprises.... [-]

The importance of compassionate care in health and social care has been brought to the fore in recent years by high-profile public inquiries into the mistreatment and sometimes deaths of patients at, for example, Morecambe Bay and Mid Staffordshire hospitals.

This free online course will explore the issue of compassionate care in relation to the key points from these investigations, and from other theoretical perspectives. This includes the need to create a common, person-centred culture across organisations. This person-centredness is not limited to patients but extends to the way organisations treat staff and to the culture within the organisation itself.... [-]

Apple, Facebook, and Google are three of today’s most vibrant companies. And they have something in common: they understand that the value of their business is built on what they know about their business and their customers, and this gives them their competitive advantage. Information is the key to contemporary business success.

Deakin University’s Business School is a global leader in business and management education. Its online MBA is ranked in the top 20 in the world, and the School is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). A hallmark of excellence, AACSB accreditation is awarded to business schools that meet strict standards of quality, academic and professional excellence, and the most recognized form worldwide of professional accreditation an institution and its business programs can earn.... [-]

Concurrent functional programming is increasingly important in providing global-scale applications on the internet. We combine the theory of concurrent programming with the practice of how that works in Erlang. You’ll get the opportunity to reinforce what you learn through practical exercises and more substantial, optional practical projects. Functional programming has been a strength the University of Kent for the last 30 years. Throughout the course, you’ll learn with Simon Thompson – co-author of one of the standard introductions to Erlang, O’Reilly Media’s Erlang Programming.

Contracts are fundamental to all business activities and relationships are fundamental to all contracts.

This free online course will help you understand contract management processes; give you the confidence to develop new contracts; and help you build successful relationships to implement contracts effectively.

Manage contracts and relationships successfully

The course has been developed by the University of Southampton, in association with the Crown Commercial Service, UK Cabinet Office, Civil Service Learning and the International Association of Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM).

Over three weeks, you will realise the importance, complexity and challenges of designing and delivering good contracts. You will learn how your objectives and those of your customer/client can be achieved in an effective way, to minimise possible threats or failures.... [-]

This three-week free online course explores practical cybersecurity including privacy online, payment safety and security at home.

In the modern world, information security has an influence on all of us: at home, at work, online and in life in general. Like many inventions that have gone before, the internet and the web, the cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) bring with them many advantages, but also open up new possibilities for criminal activity. So should you avoid all contact with this brave new world? This free online course presents an alternative, providing you with the knowledge to make informed decisions.

Almost daily we hear about cyber attacks on large organisations, but we rarely hear much about similar attacks on small and medium enterprises. This doesn’t mean that they’re not happening.

In this course, you’ll explore some of the common cyber threats facing small and medium enterprises, what a cyber attack means, and what practical tools and strategies you can put in place to prevent them.

We’ll start by looking at the recent Panama Papers leak to find out more about cyber threats, the methods that hackers use, and what the consequences of cyber attacks can be for small and medium enterprises.

Explore strategies for protecting your organisation against cyber attacks After viewing a simulation of a cyber attack in action, we’ll then take a look at some of the tools and preventative strategies that you can put in place to protect your organisation.... [-]

Today’s world generates more data than ever before! Being able to turn it into useful information is a key skill. This course introduces you to practical data mining using the Weka workbench. We’ll dispel the mystery that surrounds the subject. We’ll explain the principles of popular algorithms. We’ll show you how to use them in practical applications. You’ll get plenty of experience actually mining data during the course, and afterward, you’ll be well equipped to mine your own. Weka originated at the University of Waikato in NZ, and Ian Witten has authored a leading book on data mining.

Organisations around the world are collecting more data than ever. They are talking about big data, data science, business intelligence, analytics, data mining and data visualisation.They want to extract insights from data about their worlds and make predictions to inform their decisions.

This is an introduction to statistical data analysis and data visualisation for those new to the subject as well as those wanting a fresh perspective. We focus on the exploration of data and discovery, the limitations of data, avoiding being misled, and learning to think like a statistician.

Leaders must be able to act in a complex world and under uncertainty. This course is the first step to develop yourself into one of the future’s key decision makers or to enhance your decision-making skills.

First, this course will address what complexity is and will define uncertainty. Next, we cover a number of tools and methods to understand and be able to navigate through the complex and uncertain world.

The need for a multidisciplinary approach will be emphasised throughout the course. Guest lecturers from different faculties will explain, provide applications and examples from their respective fields of study for a more comprehensive understanding of the different elements of complexity. For example, complexity can be beautifully explained by the use of insects and brains and many other naturals and social phenomena. The same ideas can be applied to economic and financial systems.... [-]

Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the natural evolution from the well-established notions of IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional intelligence). Good leaders need all three to lead effectively.

CQ is the ability to cross divides - whether country, generation, gender, sector or background - and to thrive in multiple cultures. Developing your CQ will enable you to work with people who are different from you, and lead in your organisation, community, business or place of study.

This free online course will introduce you to the concept of CQ and explore its evolution and relevance for leadership.... [-]

The course is intended for anyone who is currently undertaking or planning to undertake a piece of academic research, be that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), International Baccalaureate Extended Essay, Welsh Baccalaureate Individual Project, coursework or a piece of independent scholarship. The course is running in March, June, September and October 2017 so you can choose the start date that suits you.

Curiosity is one of humanity’s most important characteristics. It has enabled us to make the unknown known, to break barriers and to shine a light on all aspects of life, from our day to day hobbies to the exploration of the stars. Our innate desire to explore is responsible for many of our proudest achievements. This course will help train you to harness your curiosity and use it to undertake your own research projects in a scholarly manner.... [-]

Digital Leadership is aimed at the top and middle management in any type and size of the organisation, and in any industry.

Whether you’re a CEO or someone involved in improving business competitiveness through digital technologies, this course is for you. We don’t expect you to have any prior knowledge of management theory or hands-on technical skills to get started.

Representatives of both profit and not-for-profit organisations will benefit through a better understanding of how to plan, manage and implement new digital technologies.... [-]

Digital technology now touches almost every aspect of our lives, including work. On this course, you will explore how you can build a successful career in the digital age. You’ll get a closer look at the meaning of digital, and how it has changed the way we work.

You’ll also explore the different paths you could take to grow your career, and what role digital can play in these. Plus, you will also learn about the key skills we all need to thrive in this new environment, and how you can find support and keep learning to reach your goals.

Does your business need to use social media? Find out why social media is relevant for businesses today and how you can use it to establish and improve your brand.

You’ll learn about the key steps in promoting your brand through social media, including setting campaign objectives, identifying the target audience and the right channels, creating engaging content and managing your presence. You will also look at examples of different social media channels, tips for using them and how to measure success and improve your campaigns.

Week 1

Work with a disability to enable a good life for yourself and others Today we recognize disability as a part of human diversity. But what does it mean to work with disability in a way that enables a good life for ourselves and others? In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to engage with some of the big issues facing disabled people, governments, and societies. You’ll explore human rights approaches to disability and critically examine the concepts of inclusion, access, and support. You’ll also learn about disability politics and policy, advocacy and activism, and consider how to work with a disability at multiple levels to enable a good life for all.

Learn about the role that radiation and greenhouse gases play in our understanding of atmospheric chemistry. As levels of CO2 in the atmosphere increase, you will discover the solutions scientists are exploring to reduce levels. And discover how missions to other planets and moons in our solar system are revealing extraordinarily diverse atmospheres. Explore how an exponential increase in the discovery of new exoplanets is helping us learn about the evolution of our own atmosphere.

This course is part of the Discovering Science program, which will enable you to learn about the extraordinary world of everyday chemistry, and earn 10 credits from the University of Leeds. For centuries natural materials have been used by people to meet their daily needs. Discover how scientists are using their knowledge of the molecular structure of naturally occurring compounds to develop new and exciting materials. From clothing to tooth enamel, the possibilities are endless. You’ll also consider the chemistry behind the development of everyday consumer, and consider the ethics behind the products you use.

Without science writing, science could not really exist. By recording experiments and publishing the results of studies and discoveries, scientists can share their important work, and find an engaged audience. Science writing takes many forms: from press releases to video scripts. You’ll learn about different types of science writing, and look at the factors which you need to consider to write a story. You’ll discover how to gather accurate information and relevant opinions as well as tips on how to conduct a successful interview.

Millions of children around the world are excluded from access to education because of a disability - robbing them of their potential and diminishing our society. On this course you will learn about inclusive education, understanding what barriers there are to learning and how to challenge them. Over six weeks you will learn from a range of people with experience of disability, discovering practical ways to create a more inclusive learning environment that you can apply in your own area. Join us and help create a world where learning is for all children.

By the end of the course, you'll be able to

eHealth refers to the use of technologies to improve well-being, health, and healthcare. It is an umbrella term that captures concepts about the health context, technology, and people. In this free online course, we will provide you with insight into the domain of eHealth, describe methods to develop eHealth, and explain theories that enable behavior change and facilitate implementation. You will also understand how eHealth technologies are developed and used in practice, using a variety of case studies, assignments and examples. This course pays attention to the perspectives of the eHealth developers, patients, healthcare professionals and healthy people who want to improve or maintain their health and wellbeing. These perspectives are applied to the three main topics of this course: During Weeks 1 and 2, we will introduce eHealth and show you how eHealth technologies are used to enable or improve self-care and prevention, supportive care, and societal health. Weeks 3 and four will focus on design. You will learn how to design eHealth that fits the user and the context and can seduce or support people into changing their behavior. In Weeks 5 and 6, we focus on the diffusion and evaluation of eHealth technologies within the intended context, and among users and other relevant stakeholders. After finishing this course, you will have new knowledge about eHealth, acquired relevant eHealth skills, and gained insight into the use of eHealth in practice.... [-]

In recent decades there’s been increasing global concern about the sustainability of our use of fossil fuels and nuclear power, which has led to increased interest in more sustainable renewable energy sources.

These ‘renewables’ have been utilised for centuries, in water mills, windmills and wood stoves, but in recent years we’ve developed the technology to utilise these natural power sources on a much larger scale.

During this free online course, we’ll study renewable energy using the four Greek elements as our weekly themes:

The British Empire was the largest empire ever seen. It ruled over a quarter of the world’s population and paved the way for today’s global economy. But British imperialism isn’t without controversy, and it continues to cause enormous disagreement among historians today. This free online course will help you understand why.

Over six weeks, we’ll explore the British Empire through six themes - money, violence, race, religion, gender and sex, and propaganda. You’ll get to hear the stories of the fascinating individuals who contributed to both its rise and fall.

Along the way, you’ll be able to debate the questions these themes raise with learners from around the world and draw your own conclusions.... [-]

The discovery of the skeleton of Richard III in a Leicester car park - and the recent revelations of an infidelity within his family’s bloodline - have made headline news around the world.

In this free online course, a team of scholars from the University of Leicester address a broad set of themes about the England Richard would have inhabited in the 15th century and look back at his rediscovery and reinterment.

The political scene in the 15th century was dominated by savage dynastic warfare – the Wars of the Roses - in which allegiances and power shifted among an aristocratic clique, with devastating outcomes.

The century also saw the abandonment of many villages through general population decline and a shift towards greater use of the land for pasture farming. But demand for labour meant that the prosperity of working people rose, and towards the end of the century, the introduction of printing transformed access to literacy and books.... [-]

As universities work to become globally competitive courses taught in English are expanding. Those working in Higher Education are often thrown into producing academic work in English – either as teachers or researchers – without training in English language or intercultural skills. This course aims to remedy that, giving you a thorough introduction to English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI). You’ll learn about current EMI practice, and increase your confidence in using English, you’ll also work to grow your intercultural skills. Join us and get prepared for the global classroom. What topics will you cover?

This course is for people who are learning English and who are interested in developing English language skills for employability and workplace contexts. It will help job seekers and young professionals with the English they need.

Each week, we’ll focus on key aspects of English for the workplace. You’ll watch videos and listen to audio recordings of people searching and applying for jobs, preparing for interviews, taking interviews, starting their new job, and working with new colleagues. Our experienced tutor will examine some of the language used and will draw your attention to useful points that will help you improve your English in workplace contexts.

The course does not follow a language syllabus but takes workplace English as its starting point, and offers functional language phrases and real, authentic workplace scenarios. Short quizzes and discussions will help you measure your understanding and practise your English.... [-]

How do very young children best learn English as an additional language while they’re still learning their mother tongue? How and why do children learn best through play? What can parents and practitioners do to enable children to get the most out of a learning experience?

This free online course for parents and practitioners will explore how young children learn English and investigate many more aspects of early childhood learning and development.

British Council educators will share their insights and experiences so that you can learn how to best talk to young children; how to create the best environment for them to learn English as an additional language; and how to monitor their progress most effectively.... [-]

This course is part of the Environmental Challenges program, which will enable you to explore how people and nature interact and earn 10 credits from the University of Leeds.

Complex patterns in ecology are not always causal and predictable. Populations have their own dynamics that can be independent of external environmental conditions. In this course we look at the way that natural systems are organised; although living systems are complex, there are also some fairly constant patterns and relationships.

This course explores three approaches to the causality and dynamics of environmental systems, and how humans are involved and affected by these systems worldwide. It also includes an introduction to correlation and the limitations of statistical testing.... [-]

War and conflict can severely disrupt the governance of the environment. What is the impact on both people and the environment? This course is part of the Environmental Challenges program, which will enable you to explore how people and nature interact and earn 10 credits from the University of Leeds.

The human conflict has both short and long-term effects on the natural world. The environment is directly impacted by pollution and explosions and can be used as a weapon of war. In the longer term, sustainable environmental management is disrupted when conflict destabilizes social systems and people are denied access to natural resources. As resources become scarcer, it might be expected that people come into conflict about access to natural resources. This course explores three aspects of conflict and resource scarcity and applies these to explore decision making and negotiation skills.... [-]

The world faces challenging environmental problems. They are challenging because different people typically contribute differently to environmental change and because its effects will be felt differently by different people in different places.

Understand environmental injustices

This free online course will help you understand how injustice is a common feature of many environmental problems. Over 5 weeks, we’ll look at deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change and other environmental issues, asking questions such as:

Who runs your city? What makes your city liveable? Using stories from cities around the world, this course will introduce you to the importance of ethics in civic leadership, planning, and business, and citizen engagement. Explore the problems that cities face, and understand the concept of an ‘ethical’ city On the course you’ll look in depth at the challenges facing cities - considering your own city, or the one nearest you. We’ll ask you to share your stories so you can connect with other learners and compare your experiences in order to recognize and understand the problems cities face. You will explore the power of various entities in your city and examine how they help solve or exacerbate local problems. You will delve into the notion of the ethical city and how it adds value to professionals and citizens - especially in terms of how it may help to improve the quality of urban life. In doing this you will also get a sense of the broader context of issues like social justice, corporate responsibility and ethical practice at the city level. Get practical insights into sustaining an ethical city Through the course we’ll introduce a range of new ideas, tools and techniques (including practical examples, video stories, expert interviews and other resources) to inspire you to:... [-]

You will be introduced to the human abdomen and its many complex structures through stimulating discussions on common surgical scenarios and current research. Each week, we will focus on a specific area of the abdomen; starting at the anterior abdominal wall and be able to detail the anatomy of numerous organs including the stomach and liver. Specialists will come together to compare and discuss contrasting surgical techniques. This will help you to apply your understanding of basic anatomy to common clinical scenarios and introduce you to research being undertaken at the University of Leeds.

Have you ever thought about how a composer or a writer make a living? Or how they make money to live their daily lives, just like other people? This course will explore the process of creators becoming professionals: how a marketplace and an industry have grown thanks to inventions like the 15th-century printing press.

You’ll learn that this process began with the idea that artistic work is the property of creators and how this idea inspired a new industry based on copyright. You’ll also explore the various aspects of this process - looking at how technological enhancement, creativity and the legal dimensions of copyright are all closely linked.

Medieval to modern: understand how copyright has evolved... [-]

The next generation faces uncertain economic prospects. This online course explains why.

You’ll get an introduction to the global economy, how it experiences spikes and dips in economic growth and how this affects prosperity worldwide.

We will look at reasons to be optimistic and reasons to be pessimistic. We will discuss to what extent the next generation can expect to be better or worse off than the current generation.

You’ll get to share your views on what’s more likely and hear how prominent economists and other scholars can have different views on this question.

This course is for people who are learning English and who are interested in finding out more about British culture and improving their English language skills.

The course will use short videos to present a different topic each week, including English as a global language, the environment, entrepreneurship and literature. Filmed in Great Britain, these videos will help you to develop your listening skills as you watch authentic examples of people speaking English. Our experienced tutor will examine some of the language used in the videos and will draw your attention to useful points that will help you improve your spoken and written English.

The course does not follow a language syllabus but takes authentic English in context as its starting point. Short quizzes and discussions will help you measure your understanding and practise your English throughout the course. At the end of each week, you will be asked to describe your own feelings and experiences about that week’s topic in a short piece of writing.... [-]

This free online course will look at the life and works of William Shakespeare and take you from his birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe Theatre in London, from where he secured his central place in English literature.

We will look at five of Shakespeare’s plays with the help of actors and experts from around the world. They will explain and explore the universal themes Shakespeare addressed in his work.

The plays are Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Macbeth.

Our video tutor will guide you through the course and look at some of the words and expressions that Shakespeare introduced to the English language.

Short quizzes will check your understanding and you’ll be asked to share your ideas and opinions on the topics Shakespeare raises.... [-]

This free online course explores a range of chemistry-based topics relating to our everyday lives, with an emphasis on the important role of organic chemistry – the study of carbon-containing organic compounds. Activities include experimenting ‘in the kitchen’ with hands-on projects ranging from extracting a plant fragrance to testing the activity of spices against microbes. The course will be particularly useful for sixth formers who are interested in developing independent learning skills to help the transition to university.

Use real-life examples to study organic compounds

During each week of the course, we will use real-life examples to show you how an understanding of the structure and shape of organic compounds can be used to explain their reactivity and properties.... [-]

The first astronauts to leave the Earth’s orbit saw our “blue planet” for the first time. But what lies in the half of our world covered by water more than two miles deep? How are our everyday lives connected to the ocean depths, and what challenges and opportunities does this previously hidden realm hold for our future?

In this course, you will join scientists exploring the ocean from the deepest undersea vents to the chilly waters of the Poles, going deeper, longer, and more often than ever before - and find how what we now know about the ocean depths is as amazing as the unknown that remains. By taking this course, you will see how the deep ocean is no longer out of reach, and join a global debate about the future of our “blue planet”.... [-]

Teaching English is a fantastic way to see the world. And it’s immensely satisfying – you get to see students achieve great things with their new skills.

That’s why thousands of people take up posts around the globe every year, teaching English as a foreign language.

If you want to join them, now’s your chance. This online course explores the ins and outs of English Language Teaching (ELT), covering what ELT involves and where you can teach it.

You’ll get advice from fellow teachers and experts from Cambridge English Language Assessment, helping you to teach English abroad or at home.

Teaching Contexts

This free online course explores how life on earth has been shaped by five mass extinction events in the distant past. At present, biodiversity is facing a crisis, with the prospect of a sixth extinction event today.

Each week there are discussions with scientists about how their research informs us about the biodiversity of our planet including the very first life forms; fish and tetrapod diversification; the radiation of reptiles and dinosaurs; and the rise of mammals.

We focus on the five previous mass extinction events that have shaped the biodiversity of our planet. The fossil record reveals evidence of species that went extinct during these mass extinctions and the new opportunities created for the surviving biota to diversify.... [-]

Finance Fundamentals: Financial Planning and Budgeting starts by looking at the current economic backcloth and its impact on household finances. We then move on to explore your attitude to financial management and whether you have bad financial habits and how these should be addressed.

We introduce a simple four-stage model for making financial decisions before moving on to examine the two components of household budgeting – income and expenditure. In doing this we learn about the impact of inflation and taxation on incomes and the support to households provided by the state benefit system.

In examining expenditure we look at the pressures placed on us to spend our money, how to shop with confidence on the internet and on how ‘heuristics’ can interfere with good spending decision-making.... [-]

The dramatic events of the financial crisis in the late 2000s transformed the UK financial services industry. Long established institutions went out of business, others were forced into takeovers and only the intervention of governments worldwide - courtesy of eye-watering sized financial recovery packages - prevented the banking industry from implosion.

Now nearly 10 years on from the crisis it’s time to take stock and examine how the industry looks today - how both its structure, the way it operates and the way it is regulated have changed. Most importantly how is the industry now working for the consumer? What are the products? How competitive is the industry? Is regulation working effectively to protect consumers in the financial marketplace? And where can consumers go to get help and guidance in a changing environment where rules about product selling are changing and where greater freedoms can be exercised with pension savings?... [-]

Research shows that UK households are poor at investment management with a limited understanding of investment choices, risks, and returns. The resultant ‘savings gap’ threatens a scenario where many cannot afford to retire. Elsewhere households fail to plan properly to make their investment choices fit with their risk appetites and the time horizons for access to their funds. Finance Fundamentals: Investment Theory and Practice aims to give you the tools to avoid these personal finance nightmares. You’ll study the various investment choices and the returns and risks associated with different products. You’ll also study investment strategies and how to ensure your approach to investment is consistent with your risk-return appetite. You’ll also look at how to avoid the individual and group behavioral traits that can impair effective investment decision making. Throughout the course will provide recent and current case studies on investment issues to demonstrate how the ideas and problems explored in the course are manifested by episodes in the world of personal investments. The facilitated 4-week course is right up-to-date and includes coverage of the current reforms to pensions rolled out in 2015 – changes that have radically changed the way many will use their pension savings as they move into retirement. Finance Fundamentals: Investment Theory and Practice aims to give you the knowledge and confidence to take charge of your investments and your financial future. Develop fundamental business and finance skills This course has been developed by The Open University Business School – a pioneering institution that is... [-]

Finance Fundamentals: Managing the Household Balance Sheet starts by looking at borrowing and debts. We get to grips with the factors that drive interest levels. We look at the differences between ‘good’ debts and ‘bad’ debts and at the way lenders credit score those seeking to borrow money.

We then move on to examine the array of investments that people can hold – including savings accounts, bonds, shares and holdings in funds. We look at the determinants of investment returns and at the historical evidence about which are the best investments. We also look at how investments are taxed.

Housing is the next topic. We look at the costs of buying and selling the property and at the rationale for owning property and the risks involved. This involves understanding the mortgage products that are used to buy property.... [-]

Explore the world of football (soccer), the money, the rivalries, the trends, the past, the present, the men’s game, the woman’s game and the real issues. Whether you love it, hate it or try to ignore it – join us as we go behind the scenes to examine why football is more than just a game.

From street soccer to multi-million dollar transfers, from the men’s game to the women’s, from the global to the local, from the beaches of Brazil to the fight against poverty this online course looks beyond the pitch, to explore football’s role in society and possibly a community near you.

Explore how your own mind works, and discover how the limitations of the human brain can lead to major miscarriages of justice.

Despite advances in forensic science, eyewitness testimony remains a critical component of criminal investigations. Psychological research has revealed the dangers of relying on evidence gained from an eyewitness and also how careful the police need to be when questioning witnesses.

Using videos of real witnesses and from cameras that go behind the scenes of a police investigation, this course explores the psychology of eyewitness testimony. You will get the chance to test your own cognitive skills and to see whether your powers of investigation are as good as a crack squad of police officers, as you try to solve a crime using nothing but evidence from eyewitnesses.... [-]

Functional programming is increasingly important in providing global-scale applications on the internet. We combine the theory of functional programming and the practice of how that works in Erlang. The course will also help you if you are interested in Elixir, based on the same virtual machine as Erlang, and will help you get going with any functional language. Functional programming has been a strength at the University of Kent for the last 30 years. You’ll learn with Simon Thompson – co-author of one of the standard introductions to Erlang, O’Reilly Media’s Erlang Programming.

Do you want to develop software using the latest programming language paradigm? Haskell is a functional programming language, based on formal mathematical principles. As such, it is easy to reason about and develops, and it executes efficiently on modern multicore machines. From investment banks to social networks, everyone is adopting Haskell.

In this introductory course, you will discover the power, elegance, and simplicity of functional programming in Haskell. In the end, you will be able to:

What does gender have to do with international development? Is ‘woman’ the centre point of gender and development? What is it that brings gender and development together?

These are some of the questions you will be asking and answering in this course. You’ll explore the gendered dimensions of contemporary international and community development and ultimately learn how and why gender is so important.

The key questions addressed in this online course about why gender matters in contemporary international and community development, include:

This online course will develop your understanding of genealogy techniques and how to communicate your family history.

You’ll start by defining what you want to research, before considering the best ways to find and analyse sources, and store and record what you find. You’ll look at the challenge of locating the right ancestor, including the potential of DNA testing in genealogy.

Finally, we’ll introduce the main tools that genealogists use to communicate their research, including creating a family tree, and show you how to write a meaningful family history, incorporating historical context.

There have been huge advances in the field of genetics in the last 10 years since the sequencing of the first human genome in 2003. It is now possible to analyze all 20,000 human genes in a single experiment, rather than focussing on one gene at a time. We are in the genomics era.

This free online course will introduce the topic of genomics, using the University of Exeter’s research expertise in diabetes, to illustrate the clinical application of current genomics knowledge.

We will use patient experiences to discuss the impact and value of a genetic diagnosis for diabetes for patients, their families and the clinicians responsible for their care. You will learn about the value of understanding the underlying pathological mechanism of a disease, to enable the progression from genomic testing to improvements in clinical care.... [-]

The environment in which we live and work can have a profound effect on our health – an effect that is explored by the emerging field of geohealth.

This free online course will introduce you to new developments in geohealth, looking at the latest thinking and methods for using spatial data and geographic information systems (GIS) in health settings.

Understand geohealth techniques and best practice

The course consists of ten different topics, ranging from data collection techniques to spatial simulation, and aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and health professionals.

By the end of the course, you will understand how spatial data and geo-information techniques can contribute to solving public health problems, and be aware of best practice when using GIS in the health field.... [-]

The behaviours that the education system rewards – studying, careful preparation, patient climbing from one level to the next – seem to give women an advantage academically. Yet in the world of work, people hire and promote based on character as much as on formal qualifications.

Through examining what should be experienced by young women in the classroom this course aims to start a conversation between teachers about how to best help girls succeed in the classroom and beyond, as well as offering authoritative advice, guidance and practical solutions.

Before exploring teaching strategies that work in the classroom, we will first examine the significant factors that influence girls’ learning experiences. In particular, we’ll look at the strategies that develop character in a way that supports academic success in school and professional success after school. We will also examine and discuss the factors that can inhibit girls reaching their full potential in school and in their future careers.... [-]

Economic growth is no longer the best indicator of broader success. By 2050, the global population will reach 10 billion, and we may face an environmental crisis. If we are to thrive, and not just survive, into the next century, we will need new tools and new ways of thinking to tackle the challenges of today and ensure a successful and prosperous future for everyone.

On this course, you will look at other approaches to defining success for society, examining how we must aim for a broader notion of prosperity at both a personal and planetary level.

Week 1

Energy is often said to be the lifeblood of modern society. Multiple sea changes are currently afoot in the global economy, at the heart of which lies energy.

The goal of this free online course is to examine the numerous critical energy challenges we are facing, and the complex interaction between the economics and politics of global energy markets.

Over six weeks, we will explore: the causes and implications of low oil prices for global energy markets and geopolitics; the success of North American shale gas and the desire of other countries, particularly China, to replicate it in future; the state of US natural gas and oil production; and the impact of the shale revolution and low oil prices on OPEC and Russia.... [-]

Globalization is a process that no human being can speed up, slow down or stop. But that doesn’t mean people won’t try.

Governments and citizens across the world either try and benefit from globalization (and try to limit its negative effects) or try to avoid it. On this course, you’ll learn about some of the reasons why people are either pro or anti-globalization. You’ll discover why some governments and countries choose boundaries and demarcation and others choose integration.

Policy is the art of achieving the desired outcome in the presence of constraints and differing priorities.

Policy is largely a coordination problem. Here data and models can help. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa did not spread worldwide because science-based policies were implemented, replacing ineffective policies such as restricting movement by closing borders.

The science of epidemics is one of the successes of Global Systems Science (GSS) – an interdisciplinary approach to modelling the complex, multi-faceted and intertwined problems of the modern world. Another example is the use of network science in financial regulation dealing with many interconnected financial actors.... [-]

This course is part of the Good Brain, Bad Brain program, which will enable you to explore the human brain, for CPD or as a gateway to further study. This free online course is an introduction to the key concepts of the human brain and is designed for the non-specialist. It gives you basic information and explanations, so that you may better understand your own amazing brain.

We will look at what your brain is made of, how these components are organized and how they function. This information is helping neuroscientists across the globe understand the brain - and how it is able to do everything from stopping you falling off your bike, to making you feel sad that your football team lost their game, to help you learn how your brain works.... [-]

What did being healthy in ancient Rome or Greece look like? How can we tell what well-being meant in ancient times?

This online course will help you investigate these questions, using both literary and archaeological evidence, to uncover details of real life in ancient societies.

We will divide the body up into organs and systems, using each to explore ancient theories on the structure and function of the human body.

We will discover what ancient societies thought about topics that we still wrestle with today – from the relationship between mind and body to sexuality, aging, and gender.

This course will help you understand how and why drugs and treatments are funded and discover how healthcare organizations make decisions about whether we should have access to certain treatments.

You will focus on a key part of the information used to make these decisions - Health Technology Assessment (HTA).

In this course we looked at:

This online course will explore Hispanic culture through the work of three iconic Hispanic film directors: Luis Buñuel, Pedro Almodóvar, and Guillermo del Toro.

Each week, we will look at a different Hispanic director, and you’ll discover why so many people like their work. You’ll train your eyes and ears, evaluating photography, movement, color, acting, and story, helping you to enjoy all types of film.

You’ll also learn to recognize and interpret cultural and ideological messages in film and talk about the ways that Hispanic culture in the film differs from your own.

In a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores, a team of archaeologists were surprised to find the skeletal remains of a mysterious new species. This free online course follows the incredible discovery of Homo floresiensis - or ‘the Hobbit’ as it has come to be known. Join us on a quest for discovery and adventure as the mystery is unravelled piece by piece using a variety of scientific techniques and archaeological approaches.

In this course, you will follow a dedicated team of scientists as they continue to uncover clues that shine a light on the world in which ‘the Hobbit’ lived and our own origins as a species. You will learn about the nature and implications of the mystery of ‘the Hobbit’ through investigating a range of significant questions including:... [-]

This course has been designed and developed by experts from The Careers Service here at The University of Sheffield to help you to succeed at interviews, whether you are applying for jobs or planning to study. Because being offered an interview can be quite daunting, we’ve put together a set of materials to help you prepare and be successful on the day.

We’ll help you to research the organisation so you can answer that frequently asked question ‘why do you want to work for us?’ with style. We’ll provide advice on what to wear (and what not to wear) and go through some common interview questions. We’ll have tips from employers and admissions tutors on what they look for in candidates and cover the types of questions you should be asking them.... [-]

This course has been designed and developed by experts from The Careers Service here at The University of Sheffield to help you to write successful applications, whether you are applying for jobs or planning to study at university or college.

Over the three weeks, we’ll look at different parts of the application process. We’ll help you to understand the skills you have gained through work experience and your studies and show you how you can match them to job advertisements or course requirements.

We’ll share top tips with you to help you write exceptional applications, CVs (or résumés), covering letters and personal statements and provide insight from employers and admissions tutors on what they look for in candidates. We’ll go on to help you examine your digital footprint and develop a professional profile online.... [-]

Beginning your career or starting a new job brings to mind lots of questions, so we’ve designed a course to guide you through those initial weeks and months so you can make a positive start to your career. You’ll see videos from employers, giving you insights from around the world into what they look for from their employees. You’ll learn how to communicate across cultures and discover the skills to build and maintain relationships with colleagues, managers, and clients. The course includes articles, discussions, and quizzes with tips to help you feel confident.

Thinking about doing an EPQ? Or already undertaking an EPQ and feeling overwhelmed? Or just want to get some tips?

Discover all things Extended Project Qualification with this course. You’ll look at reasons to do an EPQ, explore the research process and assessment criteria, and get practical advice on time management and be doing your EPQ presentation.

You’ll also develop skills useful for transitioning to university level study and get chance to swap discussion and ideas with other people also doing an EPQ.

The food industry is one of the most important commercial sectors in the world. Everyone uses it, but how many people abuse it? As we witness the increasing globalization of the supply chain, a growing challenge is verifying the questionable identity of raw materials in the food we eat.

In this course, we will look at topical issues concerning ‘food fraud’ and explore ways in which analytical chemistry can help in its identification and prevention. We’ll share fascinating examples, such as the history of white bread and a surprising ingredient once found in bitter beer.

The University of East Anglia has joined forces with the world-renowned Institute of Food Research (IFR) to bring you this unique course. You’ll be led by Kate Kemsley, a specialist in the use of advanced instrumentation for measuring the chemical composition of food materials. Course content is linked with UEA’s MChem postgraduate programme, which supports final-year students’ practical research projects in this area of science.... [-]

According to research by the UK government, disabled people are around half as likely to hold a degree-level qualification than people without disabilities. It raises an important question: how can we make education more inclusive?

On this course, you will learn about different aspects of inclusion and digital accessibility experienced by students, teachers and support staff in Higher Education.

You’ll explore the barriers experienced by disabled students, the role of inclusive practices and hear firsthand from students about the impact inclusion has had on their studies.

This course introduces a case study showing how Marks & Spencer has been a key innovator in fashion, introducing new fabrics that make our lives easier and more comfortable.

You will see how M&S continues to drive innovation to bring consumers new and better products. You will also consider your own clothing and its innovation story, research how a favourite item of clothing is the result of innovative developments in the industry and share your findings with other learners.

This course considers the ways in which the food industry has evolved over the past 70 years and has created the industry of convenience we have today.

Introduced through a case study from Marks and Spencer, you will see how new innovations have changed the way we shop. You will also consider the issue of food waste; in a world where thousands suffer from malnutrition and starvation, you’ll consider the attitudes in your own society to this global problem.

This course considers innovations throughout history identifying that very few innovative ideas are new; the vast majority take something that is already working and improve it, be it a product, service or process.

You’ll consider the development of an innovation that you are particularly interested in, and, through a short project, produce and share with other learners your interpretation of its history.

Meeting today’s business and world challenges require going beyond the thinking that created the challenges in the first place. This is where a good innovation strategy helps. On this course, you will develop your knowledge of the challenges of open innovation, management innovation, platform innovation and emerging market innovation and learn how to meet them with a long-term approach. Using quizzes, the newest theoretical insights, cases on pioneering businesses, and thought-provoking debates with leading experts, you will solidify your knowledge of innovation.

Week 1: What is innovation strategy?

Whether you’re engaging in business across borders or cultural regions, meeting other people through international travel, working in a diverse, global organization or studying abroad, you can benefit from a better understanding of intercultural communication.

This free online course will focus on the basic but important concepts. It will:

Countries across the globe are increasingly linked and dependent on each other. This can lead to tensions and confusion. This course will give you a compass to navigate our interconnected world.

You’ll learn all about global governance, which aims for increased cooperation between nations, and why it’s vital. You will also explore the complex processes and institutions aiming at managing global challenges and issues, learning how the large variety of stakeholders can make global governance a tricky job.

Robotics is all about integrating hardware and software. In this course, you’ll design, build and program a simple robot, with at least two joints, that can carry a pen or pencil and draw a coordinated line on a sheet of a paper. There are lots of ways you could actually build such a robot and that will depend on your skill level, your budget, or what equipment you can source. You may find the project challenging. You’ll need to bring together a number of skills, such as mechanical design and software development. The software needs to implement kinematic algorithms as well as communicate with sensors and motors. You will need to generate a trajectory of points for the robot to move on the worksheet and test and adjust the software to improve your robot’s performance. At the end of the course, you’ll be invited to submit a video of your completed robot for peer review.... [-]

This online course will help you understand online security and protect your digital life, whether at home or work.

Guided by Cory Doctorow, you will learn how to recognize threats that could harm you online and take steps to reduce the chances that they happen to you.

The course will frame your online safety in the context of the wider world, introducing concepts like malware, viruses, trojans, network security, cryptography, identity theft and risk management.

The course is supported by the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Programme, is GCHQ Certified Training and IISP accredited.

What topics will you cover?

If we don’t grasp why ecosystems function, it becomes harder to determine possible reasons for when they don’t and makes it difficult to identify possible environmental threats to humans.

In this course, you will discover how organisms are linked together by complex interrelationships, how such links are studied and how the physical properties of a particular habitat interact with the organisms that inhabit it. Using case studies, you will come to learn how knowledge of ecosystems leads to an understanding of their individual importance, and how they can be preserved.

All Open University science courses presented on FutureLearn are produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education.... [-]

This course is part of the Foundations of University Learning and Teaching program, which will enable you to develop your skills in teaching and knowledge about learning in higher education with a flexible program of online courses from UNSW. Traditional views of education have shifted. Teachers now do far more facilitation of learning as opposed to simply seeing their role as transferring knowledge. We’re now seeing student-focused and learner centered approaches being the norm - approaches that change the roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners. This course will introduce you to student-focused approaches and general principles of teaching and learn at a university level.

Financial markets have become increasingly complex - it’s not easy to know where to start when it comes to investing. In today’s world, the demand for accurate data-driven quantitative analysis across the world is steadily rising: it’s become crucial to understand and be able to use statistical and mathematical information accurately and promptly. This course will teach you the essentials of modern investment theory and help you learn to apply them in real life using financial data and programming. Understand modern investment theory On the course you’ll start by learning about key concepts in modern investment theory and quantitative investing like return, risk and portfolio optimisation. Get used to statistical techniques and practice using programming language R Once you’ve learned basic investment concepts we’ll look at applying them using statistics and programming using open source language R will be introduced. You’ll practice by doing assignments every week using actual securities data from Yahoo Finance. Discover how to construct an investment portfolio Using your new knowledge of quantitative investing and your ability to analyze investment characteristics using programming, you’ll be able to build your own diversified investment portfolio based on return analysis. Learn from an expert in the field Through the course you’ll be taught by an educator who has worked in quantitative finance for more than 15 years in Wall Street global investment banks before she joined SKKU in 2015. She was Chief Investment Officer at a hedge fund and head of systematic trading groups at global banks such as... [-]

This course is part of the Italian for Beginners program, which will enable you to learn basic Italian, and discover Italy and its language and culture. This free online course is the third of six in the Italian for Beginners program. It will introduce you to language that you need to:

Describe your normal day in Italian During the four weeks of the course, you will learn vocabulary and expressions to talk about what you do during a normal day, and learn the present tense of regular verbs ending in -ere and -ire, as well as some irregular verbs such as and are (to go) and uscire (to go out) and venire (to come). You will also talk about your leisure habits and things you do regularly, using reflexive verbs. By now, you will find that you are getting more confident in your listening, and you will continue to work on your speaking, reading and writing skills too. You will find out about meal times and eating habits in Italy, and about bike-friendly towns.... [-]

This course is part of the Italian for Beginners program, which will enable you to learn basic Italian, and discover Italy and its language and culture. This free online course is the last of six in the Italian for Beginners program. It will introduce you to the language that you need to:

Learn Italian to get things done During the four weeks of the course, you will learn the vocabulary and phrases you need to get things done, such as booking a hotel or a holiday house or ordering a meal - and also making a complaint. You will find out how to specify dates. You will learn how to use the present continuous to talk about what you are doing and how to make a request using the verb potere (can). You will expand your knowledge of Italian culture, with information on holiday accommodation, Italian regional dishes, and fast food Italian style.... [-]

This online course will give you an introduction to the academic language and skills that you will need to study at a university where the teaching is done in English. You will develop four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) using tasks that a university student would undertake: listening to lectures, taking notes, spoken presentations, reading academic texts (including long sentences and visual information) and writing reports using proper academic words. Throughout the course you will be able to share your practice work with other learners, to give and get feedback.

Online learning is likely to be important for you in the future, either at university or in the workplace. Learning online is different to learning in the classroom as it requires different skills. This course will help you to develop those skills, showing you how to learn and communicate effectively in an online environment.

This course is just one of a series about ‘learning online’, which introduces you to the essential skills and tools you need to study effectively online.

Many of us now have an online identity running alongside our everyday lives. In this course you’ll consider your online presence; you’ll discover how what we say and do online can have major implications for our real lives, and those of others. You’ll also spend time looking at how to assess and enhance your online identities to ensure that you can get the most out of being yourself online.

This course is just one of a series about ‘learning online’, which introduces you to the essential skills and tools you need to study effectively online.

In this course, you’ll be introduced to some of the tools you can use to help you reflect on your learning; such as short tests and quizzes or online logs and journals. You will then move on to focus on sharing your learning with others. By producing and sharing video, using blogs, pin-boards, collaborative platforms or social media you can enrich the learning experience.

This course is just one of a series about ‘learning online’, which introduces you to the essential skills and tools you need to study online.

In this course, you’ll explore the rich and diverse range of information available to you online, how to use search tools effectively, and the ways in which you can begin to assess information that you might want to use in your studies. Using a wide range of learning activities, you will be challenged to dig deeper and think critically about the information that you find online.

This course is just one of a series about ‘learning online’, which introduces you to the essential skills and tools you need to study online.

This hands-on course will teach you how to write your own computer programs, one line of code at a time. You’ll learn how to access open data, clean it and analyze it and to produce visualizations. You will also learn how to write up and share your analyses, privately or publicly. You will install free software (see Requirements below) to learn to code in Python, a widely used programming language across all disciplines, due to its support for scientific and engineering libraries and visualization tools, and a wide range of development tools. You will write up analyses and do coding exercises using the popular Jupyter Notebooks platform, which allows you to see immediately the result of running your code and helps you identify – and fix – any errors more easily. You will look at real data from the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, and other organizations. You’ll be encouraged to discuss the data and your analyses with your fellow learners, and to build a community of researchers around these and other datasets.... [-]

Being able to listen to others and present your own ideas effectively will help you to succeed at university. This online course helps you to develop these skills while studying in English. It shows you effective strategies for listening and note taking, to help you identify and record the key points in other people’s presentations. As part of this, you will improve your understanding of key academic language and specialist vocabulary.

You will bring everything you learn together, to create and practice delivering your own spoken presentation and receive detailed Educator feedback.

The great 18th-century writer Dr. Samuel Johnson, who suffered from severe bouts of depression, said: “the only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life or better to endure it.”

Taking Johnson’s phrase as a starting point, this course considers how poems, plays, and novels can help us understand and cope with times of deep emotional strain.

Along the way, you’ll hear from doctors, who offer a medical perspective, and from people who have turned to literature at moments of crisis, including such well-known figures as Melvyn Bragg, Mark Haddon, Sir Ian McKellen and Stephen Fry.

Together, we’ll explore six themes:

As we make sense of what we read, we construe meaning using the ancient cultural technique of interpretation. Only rarely do we actually reflect this process: what are the means that help us understand literary texts? How does interpretation work? And how has our increasing use of e-books and tablets changed the way we read and interpret literature? This free online course addresses these key questions as it introduces you to a variety of ways of interpreting literary texts. We will look into time-tested methods such as close reading. We shall also address more recent, computer-assisted practices such as distant reading.

You will learn about the professional reading practices used by literary scholars. But we will also probe the benefits and limitations of the screen-based reading all of us perform every day as we move from hyperlink to hyperlink. Along the way, we will inquire into the materiality of texts, asking ourselves what difference it makes whether we encounter a poem, play or novel as an e-book, paperback, hardback or manuscript. While we will take a modern American poem as our tutor text, you will encounter a great variety of literary texts and forms. We will also visit the rich library holdings of the University of Basel, one of the world’s 50 oldest universities.... [-]

We are constantly being given reasons to do and believe things: to believe that we should buy a product, support a cause, accept a job, judge someone innocent or guilty, that fairness requires us to do some household chore, and so on. Assessing the reasons we are given to do or believe these things calls upon us to think critically and logically.

Improve your logical and critical thinking skills

Even though we’re called upon to use our critical and logical thinking skills all the time, most of us are not that good at it. This free online course aims to help you develop and improve these skills.

You’ll learn how to:

This free online course will provide an introduction to the foundation skills and knowledge that you need when becoming a manager.

The course is designed for new or aspiring managers, who wish to supplement their experience with formal training and begin thinking about their continuing professional development.

Over four weeks, the course will enable you to:

This course is all about what’s core to leading and managing in organisations. Understanding who is important to an organisation – and that’s everybody who has a stake in it in some way – is a really good starting point. Building relationships with interested groups and people are time well spent. So too is time spent on planning. As someone once said ‘To fail to plan is to plan to fail’. If there’s no plan, how do organisations get people on board? If there’s no plan, what’s the difference between success and failure? How do you know when things are going off track? Or going well?

Plans are one thing. The people who can make the plans a reality are those with the right knowledge, skills and experience. Without the right person, performing as well as they can in the right job, plans don’t get off the ground. So building, supporting, growing and developing a team is much of what leading and managing is all about. And sometimes that’s about tackling poor performance, which can be uncomfortable.... [-]

This online course will introduce you to various high-performance computing (HPC) facilities for big data analysis. This includes R – a programming language renowned for its simplicity, elegance and community support – and Hadoop – an open source, Java-based programming framework for large datasets. You will find out how to use them, avoiding common pitfalls and saving you time and money.

By the end of the course, you will:

Research shows that UK households are poor at investment management with a limited understanding of investment choices, risks and returns. The resultant ‘savings gap’ threatens a scenario where many cannot afford to retire.

Elsewhere households fail to plan properly, to make their investment choices fit with their risk appetites and the time horizons for access to their funds. Managing My Investments aims to give you the tools to avoid these personal finance nightmares.

On this free online course, you’ll learn about different investment choices, the returns and risks associated with each, and the evidence about their historical performance. You’ll explore investment strategies, as well as the practicalities of involvement in personal finance markets. And you’ll look at how to avoid the individual and group behavioural traits that can impair effective investment decision making.... [-]

With real incomes falling and personal debt at a record high, there has never been a better time to improve your personal financial skills – Managing My Money aims to do just that.

This free online course starts by giving you practical guidance on how to compile a budget and use it to make good decisions about your spending. You’ll explore debts and investments, and find out how mortgages are used to finance home ownership. The critical issue of pension planning is explained, with guidance on different pension products.

The course concludes by examining different types of insurance and offers practical advice on how to make rational decisions about which insurance products to buy.... [-]

Companies large and small are inundated with data about consumer choices. But that wealth of information does not always translate into better decisions. Knowing how to interpret data is the challenge – and marketers, in particular, are increasingly expected to use analytics to inform and justify their decisions.

In this course, you will get the tools to measure the effectiveness of brand and customer assets, interpret regression analysis, calculate customer lifetime value, and design experiments as a way to evaluate and optimize marketing campaigns.

Explore and solve encrypted maths puzzles, in which numbers are replaced by letters or symbols, with this free online course.

This online course looks at three types of maths puzzle, their history and the puzzlists who created them:

You’ll exercise your brain, improve your problem-solving skills, and learn the art and science of deciphering maths puzzles.... [-]

This course has been designed by psychologists and clinicians at King’s College London for people interested in medicines adherence.

Using evidenced-and theory-based techniques, you will deepen your awareness and understanding of current practical and theoretical issues around medicines adherence.

You will become familiar with the COM-B framework and see examples of behavior change techniques to promote adherence. Learners from around the world will share best practices and discuss the practical examples shown through simulated clinical consultations.

Apply a framework to better understand the drivers of medicines non-adherence Apply techniques to effectively support behavior change in medicines taking behavior Reflect on how to implement these techniques in clinical practice Who is the course for?... [-]

Once a company has merged or been acquired there are a number of key processes that can help ensure the deal is successful. On this course, you will explore some of these processes and learn how to apply accounting and federal income tax principles to project earnings and cash flows, specifically of the post-combination entity.

Week 1 - Consolidation

Equity methods of consideration and the cost method, its sub-categories, and consolidation

Week 2 - Purchase Accounting and Special Topics

Explore purchase accounting in detail and other areas like Internal Revenue Code Section 338, tax deductible goodwill and intangibles

Climate change, technology, and regulation are changing modern building design, and the professional practices of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. This online course explores these trends, highlighting how higher education and the construction sector can address them. It’s been developed by the University of Bath’s highly rated Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering and draws on its new, interdisciplinary MSc programme in Modern Building Design.

This free online course will provide an introduction to ocean monitoring Earth Observation (EO) satellite data, and its uses, types, and challenges. It will explain how the data is acquired and used, the range of data types available, and the terminology and techniques involved.

The course is presented by physicist, oceanographer, and broadcaster Dr. Helen Czerski from University College London, remote sensing specialist Dr. Hayley Evers-King from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and the lead educator Dr. Mark Higgins from EUMETSAT.

The course is run by EUMETSAT in support of the Copernicus Programme.

You will look at practical examples of using ocean monitoring EO data - in real-world case-studies and in a range of areas of policy and decision-making - and will explore emerging technologies and trends.... [-]

There are lots of moons in our Solar System. The Earth is the only planet with just a single moon. Some moons are bigger than ours; many are much smaller. There are even tiny moons orbiting some of the asteroids. Some have ongoing volcanic eruptions; others are dead, heavily cratered lumps. One has rivers and lakes of liquid methane. Our own Moon has resources that could help open the Solar System for future exploration. A small handful of moons have conditions below their surfaces where primitive life might exist.

Sign up to explore the rich diversity of moons, the fundamental processes that have shaped them, and the relationship between the Moon and the Earth. You will be under the guidance of experts from The Open University and elsewhere. The course is rich in high-quality text, images, video, audio and interactive elements.... [-]

This online course introduces you to the key aspects of UK music copyright law.

It answers questions such as: what is protected by copyright and what is not? In what circumstances can you reuse copyrighted material without permission or payment? How do collecting societies work? And how can you make money as a musician through licensing deals, self-publishing or giving your music away?

Real-life musicians share their experiences throughout the course, offering advice on dealing with copyright, being copied by other artists and avoiding accidentally falling into a copy trap.

Week 1: Introduction to UK copyright law (including What does copyright protect? What does it not protect? How long does copyright protection last? What are some exceptions that allow limited use without seeking permission from copyright owners?; What is unlawful copying or copyright infringement (including real-life experiences of musicians talking about their own non-specialist understanding of copyright law); Case study: breaking down different types of ‘copyright works’ in a single song which attracts their own different type of copyright.... [-]

Explore the use and implications of nanotechnology in new medical applications Nanotechnology are used to control and manipulate nanometer-sized matter with nanometer precision. This can be atoms, molecules, or larger biological structures such as DNA or living cells. This online course explores the potential of nanotechnology in medical applications, to create new devices that can be used to diagnose a disease or monitor a medical treatment.

Network security is of growing concern for businesses, with daily attacks occurring on internal systems. Increasingly, staff need to be more aware of network security issues, and how to protect themselves and their businesses from attack.

This short, free online course will help professionals understand the first steps of network security techniques. We will focus on software vulnerabilities that can be used to attack a system, before exploring potential defence strategies to either deter or mitigate such attacks.

Over three weeks, you will:

In our highly technical world numeracy skills, particularly the ability to interpret data, are becoming increasingly important and are highly sought after by employers.

A lack of mathematical confidence and poor numeracy skills are barriers to employment as numeracy tests are increasingly part of the recruitment process, often early on.

Many people feel that they just simply “cannot do maths” yet the need to process numbers is a skill that we all need not just for employment but in our everyday lives.

This free online course from the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University will help you improve or revise your knowledge of mathematics. You will gain the numeracy skills needed to succeed in both employers’ numeracy tests and the workplace. It is designed to build your confidence.... [-]

When asked who their customer is, aspiring entrepreneurs often say “anyone”. This could not be further from the truth. This free online course will help you understand how you can use primary and secondary research, to identify the right customer and design engagement strategies to attract and retain them.

This course will introduce you to how, where and why to gather data and how to use it to create customer personas and marketing strategies.

We will help you understand how to develop market analysis strategies and show you how to develop a marketing strategy to guide you towards implementation.

By the end of the course, you will understand:... [-]

This course is part of the Online Business Success program, which will enable you to launch, market and run your own successful online business.

When asked who their customer is, aspiring entrepreneurs often say “anyone”. This could not be further from the truth. This free online course will help you understand how you can use primary and secondary research, to identify the right customer and design engagement strategies to attract and retain them.

This course will introduce you to how, where and why to gather data and how to use it to create customer personas and marketing strategies.

We will help you understand how to develop market analysis strategies and show you how to develop a marketing strategy to guide you towards implementation.... [-]

This free online course focuses on the planning phase of starting a small online business and will introduce what you need to do for clarity and action. Understand online business and e-commerce With so many ways to operate online, it is important that you understand what your business is and where it fits in. We’ll take you through the differences between various forms of online business models, to help you decide the best direction. We will help you develop a business plan or business model canvas to focus your thinking on the best opportunities for your online business. You will understand how to use primary and secondary research to identify your most valuable customer. By the end of the course, you will be ready to:... [-]

In today’s world, the development of new products and services is not confined to one organisation or indeed one country. To succeed, businesses must be willing to work with others, to spot and develop ideas – a model is known as open innovation.

This free online course is about how you can find ideas for innovation from the outside world – for example, suppliers, competitors or customers – and assimilate them into your own supply chain, to develop new processes, products and services.

The course offers insight and research into how an organisation, regardless of its location, can harness the latest thinking in applying open innovation to achieve competitive advantage.... [-]

UNESCO has stressed the urgent need for schools to address physical inactivity, by improving young people’s experiences of physical education. Couple this with the regular external inspections that schools in many countries receive, and there are growing pressures on all PE teachers to reach the highest levels of performance. This free online course is designed to help PE teachers achieve and sustain these levels. It defines an “outstanding” physical education lesson as one that meets the diverse learning needs of all of its students at a point in time and in a specific context.

The course begins with a guided, expert analysis of students’ needs, local and national curriculum requirements, and teachers’ personal readiness to deliver outstanding PE lessons. Throughout, PE teachers will be positioned as “activators” – practitioners who activate new, inclusive learning possibilities for their students. By the end of the course, you will:... [-]

If we consider data collection and its reporting to make up research, then we will all have been exposed to being participants in some form of social research. Data collection from people in society is now part of everyday life. Ethical research demands that respect is afforded to the rights and dignity of human participants. Studies need to be designed to be worthwhile and any potential harm anticipated and minimized. Ethical research requires thinking carefully about what constitutes participation in research and the responsibilities of researchers not only to participants but also to all those affected by a study.

This course introduces you to world-renowned Russian director Meyerhold’s technique of biomechanics. It invites you to study and experience first-hand his revolutionary biomechanical étude, ‘The Slap’.

Through a mixture of video, animation, discussion forums and practical exercises you will begin to understand Meyerhold’s Russian actor training technique – a two-minute repeatable exercise used to develop balance, awareness, and expression. You will be invited to explore your own response to this unique approach to training and will share these responses with your fellow learners.

Learn how predictive analytics tools can help you gain insights from big data. Collecting big data is just the first step; once you have it, how do you make sense of it? This free online course will show you how predictive analytics tools can help you gain information, knowledge and insights from big data.

Over the next four weeks, experience the power of HPE’s Vertica Analytics platform as an applied tool. Using Vertica Analytics and a case study approach, apply built-in predictive analytics functions and algorithms – linear regression, logistics regression and k-means clustering – to derive insight from your data, helping to create opportunities for your organisation.

Higher education is about learning at a higher level: developing skills relating to critical thinking; holding a supported, substantive argument; analysing and using data or sources critically. These are university-level skills but you can work on the foundations of these skills before you get there. Such skills will also help in assessments such as A-levels and extended project work. They also attribute that employers value to graduates.

In this course, you will explore some key skills needed for success at university. You will hear what university lecturers have to say about skills their students excel at or struggle with, from undergraduates about areas they have found difficult and some top tips for coping with the university learning environment.... [-]

Psychological therapies and the work of clinical psychologists are now very popular. This free online course provides an introduction to how psychologists understand emotions, behaviours and thinking patterns, and how this helps clinical psychologists make sense of their clients’ problems.

Over six weeks, you will explore some of the current challenges and debates in the area of diagnosis and treatment, and discover new ways of thinking psychologically about mental health.

You will gain new perspectives on the “nature vs nurture” debate, and understand how we are affected by life experiences. You will also discuss new research, which promises to help us improve our own mental health and well-being.... [-]

Many conflicts in the world today are framed in terms of religion, but there is much discussion and confusion concerning the precise role religion plays in these conflicts. According to some, conflict and violence are inherent to religion. Others claim that religion is only the guise under which social, economic or political conflicts are fought out. The first step to solving religiously framed conflicts is understanding the role of religion in them, and that is what this free online course is about.

Our point of departure is that religion means different things in different circumstances and to different (groups of) people. Therefore, the aim of this course is to show how a religiously framed conflict can be studied in the wider cultural and political contexts of these conflicts. In the course material, we will refer to various religious, cultural and political settings. In addition, we invite you to engage in some modest research activities in your own environment and compare your own findings with those of fellow students.... [-]

Take a guided tour around ancient Rome with University of Reading expert, Dr Matthew Nicholls, using his detailed, historically accurate and award-winning, 3D digital model of this awe-inspiring city.

Join Matthew on a walk around the city of Rome, and ask yourself:

Why was this ancient city built where it was? Did all roads really lead to Rome? How was drinking water supplied to the city’s million inhabitants? Where did Romans worship their gods and meet their political masters? And which buildings provided a backdrop for the spectacular events that both celebrated emperors and secured the loyalty of the masses?... [-]

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous authors of all time. 2016 marked the 400th anniversary of his death, his words have inspired and moved people from around the globe for centuries.

How much do we know about Shakespeare’s cultural background and influences and why his works have endured? To get a real sense of how Bard’s world would have actually looked and felt, renowned Shakespearean academic Professor Jonathan Bate will be exploring the acclaimed collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Professor Bate is also the Lead Educator, with Dr. Paula Byrne, on the new Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing FutureLearn course from Warwick.

Each week, Professor Bate will examine a particular play and a cultural theme alongside a selection of treasures from the Trust’s archives in Stratford-upon-Avon. Weekly learning material will be broken down into six video segments, each examining a variety of artifacts and play extracts. The course will open with an introduction to Shakespeare and his living and working environment, moving onto broader cultural themes and issues examined in his plays and ending with an exploration of his legacy.... [-]

Most children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also have an Intellectual Disability (ID) – or Learning Difficulty. However, this group is hugely under-represented in research and knowledge regarding this specific group can be hard to find.

On this course, you will get more of an understanding of ASD and ID specifically. Then we will explore how technology can be used to best support this group, introducing you to the SMART-ASD app that identifies the skills and needs of children with ASD and ID so that the most suitable technologies can be identified to support them.

This online course provides a technological and behavioral framework to help citizens, companies, and cities to reduce their carbon footprint.

You’ll look at energy production models and use basic tools to integrate yourself into the energy production cycle. You’ll find out how smart grids work, at both a small and large scale. And you’ll collect big data from smart grids and analyze it to understand energy consumption.

Finally, you’ll look at how you can lobby public institutions, to boost energy innovation and sustainability, in both urban and rural environments.

Can business do good? In this course, we explore different models of social enterprise and the local and global problems that they aim to address.

This course is a must for anyone who wants to understand more about what social enterprise is and its relation to sustainable development. You will learn how to evaluate social enterprise in the context of global and local problems. If you work with social enterprise or are thinking about launching a social enterprise, this course provides a valuable foundation.

Social Enterprise: Business Doing Good includes a mix of theory, practical information and case studies from around the world. You will assess different definitions and models of social enterprise and evaluate their social impact. Video interviews with experts and practitioners, articles and discussion steps will offer you the opportunity to learn and engage with other learners on key concepts and ideas. By the end of the course, you will understand the key concepts related to social enterprise and how to assess the social impact of a social enterprise model.... [-]

Is your social enterprise sustainable? Is it scalable? This course helps you evaluate your model and develop a plan to take it to the next level. Where could this course take me? This course is a must for anyone who wants to understand how to scale and sustain a social enterprise. You will learn how to evaluate and diagnose your current business model, identify your challenges, and develop strategies to grow your social enterprise, and evaluate its impact. What and how will I learn? Social Enterprise: Growing a Sustainable Business includes a mix of theory, practical information, and case studies from around the world. You will learn how to map your stakeholders, consider partnership opportunities, and manage change. You will also consider different marketing and communications strategies, how to find talent and different sources of funding and investment. By the end of the course, you will be prepared to take your social enterprise to the next level. Learn more with the Social Enterprise program This course is one of three in the Social Enterprise program prepared by Middlesex University Business School, in collaboration with researchers at the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship and the social enterprise Living in Minca, and with funding by the British Council. The program will enable you to understand what it takes to launch and run a sustainable social enterprise. When you complete all three courses and buy a Certificate of Achievement for each, you will earn a FutureLearn Award as proof of completing... [-]

How can you turn a social enterprise idea into action? In this course, you will identify the problem your idea is trying to solve, design your social enterprise venture model and prepare to take it to market.

This course is a must for anyone who wants to launch a social enterprise. It will help you understand the problem your social enterprise is trying to address, consider the level of innovation in your idea, and build your business plan and your team.

Social Enterprise: Turning Ideas into Action includes a mix of theory, practical information, and case studies from around the world. You will also learn about the legal and marketing considerations as you prepare to take your idea to market. By the end of the course, you will develop a plan for turning your social enterprise into action and there will be a competition to find the best learner-produced plan.... [-]

Learn how to use powerful digital tools to analyse conversations on Twitter.

What are tweets and the cultural politics of Twitter? Learn to use TAGS and discuss the implications of accessing social media data.

What are the pros and cons of analysing social media data in real time? Learn how to use Tableau to analyse data, identify trends and patterns and explore how social media have been used in times of crisis and during political campaigns.

Use Gephi to visualise data networks, discuss the benefits of using digital tools to analyse social media data and consider how such analyses may be supported by other methods.

Social media has emerged as a new channel for both seeking information, and for creating and exchanging user-generated content among peers.

But as the amount of information being uploaded to social networks such as Facebook, Whatsapp or YouTube continues to grow, it is becoming increasingly difficult to discern reliable health information from misleading content.

This course for anyone who is looking into the opportunities and challenges of using social media in healthcare, including as a mass communication tool during infectious disease epidemics.

Soils are a vital part of our planet’s functioning, but all too often we take soils for granted. In this free online course, we introduce you to soils and explore the world beneath our feet.

Soils are a fantastically complex environment, teeming with life and supporting our most fundamental environmental processes. However, they are increasingly under threat and our soil resource is a finite one.

Starting from what soil is and how soils form we will take a journey through the soil, not just learning the basics of soil science but also about life in the soil.

Then we will look at why soil is so important and investigate the topic of soil security - a topic relevant to the past and present.... [-]

Today, energy systems are confronted with pressing global challenges: economic and social development, poverty eradication, adequate food production, health for all, conservation of ecosystems, peace, and security. A major transformation – the energy transition - is required to address these challenges.

In this course we will take the multidisciplinary approach to examine the energy transition question, providing you with the framework and methods to analyze the question yourself. Will you solve the energy puzzle?

This free online course is the second of six in the Spanish for Beginners program. It will introduce you to the language that you need to:

During the four weeks of the course, you will learn the vocabulary and phrases you need to talk about people and places, and the present tense of some of the basic verbs, such as se/estar (to be), tener (to have) and querer (to want), and the expression ‘hay’ (there is/there are) to describe places.... [-]

This course is part of the Spanish for Beginners program, which will enable you to learn basic Spanish and discover the Spanish-speaking world. This free online course is the third of six in the Spanish for Beginners program. It will introduce you to the language that you need to:

Describe your normal day in Spanish During the four weeks of the course, you will learn the vocabulary and expressions to talk about what you do during a normal day, and learn the present tense of regular verbs, as well as some irregular verbs such as ir (to go), salir (to leave/to go out) and venir (to come). You will also learn to talk about things you do frequently. By now, you will find that you are getting more confident in your listening, and you will continue to work on your speaking, reading and writing skills too. You will find out more about the variety of people and places in the Spanish-speaking world, and about some differences in vocabulary between the different Spanish varieties.... [-]

This free online course is the last of six in the Spanish for Beginners program. It will introduce you to language that you need to:

Learn how to go out, shop, eat and drink in Spanish During the four weeks of the course, you will learn some phrases you’ll need if you have to ask for directions, as well as a range of vocabulary related to clothes and food, so you can enjoy going shopping next time you visit a Spanish-speaking country. You will find out about tapas, pinchos and raciones, and be able to make sense of a Spanish menu, and will learn about the beautiful city of Valencia in Spain. You will also learn to use the imperative to give directions. By now, as we reach the end of the Spanish for Beginners program, you should be fairly confident in using basic Spanish to talk about yourself and about everyday and familiar situations. In this course, you will also find some advice about what you can do next to take your Spanish further.... [-]

A successful business starts with a clear vision and a thorough understanding of the opportunities available to turn that vision into a reality. Whether you have an idea for a future venture or you already have a side-line business whilst studying, this course will help you consider your vision and explore the opportunities available. It will give you the time to plan and help you to start documenting your thoughts in a structured business plan while allowing you to share your ideas with others.

This course is the first in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

A successful business relies heavily on people and networking. A good team and wider network are essential to success and growth. Whether you have an idea for a future venture or you already have a side-line business whilst studying, this course will help you to recognise the people who can help you take your business forward in both formal and informal business networks.

This course is the second in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

To run a successful business you need to understand who your customers are and more importantly, how you are going to reach them. Whether you have an idea for a future venture or you already have a side-line business whilst studying, this course will help you to recognise and understand your target market. It will give you the time to plan and help you to start documenting your thoughts in a structured business plan while allowing you to share your ideas with others.

This course is the third in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

The management of finances is crucial to a successful business; financial information provides the evidence to support your decisions about a business and helps to justify those decisions when you present them to other people. Whether you have an idea for a future venture or you already have a side-line business whilst studying, this course will introduce you to key financial information and gives you a chance to discuss your ideas with others.

This course is the fifth in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

A successful business requires funding to get it started. There are many ways to get your business up and running, from the informal such as personal savings and borrowing, borrowing from friends and family, to the more formal avenues like bank loans, raising equity to crowd-funding. This course will help you consider the finance options available for businesses, and how to fund the expansion of a business.

This is the final course in a series of six about ‘starting a business’.

Following its presentation to the world at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the stereoscope – a device that makes images appear 3D – mesmerised Victorians. Collecting and viewing stereo photographs became a craze.

Stereoscopes were produced in different price ranges, thousands of stereo images were printed and bought each year, and one company involved in this boom, The London Stereoscopic Company, proclaimed: ‘No home without a stereoscope.’

‘Stereoscopy’ derives from the Greek ‘stereos’ meaning ‘firm’ or ‘solid’ and ‘skopeō’ meaning ‘to look’ or ‘to see’. So together, they mean ‘seeing something firm or solid’.... [-]

Today’s supercomputers are the most powerful calculating machines ever invented, capable of performing more than a thousand million calculations every second. This gives scientists and engineers a powerful new tool to study the natural world – computer simulation. Using supercomputers, we can now conduct virtual experiments that are impossible in the real world – from looking deep inside individual atoms to studying the future climate of the earth and following the evolution of the entire universe from the big bang.

This free online course will introduce you to what supercomputers are, how they are used and how we can exploit their full computational potential to make scientific breakthroughs. Over five weeks, we’ll look at:... [-]

Over four weeks, this free online course explores four ancient Near-Eastern cultures and how they interacted with each other 3,500 years ago.

Travel, diplomacy, trade and warfare feature, as we track the ancient Egyptian, Mitannian and Hittite superpowers. We will see how they came into contact with each other in their efforts to extend their influence into the ever-contested Syria-Palestine lands.

We will examine objects from the University of Liverpool’s Garstang Museum of Archaeology - one of the most important collections of artifacts in the UK - enabling you to learn not only about the history of this period but also how experts use artifacts to reconstruct the past.... [-]

Every product that we use today is the result of a supply chain - a complex series of steps that turn raw materials into the final products we use and everything related to this. Managing these supply chains have become more and more a challenge, especially with all modern technologies and today's trends. The 24-hour economy, fast delivery of goods to your home, wanting to have customized products and of course, the focus on sustainability is a few of these trends. In this course, you will learn why managing supply chains are important and challenging. It is a key activity for both large multi-national companies as well as for small businesses. We’ll find out how to design supply chains that meet future economic, environmental and social requirements, asking questions such as:... [-]

This free online course addresses the practical problems that arise in social systems in the context of management and public policy at local, regional and global levels. It is problem-oriented, providing you with both the theoretical understanding and practical tools, to find and implement solutions to organisational and social problems.

The course will look at the nature of social, managerial and policy problems, considering a variety of real-world examples: community action; crime and policing; health and social welfare; transportation; smart cities; energy; Europe and Brexit; and mass education for Africa and Latin America.... [-]

Talking about cancer can be tough. You might be worried that you’ll say the wrong thing or that you simply don’t know enough about the subject. Perhaps you feel unsure about how the conversation will go or you’ve tried in the past and had a difficult experience. Maybe you’re not even sure if it’s your job. In this course, you’ll learn how to encourage people to make healthy lifestyle changes, access local services or visit their doctor promptly if they notice changes to their body. You’ll develop a personal plan for talking about cancer and where to find reliable information. 1 in 2 people will develop cancer in their lifetime, and at Cancer Research UK we think it’s essential to get people talking about the disease. This course will give you the tips, tools and confidence to have simple, effective conversations that could help save lives.... [-]

How can Computing be taught in a way that engages young people and is relevant to the world they live in? The Computing curriculum in England encompasses computer science skills, digital literacy, digital citizenship and digital scholarship. This course offers subject knowledge, skills, and advice on planning, teaching, assessment, and policy. Originally created by UEA with sponsorship from Computing at School (CAS) and BT, the National STEM Learning Centre hosts this course enabling you to learn from expert CAS Master Teachers and reflect on your own classroom practice to develop your teaching.

Week 1: Introduction to the computing curriculum

This course is part of the Teaching for Success: Practices for English Language Teaching program, which will enable you to develop professionally as an English language teacher.

This free online course is for English language teachers around the world. It will help you develop the skills and practices you need for your continuing professional development (CPD).

This course is part of our Teaching for Success: Practices for English Language Teaching program. In the program we will look at the 12 professional practices for CPD on the British Council’s teacher development framework.

In this course you will look at four professional practices:

This free online course is for English language teachers around the world. It will help you develop the skills and practices you need for your continuing professional development (CPD).

This course is part of our Teaching for Success: Practices for English Language Teaching program. In the program, we will look at the 12 professional practices for CPD on the British Council’s teacher development framework.

In this course you will look at four professional practices :

Learn with English language teachers worldwide

Each week will focus on one of these practices. Short video interviews with experienced teachers will be combined with classroom films from around the world to illustrate the main points.... [-]

There are only so many ways a student can look at an onion cell, so how do we engage students with biology practicals?

On this course, you will discuss the relationship between theoretical concepts and practical work, and consider closely what is happening in your own classroom during biology practicals.

You will also develop and share creative ways of teaching practical biology with approaches that apply to a range of situations including GCSE required practicals.

Practical work for 14-16-year-olds for the key topics of enzymes, microscopy, and microbiology.

Contextualising practical work in biology to the everyday environment.... [-]

The Birmingham Qur’an is one of the oldest surviving Islamic manuscripts. This course will explore the origins and the journey of the Birmingham Qur’an from the Islamic heartlands, the significance of the Birmingham Qur’an, the methods used to determine its age and how it is cared for at Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. Learn how to identify features of Qur’an manuscripts and how they influenced the arts of the book in Islamic manuscript culture. You will also learn more about the Mingana collection of Middle Eastern manuscripts and their relevance to the 21st century.

Every business needs cash to grow and develop. Some businesses are able to find enough cash from their own operations to take advantage of growth opportunities. Others might need to use external sources of finance, like a bank loan. How does a business make robust decisions about borrowing?

Evaluate how to fund your business investment

Whether you are managing a micro business, a small- or medium-sized company, or a large corporation, this free online course will guide you through the finance options to help you evaluate what type of funding is suitable for your business investment and how to develop a funding strategy to make the right decision about the type of borrowing for your business. You will consider the role of traditional and alternative finance options and learn to use financial statements to assess the financial health of a business. You will also learn to use cash flow forecasts to help you make decisions about managing a business’ finances.... [-]

No matter how sophisticated your marketing is, if it doesn’t result in attracting customers, then your business is set to fail. This free online course applies fresh thinking to how marketing and selling activities combine to create customers who keep coming back.

Build a holistic view of your customers

Perspectives on the role and behaviour of customers are changing, with marketers drawing on increasingly powerful information systems to build a holistic view of consumers.

In this course, you will develop an understanding of how customer relationship management breeds business development success and will critically evaluate accepted wisdom on how marketing influences customers. You will also learn how selling has transitioned from being a ‘foot in the door’ to having a ‘finger on the pulse’, using insight-driven approaches to win those all-important sales.... [-]

Everything we use that has not been grown either contains or relies on materials that have been sourced by a geoscientist. Whether we are standing out in the wilderness, in the middle of a city or in our home, geology and the Earth’s natural resources are all around us, forming an integral part of our everyday lives.

During this free online course, you will discover the link between the ocean floor, volcanoes and your mobile phone; why tiny marine plants and animals are at the core of the plastics industry; and how colliding continents and mountain building processes influence the appearance of many buildings and numerous kitchen worktops.

Made up of layers of compressed snow from over the last 100,000 years, the vast Greenland ice sheet acts as both a valuable record of our past climate and a bellwether for future climate change.

This online course highlights how the Greenland ice sheet is monitored from space and the ground. You’ll look at the measurements made possible by Earth Observation (EO) satellites like Cryosat, the technologies and techniques involved, the data generated, and its uses and challenges.

You’ll also explore the role of ice in the climate system and the impact of climate change on the Greenland ice sheet.

This online course gives you the opportunity to explore the impact of climate change on public health. It shares knowledge of both the direct and indirect ways in which climate change is affecting health around the globe.

It starts by examining current trends in climate change and the methods used to evaluate the continuously emerging data in this field. You will find out how to leverage the data that is publicly available, to campaign for changes to behaviors or policies, at both a local and regional level.

How does economics impact on politicians? And how do politicians impact on economics? In this three-week course, Sir Vince Cable and a team of leading economists at the University of Nottingham will explain the links between politics and economics. You will explore these links by looking at the work of major political figures and the key economic ideas they adopted.

You will study both contemporary economics – for example exploring responses to the financial crisis of 2008 – and some of the political leaders who have put key economic theories into practice throughout history. These are political figures from around the world who have changed economic history, including Alexander Hamilton, Sir Robert Peel, the Mejii Emperor, FD Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping. The economic policies and practices of these former leaders are still having an impact on our world today.... [-]

Brands are the most potent commercial and cultural force on the planet. Think about McDonald’s, Apple, Manchester United, Tate, Google or even Harry Potter. This free online course will help you get under the skin of such brands, and ask how and why they become so powerful.

The University of East Anglia has teamed up with one the world’s most influential brand consultancies, Wolff Olins, to bring you this course. It’s built on their hugely successful joint MSc in Brand Leadership and shares the same course leader -­ renowned branding consultant, Robert Jones.

If you’re developing a career in branding -­ or if you work in a related area, like strategy, marketing or innovation -­ this course is for you. It will support your professional development, and also provide you with a taste of what taking a Masters in branding or brand management would be like.... [-]

Every project manager or project leader has had a project that seems to spiral out of control - absorbing more time and resource than was planned. This course will help you stop that happening. You will learn time management strategies to help you prevent projects becoming unmanageable and develop the fundamental skills of a project manager to make sure every project you run meets its deadlines. Now is the time to put an end to runaway projects.

Stories are increasingly told across a variety of formats - books, comics, events, films, games and TV programmes. This is known as transmedia storytelling or multiplatform storytelling.

This course will help you tell compelling stories across multiple platforms.

We’ll look at examples such as The Avengers, The Matrix, and Transformers - and put theory into practice, by retelling the popular fable, The Three Little Pigs, in a multiplatform format.

You’ll learn with Daniel H Byun - the film director also known as 변혁.

Over four weeks, we’ll ask:

Demand is growing for evidence-based policy making, but there is growing recognition in the social science community that limited transparency and openness in research have contributed to widespread problems.

In this free online course, we will discuss the major transparency and reproducibility issues across the social sciences today, including the problems of fraud, publication bias and data mining.

We will also discuss many of the emerging solutions to these problems, including:

Are you planning to visit the Netherlands? This free online course is perfect if you have little or no knowledge of Dutch but would like to master the fundamentals.

The course will help you to:

You will learn familiar words and phrases about yourself and your family. You will learn to use simple sentences about everyday activities. And you will be able to write short texts.

Get a taste of Dutch? Join the course now!

Central to effective teaching is providing students with a strong educational design that offers opportunities to independently and collaboratively explore and acquire knowledge. Students can then apply what is learned to different contexts, in order to demonstrate that the learning outcomes have been achieved This course will introduce you to effective educational design - taking into account the evolving higher education environment and current research into the curriculum, educational design, assessment and feedback that supports student learning. Explore what makes good educational design Developing effective educational design requires careful planning and structured thinking to scaffold learning in order to maximise students’ potential for success. In this course, you will identify the principles and key steps teachers need to take to design effective educational opportunities for their students. The course is based on the recognition that learning is most effective when it is guided by clear expectations, academic standards and an integrated curriculum, where the various components of the program, courses, classes, field trips, etc. are identified, aligned and linked to assessment. Learn how to apply educational design in your own context Students learn best when they are actively engaged: when they interact with their peers, tutors and course resources, when they are reflective and have opportunities to apply this knowledge. Successful design, therefore, needs to ensure that students are given opportunities to take an active, interactive and reflective role in their studies. This course will provide you with an educational framework and an opportunity to design effective educational materials you... [-]

Learn to speak, write and understand the second official language of the Netherlands with this free introductory language course.

Did you know that, besides Dutch, a second official language is spoken in the Netherlands? It’s a language even more closely related to English than Dutch. This language is called Frisian.

Are you planning on going to Norway to study, travel or work? Are you interested in Norwegian culture? Are you looking for the key to the Scandinavian Model? Or a troll to marry?

This free online course will give you the basic language skills needed to make new friends and cope with everyday situations, as well as being a stepping stone for a further exploration into Norwegian language, society, and culture.

Get an introduction to the Norwegian language

This four-week course will give you an introduction to Norwegian, a language spoken by about 5 million people. You will learn basic language and grammar through active learning. After completing this course, you will be able to participate in everyday conversations.... [-]

This free online course will introduce you to the work and role of the UK Parliament. By setting the age at which we start school to deciding pension policy, the UK Parliament makes laws that impact our lives, our work, and our wider society. Learn what Parliament is and does You will begin by looking at what Parliament is, how it is different from government and how it has changed and evolved over hundreds of years. You will find out about the work of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and discover how things work in the Chambers and beyond on a day-to-day basis. Learn how Parliament scrutinizes government Parliament is vital in scrutinizing the work of government; on this course, you’ll learn what this looks like in practice. You will consider the different tools MPs and members of the House of Lords use to check and challenge the work of government to ensure its decisions are transparent, efficient and fair. You will examine the purpose and role of different types of questions, discover some of the conventions of debate and explore the work of select committees. Learn how Parliament is evolving Towards the end of the course, you will examine the process of lawmaking and discover the journey of a Bill. You will also explore the range of opportunities open to citizens, which enable you to engage with and influence the UK Parliament.... [-]

We are all touched by addiction – personally, within our circle of family and friends, and within our community. Addiction and its related harms can be crippling for those affected and the people around them.

But how does addiction develop? What can we do to treat it? And what can we do to prevent it?

In this free online course, we’ll explore how addiction develops, looking at the environmental, genetic and personal risks involved.

We’ll examine what happens when a drug enters your body and your brain, how your brain changes, and how this process can make recovering from addiction such a challenge.

You’ll learn how we can best treat addiction, and how national and international policies help limit the harms of addiction.... [-]

Economic crises often have severe consequences - for everyone from governments and corporations to you and I. But crises can be seen as an essential part of an evolving economy, along with structural adjustments and institutional changes. In this course, you will learn more about the role of financial crises, their history and how they can be interpreted.

Can we learn from the history of crises? With this course, we’ll see financial crisis from a historical perspective - investigating different incidences of the crisis in relation to context. By the end of the course, you should be able to define and describe various economic and financial crises and interpret such crises from a historical perspective.... [-]

What is language? How do we learn a new language? What is easy and hard about learning another language? And what is the best way to teach other languages?

This free online course suggests some answers to these questions. It has been developed by the University of Southampton and the British Council and draws on their exciting joint online course, MA in English Language Teaching.

If you are a fully participating learner in “Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching,” you will be eligible to apply for a scholarship to cover part of the MA fees. You will find out more when you join the course.

The course takes place over four weeks. It will introduce you to some of the latest ideas in research and practice in language learning and teaching. We will:... [-]

This free online course will help you to use data science to deliver better outcomes for your students.

Each week will focus on a different aspect of data. You will identify sources and interpret them, determine their implications and establish actions for improvement.

Week 1 – Improvement Science

We will consider different sources and types of data; ways to improve student outcomes; improvement processes in your own context and professional experience; and real-world examples of improving student outcomes.

Open Data is data that anyone can access, use or share and when used well it can be extremely powerful. It enables businesses, citizens, developers, and researchers to harness resources that can make crucial improvements to their communities and the economy. It can also help with the development of new products and services, improve business efficiency and create economic value.

This course provides new insight into the history of Open Data, its pros and cons, business cases and business models related to publishing and using Open Data.

How could you benefit? Join to find out.