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OpenLearn OpenLearn is a free learning platform, delivered by The Open University as part of its Royal Charter commitment to support the wellbeing of the community. Since its launch in 2006, OpenLearn has become an integrated part of The Open University, with the site attracting almost 75 million visitors. Open Learn delivers bite-sized learning incuding- 900+ short courses (ranging from 1 - 100 hours of study) Thousands of articles, quizzes and interactive games Hundreds of videos and audios, ranging from Greek history to modern-day politics, and everything in between Printed posters and booklets made for our TV & radio programmes co-produced with the BBC. |
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FutureLearn Owned jointly by the Open University and the SEEK Group, FutureLearn offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. They are accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop. Examination of the categories and their content, suggest that the ones most likely to be of interest to our members are Creative Arts & Media, Healthcare & Medicine, History, Literature, Nature & Environment, Psychology & Mental Health, and Science, Engineering & Maths. The courses in the IT and Computer Science category, for example, are advanced courses for people working in the field. The Nature and Environment appears particularly interesting covering a wide range of important issues. |
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Coursera More than 200 of the world’s top universities and industry educators partner with leading online platform Coursera to offer hundreds of free courses. Taught by highly experienced instructors, these give you access to on-demand video lectures, homework exercises and forums. Payment for courses provides additional quizzes and projects as well as a Course Certificate upon completion. Over 68,000,000 learners. An example of one of the courses offered is provided - "De-Mystifying Mindfulness" - a topic and approach to life that has gained much press recently. Run by Professor Chris Goto-Jones, formerly at Leiden University, Holland and now Professor of Philosophy at Victoria University, Canada. Follow the links to see how Coursera presents information on its courses. |
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edX Similar in approach to Coursera is eDX, a global non-profit organisation, founded by Harvard and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). edX is home to more than 20 million learners, many top-ranked universities in the world and industry-leading companies. Many courses promote professional development but others are extremely useful in extending knowledge in subjects such as Art & Culture, History, Languages, Music, Life & Earth Sciences, Food & Nutrition and Medicine. Click on the example of a highly relevant Medicine course "Viruses & How to Beat Them" and browse other fascinating courses on offer. |
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Duolingo An American platform that includes a free language-learning website and mobile app. Duolingo mimics the structure of video games in several ways in order to engage its users and features a reward system. The study process in Duolingo combines various methods such as: listening to the pronunciation, reading sentences, talking with language bots, forming phrases by ordering words, matching images to words. As of June 2020, the language-learning website and app offers 95 different language courses in 23 languages. The app has over 300 million registered users across the world. See The New York Times for useful review. |
