Mini course about mental health is fastest growing on OU free learning site

Posted on 12 December 2025 • Health, Society and politics, University news

Bite-sized learning about mental health in the 21st century is capturing interest at The Open University by becoming one of its most popular free courses in the past year. 

The OU’s free learning site OpenLearn held an audit of its wealth of short online courses over the past 12 months and found an incredible 13.3 million visits recorded.  

Topping the list of the most popular free courses launched in the last year is Mental health in society, which has recorded a huge 7000 enrolments in less than 11 months. 

The Level 1 course, which takes an average of about eight hours to complete, explores and reflects on mental health in today’s world, giving both a historical perspective as well looking at the language we use and its evolution.  

Academic Sarah Vicary Professor of Social Work and Mental Health, in the faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, is the author behind the course and she comments on how it taps into today’s agenda about mental health, with the UK Government’s Mental Health Bill 2024-25 currently going through Parliament.  

She says: 

“At a time when mental health is high on the Government’s agenda it is a pleasure to see the success so far of this Open Learn course which sets out to explore different understandings of mental health and the perspectives from which it can be viewed. 

“Using a mix of media, the course uses knowledge of a number of experts in the field to examine a brief overview of the history of mental health developments in England and Wales and of the various models that continue to evolve. As such the course challenges misconceptions.”

The course is aimed at a broad audience and explores the relationship between the lived experiences of individuals, and the society and environment in which they live. 

Amongst the reviews from those who have completed the course comes this one:  

“Wonderful course which sparked further interest for me to carry on studying mental health and the individual’s role which can be played in treating and maintaining their health.” 

The course is one of thousands which have been studied for free by people of all ages on OpenLearn, beginning a journey of discovery on the platform, and accessing a wildly diverse array of subjects, from Spanish to Everyday Maths or Coding and Creative Writing. 

In the academic year 2024/25 there were 13.3 million visits to OpenLearn and 3.3 million video views on the OpenLearn YouTube channel. 

There were over 1 million enrolments across the platform’s range of 900 courses (including over 80 badged courses), with 421,000 statements of participation and 56,000 digital badges awarded. 

The digital badges they achieve once they complete the final online course assessment, can be used on CVs to demonstrate professional development and a commitment to study. They can also be downloaded and shared on social media including LinkedIn. 

The most popular interactive was Do you have a photographic memory? with 65,000 visits, and the most popular article was Hitler’s rise and fall: timeline, with over 57,000 visits. 

Professor Dave Phoenix, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University said; 

“I’m pleased to celebrate another remarkable year for OpenLearn, as it continues to inspire and empower people everywhere through free and flexible learning. In the past 12 months alone, over one million new course enrolments have shown the incredible appetite for learning that OpenLearn supports.  

“The growing success of our digital badging and CPD-accredited courses reflects our ongoing commitment to helping learners gain valuable skills and recognition for their achievements. As we look to the year ahead, we will bring even more learning opportunities to communities around the world and continue The Open University’s mission to make education open to all.” 

You can find out the current most popular pieces of content on OpenLearn by viewing the live top 10. 

Main image: Jay Antol, Unsplash