From lessons in cyber security to secrets of the night sky, 93-year-old pensioner Roy Palmer has enjoyed more than 60 free courses online to keep up learning in his later years.<\/p>\n
The Cheltenham care home resident has gained knowledge and been entertained by the wealth of courses he\u2019s taken on the OU\u2019s home of free learning OpenLearn<\/a> and on its partner site FutureLearn<\/a>, the leading social learning platform.<\/p>\n For almost ten years Roy, a popular resident at the Whittington House Nursing Home, has spent his time studying free learning courses across the two sites.<\/p>\n The variation of intensity and stop-start flexibility of both platforms means he can dip into learning for short or long periods of time, depending on the course and his time.<\/p>\n A former OU maths graduate, Roy is a born learner and teacher. He worked as a lecturer for most of his life at Gloucestershire College, having gained his first degree in Engineering at the University of Nottingham.<\/p>\n He said:<\/p>\n \u201cSome years later I realised these short courses were available from the OU and I found them very interesting and just started doing more and more. They\u2019re so engaging.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I discovered FutureLearn where I can take courses by lots of different universities, and I can join the discussion groups with comments by other learners. I look forward to that bit, you can learn so much from the comments.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Roy has enjoyed many different courses across a broad spectrum of subjects on OpenLearn, ranging from an introduction to ecosystems<\/a>, and space study with In the Night Sky: Orion<\/a> to history courses such as ones about the Romans and Hadrian\u2019s Wall<\/a>. On FutureLearn he\u2019s found learning produced by a choice of universities and other institutions worldwide. Here he\u2019s explored more astronomical learning with the Mysteries of the Universe<\/a> as well as Classic Detective Fiction<\/a> and one on World War 1<\/a> written by the OU.<\/p>\n A widower, Roy lost his dear wife Lilia in July 2020 to Covid. He was fortunate to survive himself but having earlier suffered a stroke, it means he is now much less mobile.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t move about anymore, but I can occupy myself through all this great study. If I\u2019d not had the stroke I\u2019d still be at home cutting the grass!<\/p>\n \u201cI would recommend it to anyone, it\u2019s amazing and free! It\u2019s not as if I am learning for a career, I am learning for my own interest.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Whittington House Lead Wellbeing Co-ordinator Fausta Scarano said Roy is well known for keeping himself busy and stimulated. He also reads extensively and watches films and documentaries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very proud to have him around,\u201d said Fausta.<\/p>\n The OU\u2019s Jane Roberts, Head of OpenLearn commented:<\/p>\n “<\/em>The OpenLearn team was delighted to hear about Roy, and his passion for learning with us over the years. It just goes to show that age is no barrier to discovering new subjects and passions and that\u2019s exactly what OpenLearn is here for \u2013 free learning for all. Our congratulations and best wishes to Roy and here\u2019s to him enjoying many more of our free courses.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Next up for Roy, he is about to embark on his first foray into the benefits of mindfulness<\/a> with a three-hour study course by Monash University on FutureLearn.<\/p>\n Find out more<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n OpenLearn<\/a> hosts over 15,000 hours of online courses and content which are offered to all, free of charge.\u00a0 Around 14 million people visit this site every year. With more than 1,000 short courses (varying from 1-100 hours of study), learners can explore a vast array of subjects, get inspiration, build skills and confidence, and earn recognition if they wish (via badged open courses), all for free.\u00a0 Added to that there are thousands of articles, quizzes, and interactive games.<\/p>\n FutureLearn<\/a> is the UK\u2019s number one social learning platform and marketplace with 15 million learners from every country in the world. FutureLearn delivers life changing learning through online, on-demand, and social courses across a wide range of subjects from education to healthcare, climate action and public policy.<\/p>\n FutureLearn\u2019s community-based social learning approach brings together educators and learners from around the world to harness the power of connection, while our celebrated digital platform ensures learners have a seamless experience and get the most from their learning in order to develop skills and achieve their personal and professional goals throughout their lives.<\/p>\n Currently, The Open University<\/a> and The SEEK Group<\/a> are joint-investors in FutureLearn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From lessons in cyber security to secrets of the night sky, 93-year-old pensioner Roy Palmer has enjoyed more than 60 free courses online to keep up learning in his later years. The Cheltenham care home resident has gained knowledge and been entertained by the wealth of courses he\u2019s taken on the OU\u2019s home of free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[944,1525,1611,1640],"class_list":["post-19124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-stories","tag-futurelearn","tag-news-home","tag-openlearn","tag-ou-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Roy’s a born learner and teacher<\/h2>\n