News

The Open University’s (OU) free learning site, OpenLearn is celebrating a milestone after clocking up 100 million visitors in the 15 years since it was launched.

Established as a trailblazing open educational resource, OpenLearn has successfully broken-down barriers to education, with over a thousand courses and 15,000 hours of educational interactives, videos and articles.

In the last two years, over 300,000 visits came from the Republic of Ireland, bolstered by a surge in traffic during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

The Open University is hosting a unique event at the 26^th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) as one of several initiatives to mark its commitment to responding to the climate crisis.  

Want to study in a way which is different to many of your classmates.  A way which suits you and fits in with your life?

Studying with The Open University is a university option you may not have considered before. It’s different because you will study your degree online.

Businesses across Northern Ireland have already begun to change and adapt to the challenges of these Covid-19 times by adopting new approaches and methods to aid business continuity. One area which is now very different is the recruitment of new staff. How do you bring in new staff when your business is not back ‘in the office’?

If you want it more than you fear it, then you can do it!

This was Michelle’s mantra throughout her studies with the OU. Michelle is one of our incredible students and her story is inspiring.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Ireland) recently held their first ever Creative Writing Competition and were delighted to announce the winners at a virtual prize giving ceremony held on 30 June, 2020.

The event was chaired by coordinator Dr Jennifer Shepherd (Department of English and Creative Writing), who thanked students for their enthusiastic support of the event, including participation in the writing master-classes offered in the run-up to the contest deadline.

11-year-old Tiernán Eviston from County Meath has been using his time in lockdown very wisely. Tiernán hasn’t stopped learning and has already completed 11 online courses from The Open University’s free learning site OpenLearn ranging from ‘An introduction to sustainable energy’ to ‘Square roots and powers’.

The Open University’s campaign to mark its 50th birthday has been announced as a winner in the Chartered Institute of Public Relations 2020 excellence awards.

The Open University’s campaign, #OU50, took the title in the Education category, beating off stiff competition from universities, including Swansea University, University College London, and University of Oxford to win this prestigious award.

The Open University has joined forces with MoneySavingExpert to produce a new free course that will give people the skills and knowledge to master their finances.

The course covers key aspects of personal finances such as how to be savvy when spending money, budgeting, getting ready for retirement, borrowing, saving and much more.

As people across Ireland come to grips with staying at home and social distancing, many are turning to learning new things online to occupy some of their time.

OpenLearn, The Open University’s home of free learning, is experiencing record numbers of visitors to the site.  Usually recording an average of 40,000 visits per day, during the first week of schools and businesses being closed over 160,000 people each day were taking advantage of the free content and courses on offer.