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List of Courses
Environment: Journeys Through a Changing World (U116)
Level 1, 60 points
Studying this course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to help you to become more informed about both the causes and concerns of environmental change. The course will take you to some of the most fascinating but also important parts of the planet in terms of understanding environmental change.
Engineering the Future (T173)
Level 1, 30 points
From design concepts to the manufacture of products, this course looks at the modern practice of engineering, including issues such as product safety and patent law. The course offers a general introduction to many aspects of engineering.
Design and the Web (T183)
Level 1, 10 points
This online course shows how design principles can be applied in the creation of websites. It explores the elements of web-page layout, and covers issues of usability and interaction. Students are supported by an online conference where they can share and discuss ideas.
Robotics and the Meaning of Life (T184)
Level 1,10 points
This online course introduces students to robotics and the design of intelligent machines. Students investigate the relationship between robots and humans, and explore what it means for a machine to be intelligent. Students are supported using a mediated online conference.
Digital Photography - Creating and sharing better images (T189)
Level 1, 10 points
This online course is visually focused, with text kept to a minimum. It will develop your technical, visual, artistic and creative skills using a very practical approach: a series of weekly hands-on assignments maximises your enjoyment as you progress through the course.
Perspectives on Leonardo da Vinci (A178)
Level 1, 10 points
Painter, sculptor, musician, poet, architect, engineer, geologist, anatomist, botanist, physiologist, astronomer, philosopher – Leonardo da Vinci was an adventurous and enigmatic polymath. This multidisciplinary course examines Leonardo as an inventor, artist and scientist, in the historical context of Renaissance Italy.
Design and Designing (T211)
Level 2, 60 points
This key course provides an introduction to the products and practices of today's international design world. It explores specialist contributions from fields such as product design, engineering design, architecture, and communication design. The course covers the following areas: what is design? design methods, creativity in design, successful products, new materials, design for sustainability, configuration and component design and design for manufacture.
Energy for a Sustainable Future (T206)
Level 2, 60 points
In this course, s tudents study the sustainability issues of conventional fossil and nuclear fuel use and explore the technological and social possibilities for using energy more efficiently. The course investigates renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and biofuels and research a sustainable energy proposal for their own home, travel, workplace or community.
Innovation: Designing for a Sustainable Future (T307)
Level 3, 60 points
This new course looks at how designers, policy-makers, and technologists create and develop new designs and how these are translated into marketable products and services. The course also explores the way in which design and innovation can be directed towards social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Central to the course is a major design project conducted either individually or in groups.
Graphs, Networks and Design (MT365)
Level 3, 30 points
This well-established course looks at ways of describing structure in complex systems. These range from electrical distribution systems to the configuration of machines and mechanisms.
The Environmental Web (U316)
Level 3, 30 points
This interdisciplinary course examines contemporary issues such as biodiversity and climate change to develop environmental literacy and enable students to take part in informed debate and action. It explores different types of environmental materials available on the world wide web.
MSc Research Course (T802)
Postgraduate, 60 points
This research course enables students to gain an MSc by building on the postgraduate diploma (or equivalent). Students start by developing a detailed research proposal based on a subject area appropriate to their previous study and the MSc they are studying towards. Once the proposal has been approved, the student continues with the research itself, finally writing up and submitting a dissertation. Support is available at every stage, via computer conferencing and telephone.
[More information]
MSc in Technology Strategy Research
Postgraduate, 180 points
This MSc programme offers a range of courses to make up a masters degree in research methods used in design, innovation and related technology policy subjects. This MSc can also be taken studying full time.
Supply Chain Innovation: Strategy and Management (T882)
Postgraduate, 30 points
This course takes a holistic approach to total product and service supply systems. Students are acquainted with supply system concepts and techniques, inter-company strategies for supply systems, establishing and maintaining market position, and emerging models of innovation including virtual networks.
An Introduction to Finite Element Analysis (T884)
Postgraduate, 30 points
This course will introduce some of the computational modelling and analysis techniques now used, and instil the need for comprehensive evaluation and checking when interpreting results. You’ll cover some basic theory, modelling, meshing and analysing component models for stresses, deflections, temperatures and vibrations under operating conditions and loads, treatment of boundary conditions and restraints, with examples of good practice for safe and effective application in use.
Introduction to Research: Basic Skills and Survey Methods (DT840)
Postgraduate, 60 points
This course covers population sampling, questionnaire design, survey interviewing and questionnaire construction. It also looks at qualitative methods such as ethnography. Students learn to use statistics effectively as well as acquiring basic academic research skills.
Doing Postgraduate Research (U501)
Postgraduate
All OU Research Students are provided with the U501 research training pack, which consists of a co-published Sage book, DVD and companion website [link to book's website]. This covers the development of generic research skills, as specified by the HEFC joint skills statement. For full-time students there is a workshop programme which uses the U501 materials and helps students prepare for their probationary report.
[More information on workshops]
Introduction to Travel Planning (GT013)
CPD Vocational
This is a short vocational course to to familiarise newly appointed travel plan coordinators, and other professionals who work with travel planners, with the process of workplace and school travel planning.
Travel Plan Development (GT014)
CPD Vocational
This course follows on from GT013 to cover the practical processes involved in developing a travel plan for schools and workplaces.
Page Last Updated: 13 July, 2009