Taking your first steps into higher education

What is university study like? Is it for me? If you are asking yourself these questions, this badged course is for you.Taking your first steps into higher education provides insights into how subjects are studied at university. This introduction to carefully selected materials helps you decide what you might want to study. You will be looking at three main areas: arts and humanities, the social sciences and maths, technology and science.TranscriptTaking your first steps into higher education is a free course which lasts about 8 weeks, with approximately 3 hours' study time each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete another week's study. You can also take as long as you want to complete it.Enrolling on the course will give you the opportunity to earn an Open University digital badge. Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they're a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your career, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development. You can manage and download your digital badges online from My OpenLearn. In addition you can download and print your OpenLearn Statement of Participation - which also displays your Open University badge.The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey. Once you complete the course we would also value your feedback and suggestions for future improvement, in our optional end-of-course survey. Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.This course is accredited by the CPD Standards Office. It can be used to provide evidence of continuing professional development and on successful completion of the course you will be awarded 24 CPD points. Evidence of your CPD achievement is provided on the free Statement of Participation awarded on completion.Anyone wishing to provide evidence of their enrolment on this course is able to do so by sharing their Activity Record on their OpenLearn Profile, which is available before completion of the course and earning of the Statement of Participation.

• Introduction and guidance
• Introduction and guidance
• What is a badged course?
• How to get a badge
• Acknowledgements
• Week1Week 1: First steps
• Introduction
• 1 Some assumptions
• 2 Active learning
• 2.1 Higher education – some options
• 3 What's right for you?
• 4 What should I study?
• 5 This week's quiz
• 6 Summary
• Acknowledgements
• Week2Week 2: Introducing the arts and humanities through literature
• Introduction
• 1 What is learning in the arts and humanities like?
• 2 What is poetry?
• 2.1 Feelings about poetry
• 2.2 Poetry is powerful
• 2.3 The effects of poetry
• 3 Learning to engage with a poem
• 4 The study diamond
• 4.1 Effects
• 4.2 Techniques
• 4.3 Context
• 4.4 Meaning
• 4.5 Studying works of literature and art
• 5 This week's quiz
• 6 Summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week3Week 3: Art history in the arts and humanities
• Introduction
• 1 What is art?
• 1.1 Defining art
• 2 Artworks and their effects
• 2.1 Emotional impact of an artwork
• 2.2 The relationship between effects and techniques
• 3 The form of art: looking at techniques
• 3.1 Colour
• Has a wide or narrow palette of colours been used?
• Have contrasting colours been placed next to each other?
• Are there more warm colours than cool colours or vice versa?
• In what way is dark and light colour used?
• 3.2 Analysing colour
• 3.3 Medium
• 4 Analysing sculpture and installations
• 5 This week's quiz
• 6 Summary
• Glossary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week4Week 4: Introduction to social science
• Introduction
• 1 Social science and the everyday
• 1.1 Identity
• 1.2 How social science thinking works
• 2 Social science: individuals and identity
• 2.1 Cultural and group identities and belonging to groups
• 2.2 Group membership
• 2.3 Spider diagrams
• 3 Communicating connections
• 3.1 Appropriate space
• 4 Stereotyping
• 4.1 Piecing together an identity
• Barry’s identity as you know it
• 5 This week's quiz
• 6 Summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week5Week 5: Work, inequality and diversity in families
• Introduction
• 1 Is work in the home shared today?
• 1.1 Changes in women’s employment patterns
• 1.2 Division of labour within families
• 1.3 Making sense
• 1.4 How work is divided in different families
• 2 Location and life chances for families
• 2.1 Life chances and place
• 2.2 Comparing different housing
• 2.3 Housing wealth as an influence on life chances
• 3 This week's quiz
• 4 Summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week6Week 6: Communicating ideas in science, technology and maths
• Introduction
• 1 What are science, technology and maths?
• 2 Communicating ideas and information
• 2.1 Reading text
• 2.2 Understanding diagrams
• 2.3 Reading graphs
• Population levelling off
• 3 This week's quiz
• 4 Summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week7Week 7: Water for life
• Introduction
• 1 The relationship between population and water
• 2 How much water do you use?
• 2.1 Household use of water
• 2.2 Reading tables
• 3 Saving water
• 3.1 Using fractions and percentages
• 4 This week's quiz
• 5 Summary
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Week8Week 8: Reflecting on the course and looking forward to your next steps
• Introduction
• 1 Reflecting back on the course
• 2 Reflecting on the arts and humanities
• 2.1 Poetry
• 2.2 Contemporary visual art
• 3 Reflecting on the social sciences
• 3.1 Identity
• 3.2 Domestic roles
• 4 Reflecting on science, technology and maths
• 5 Looking forward: what will your next steps be?
• 6 This week's quiz
• 7 Summary
• Tell us what you think
• Acknowledgements