The University of Birmingham is the original British red brick university located in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College.
Find out how language works through linguisticsLanguage is fundamental to our everyday social interactions, our politics and culture, and our thoughts. We all have ideas about how language works, but what separates our own intuitions from linguistic knowledge?On this course, you’ll get an introduction to the main approaches used in linguistic research, including linguistic experiments and discourse analysis. You’ll explore the key methods used in linguistic descriptions, and some of the everyday ‘myths’ about language. You will also discover how linguistic researchers turn our ideas about language into linguistic knowledge.This course is designed for anyone interested in language and linguistics, but may be of particular interest to students looking to study English language or linguistics at university, or those working in language education.
Explore how successful clinical trials are designed and deliveredRandomised controlled trials have a huge impact on society by providing evidence of the effectiveness of healthcare, social care, and public health interventions.On this three-week course from the University of Birmingham, you will be guided through the lifecycle of a trial from conception to publication.Discover the importance of statistics and planning in a clinical trialThere are many factors to creating and executing a trial. From formulating a clear research question to regulations and funding, a lot needs to be done before starting a medical trial.You’ll begin this course by looking at the different phases of trials and the steps required to conceptualise, design, and plan a successful trial.Then, you’ll examine the specialist roles involved in every step of the trial process and learn the importance of these individual inputs in the conduct of a successful trial.Understand how to manage and interpret trial findings and dataThe work isn’t finished once a trial is over; there’s a variety of data points and procedures that need to be managed in order to report on the trial findings.This course will take you through the management processes for trial data and the end of trial procedures that need to be followed. You’ll also look at safety reporting and how randomised control trials are published.Learn from the experts at the University of BirminghamThis course has been built by a team of expert research trial staff from the Birmingham Centre for Clinical Trials within Birmingham University. This team will guide you through the entire process for conducting randomised controlled trials and how to report results that can then be used to inform guidelines.This course is designed for new or existing clinical trial staff. It may also be of interest to anyone looking to learn more about the wider randomised controlled trials process.
Discover how to enable healthy ageing as life expectancy increasesLife expectancy is increasing. In the UK, the average person now lives to the age of 81, up from 77 in 2000.This increase in lifespan has not been matched, however, with an increase in ‘healthspan’ – years of healthy, independent life. Many older adults suffer from increased frailty, and other common health problems.This healthcare course from the University of Birmingham addresses current challenges and opportunities related to healthy ageing.Discover tools and methodologies for healthy ageingOn this course, you will learn how to assess frailty, and explore measures to slow its onset. We will also look at current physical activity guidelines and debunk myths and correct misunderstandings about nutrition in older age.You will discover different research methodologies applied to improving healthspan.The course will enable you to apply what you learn about healthy ageing to real-life scenarios and your own research.Explore the latest research into healthy ageingThis healthy ageing course is evidence-based, drawing on the latest research. The University of Birmingham is a leader in this field. It has also been built in consultation with older adults, to listen to their concerns and lived experiences. Ageing will be considered in the context of health inequality.This course lines up with the UK Government’s Ageing Society Grand Challenge, which is “for people to enjoy five more years of healthy, independent living by 2035”. It also coincides with the WHO’s Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030).This healthy ageing course is aimed at a broad audience, including, but not limited to:Sports/biomedical/health scientists and students.Medical and healthcare professionals and students.Older adults who want to learn more about healthy ageing.
Shakespeare’s much loved play, Much Ado about Nothing, is read and studied all over the world. But it was written to be staged, and can only be fully appreciated and understood through performance.In this free online course, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will welcome you to Stratford-upon-Avon - the home of William Shakespeare and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.Learn from actors, academics and an RSC directorLearning from actors, academics and the director of the RSC’s current production, the course will explore Much Ado about Nothing in performance, with a different area of focus for each of its four weeks:- Week 1: Dr Nick Walton from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust will discuss original performance conditions, looking at how Much Ado about Nothing was staged in Shakespeare’s time; how his role as an actor shaped his writing; and how he reflects the age in which he lived.- Week 2: Dr Abigail Rokison from the Shakespeare Institute will look at the different ways in which the play has been interpreted for the stage throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, focussing on how the darker side of Much Ado about Nothing has been explored.- Week 3: Christopher Luscombe, Director of the RSC’s current production of Much Ado about Nothing, will discuss his role, as he worked on the play from initial rehearsals to its culmination on the Royal Shakespeare Theatre stage.- Week 4: Michelle Terry and Edward Bennett, who play Beatrice and Benedick in the current production, will discuss their approach as actors, and how they use the text to create performances with depth, coherence and energy.Interpret Much Ado about Nothing (Love’s Labour’s Won)By the end of the course, you’ll feel confident in commenting analytically on the interpretations and staging choices made in the RSC’s current production of Much Ado about Nothing. This sets the play in a new era, just after World War 1, and sees it performed as Love’s Labour’s Won - a title possibly attributed to it during Shakespeare’s lifetime.This course is an excellent accompaniment to the production, which can be watched: on DVD from the RSC; in production at the Chichester Festival Theatre 24 September 2016 – 29 October 2016; and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London from 9 December 2016 – 18 March 2017.You can find out more in Jacqui O’Hanlon’s post for the FutureLearn blog: “Much Ado about Nothing: why there’s no right or wrong way to interpret this play.”This course is open for anyone to join, but will be ideal for 16-19 year olds in full time education - either as an introduction to Much Ado about Nothing or as a revision aid.We advise you to prepare for the course by familiarising yourself with Much Ado about Nothing. Copies of the text are available online - either in printed form or free digitally. The RSC’s education resources can help you explore the play if you’re preparing for the course in school.
Learn how and why a global beauty ideal has been createdThe quest to look beautiful, or just ‘good enough’, is something that drives and dominates people all over the world. The rise of body image anxiety has become a global epidemic and the need to be perfect or be better is becoming an ethical requirement.On this course, you will discover the features and differences of the emerging global beauty ideal. You will explore the role of ‘normal’ and how beauty as an ethical ideal defines the way you view yourself and others. You will also look to the future and learn how the rising demands of beauty can be addressed in a more positive way.This course is for anyone interested in or studying beauty ideals and practices or global ethics.
Over 12 million people die of cancerworldwide each year. Although treatments are improving, there is still a long way to go, and some cancers are still very difficult to treat. Consequently, there is a desperate need for new treatment approaches.Learn about the rise of immunotherapyThe idea of harnessing your immune system to target tumours has been around for a long time, but in the last five years remarkable clinical trials results have led to immunotherapy being heralded as a potential turning point in the fight against cancer.This free online course will teach you about the amazing job your immune system does in keeping you healthy, and how we can exploit it to fight cancer.Understand how immunotherapy is starting to tackle cancerWe will explain why cancer presents the immune system with a particularly difficult challenge, and how cancer cells can escape immune attack.You will learn how new immunotherapy strategies are transforming cancer treatment work, and why they are regarded as such a key breakthrough.Finally, we will look ahead to new developments in cancer immunotherapy, which might provide the basis of tomorrow’s cancer treatments.You can see what the educators and their colleagues in the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Centre are up to by following their Twitter feed @CIIC_UoB. You can also find out more on the CIIC website.This course will be relevant if you are interested in cancer, or enjoy learning about the immune system and medicine. Secondary or high school-level knowledge of science is sufficient to complete this course.There will also be optional, additional materials for those already educated to undergraduate level, and those who would like to challenge themselves and explore beyond the core material.
Investigate how the early days of aviation gripped the imagination of the general public, galvanised industry and excited far-sighted members of the military, with this free online course from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for War Studies.Aviation evolved rapidly during WW1, with modern and more effective aircraft soon replacing the very basic machines that took to the skies in 1914.We’ll look at the innovations that turned the aeroplane into a machine of war and how British factories developed to supply the Western Front with aircraft and ammunition. We’ll examine how the aeroplane became commercially viable, with passenger and mail routes starting to appear, and how the government tried - and failed - to regulate the aviation industry.You’ll learn with Dr Peter Gray, a former commander of 101 Squadron and Director of Defence Studies for the RAF, who now teaches Birmingham’s MA in Air Power - one of several postgraduate courses the university offers in military history and World War 1 studies.Produced in collaboration with the BBC and filmed at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon, this course draws on an array of first-hand interviews and archive material.You can find out more in Peter’s posts on our blog - one looking at the first flights of World War 1, the other commemorating the Battle of Britain.This course is part of a series designed in partnership with the BBC to commemorate the war.World War 1: Paris 1919 - A New World Order? (University of Glasgow)World War 1: Changing Faces of Heroism (University of Leeds)World War 1: Trauma and Memory (The Open University)You may also be interested in:World War 1: A History in 100 Stories (Monash University)(Image © John Young. Photo credit: Royal Air Force Museum)(Black and white newsreel footage in the course trailer © British Pathé)
Discover key management systems for materials testing in rural road developmentOn this course, you’ll discover the importance of Proficiency Testing Schemes (PTS) for ensuring all findings from rural road development tests conducted in a soil and materials testing laboratory meet national and international standards.You’ll explore the people, data and maintenance management systems required to support the technical aspects of materials testing. Using case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa, you’ll examine the management and technical aspects of laboratories.You’ll also learn more about the tests themselves as you discover what can go wrong and how to report results.This course is designed for rural road practitioners and road agency employees in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia.It will be particularly useful for material technicians and managers in road agencies who are responsible for laboratory testing and proficiency testing schemes.It is also appropriate for engineering students and researchers studying rural road development and materials testing in emerging and developing countries.
The number of English language learners continues to grow and with it comes a growing demand for skilled English teachers.This microcredential will help you become a teacher of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and help you to progress your career in the UK or abroad.You’ll delve into language learning theory and research-based teaching practices to equip yourself with the skills for a rewarding role as a TESOL teacher.Discover teaching methods for delivering effective English language lessonsInfluenced by the latest classroom teaching methodology, you’ll be introduced to different types of teaching for meeting every learners’ needs.Covering key teaching concepts such as the communicative approach, you’ll learn when to use certain methods and hone your ability to evaluate different teaching ideas and materials.Using this knowledge, you’ll learn how to plan and deliver a communicative lesson that is tailored to your learners.Explore teaching concepts that are specific to language teachingThe final sections of the microcredential will teach you how to form the structure of your language lessons efficiently and effectively.You’ll learn how to teach specific skills in speaking, listening, writing, and reading so that you’re fully equipped to help your students excel.Learn alongside experts at The Department of English Language and LinguisticsWith more than 20 years of experience running TESOL programmes globally, you’ll benefit from the expertise of specialists at The Department of English Language and Linguistics and the University of Birmingham.This microcredential provides you with a route into TESOL teaching, helping you gain valuable teaching skills to pursue a career in this in-demand role.
Hamlet is the most famous play ever written and the masterpiece of the most important writer in English, William Shakespeare. Its themes of mortality, madness and political succession have given it an enduring fascination - Hamlet has been translated into every major language and adapted for every new medium since it was written.This free online course will introduce you to some of the many ways in which Hamlet can be enjoyed and understood. Over six weeks, you’ll look at how Hamlet has responded to successive times and successive performances.You’ll learn with experts from the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute - an internationally renowned research institution located in the writer’s birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon.Each week, these experts will guide a discussion about Hamlet’s fortunes in print; its own representations of writing and theatre; its place in the Elizabethan theatrical repertory; and its representation of melancholia and interiority.You’ll also hear from those who have performed key roles in the play, and look at Hamlet’s fortunes on the modern stage; its appeal to actors; and its philosophy.You’ll need a basic ability to read and understand Hamlet. Otherwise, a curiosity about this play, and why it has remained such an important and iconic element in Western culture for four centuries is the sole prerequisite for the course.
Understand Parkinson’s DiseaseThis online course is aimed at anyone who wants to find out the fundamentals of Parkinson’s disease. We will look at how Parkinson’s disease affects people; what causes it; what we can do to try to ameliorate the symptoms of Parkinson’s; and what we don’t yet know about it.The course is aimed at anyone who wants to find out the fundamentals of Parkinson’s disease.You will need to have a basic knowledge of what the brain is made of, how these component cellular parts are organised and the principles of how these cells function normally. It will be suitable if you have taken the Good Brain, Bad Brain: Basics course or who studied neuroscience in the early years of an undergraduate degree.
Discover how rural roads can become more resilient to changing weather patternsWe already know that climate change is having a significant impact on temperature, rainfall and wind speed.Planners, designers and managers of rural road infrastructures must keep up-to-date with the nature of these changes. This includes understanding the likelihood of occurrence, as well as the implications on the financing, design, and maintenance of these roads in the future.On this course, you’ll explore these factors and consider how new and existing infrastructure can be planned, designed, upgraded, maintained and adapted to become more climate-resilient.This course is for anyone who has a general interest in learning about the impact of climate change on rural infrastructure.It will be particularly useful for rural road practitioners and researchers in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia, practitioners who manage, design, construct and maintain Low Volume Rural Roads (LVRR), and postgraduate Engineering students studying rural road development in emerging and developing countries.
Metabolomics is an emerging field that aims to measure the complement of metabolites (the metabolome) in living organisms. The metabolome represents the downstream effect of an organism’s genome and its interaction with the environment. Metabolomics has a wide application area across the medical and biological sciences. The course provides an introduction to metabolomics, describes the tools and techniques we use to study the metabolome and explains why we want to study it. By the end of the course you will understand how metabolomics can revolutionise our understanding of metabolism.The course is primarily aimed at final year undergraduate science students and research scientists who are interested in learning about the application of metabolomics to understand metabolism. However, metabolomics is a new tool to the scientific community and this course will provide a valuable introduction to scientists at any stage in their careers. It is not essential to have any previous knowledge of the subject area but a reasonable knowledge and understanding of science would be beneficial.
Learn about the fascinating field of liver transplantationThis course covers the history of liver transplantation, from early experiments in the late 1960s to exciting new technological advances in organ preservation happening today. You will find out why there is such an increasing global need for liver transplants, and look at the science behind the operation and the drugs used to prevent organ rejection. We will look at the unique biology of the liver, explaining how one donor organ can help two patients in need, and how some people can eventually manage without any anti-rejection medication.The Educators won’t be able to join the discussions or respond to individual comments in this course run, but the course encourages a strong learning community. Discussion is an important part of this course – supporting other learners, sharing your own experience and knowledge, and listening to new perspectives. We hope that you will enjoy interacting with and learning from each other in this way. Don’t forget to comment, reply to other learners and ‘like’ comments.The course will be of interest to anyone who is captivated by human biology, transplantation, surgery or your immune system.
The food and drink industry is the largest industrial sector in the UK with a gross value added of £190 billion. It’s also the largest employer in the UK, employing 4.7 million people.On this microcredential delivered by the University of Birmingham, you’ll gain expertise in the field of food safety, hygiene, and management to help you stand out in this competitive sector.You’ll discover the latest advances in the fast-changing UK and international food legislation and standards, and explore the career opportunities available to you in the field of food safety.If you’re a food safety inspector or work in a food business and want to develop your legal knowledge around food safety, this microcredential will help you increase your understanding to progress your career.Understand the common mechanisms of food controlThe implementation and enforcement of food hygiene and food standards legislation are key components in food control.You’ll discover how the delivery of food control is always carried out within a National Food Control System. Using various countries as models, you’ll examine the structure and purpose of these systems to understand how they are used as the framework for food safety and control.Examine food laws including the Food Safety ActFood safety enforcement varies between countries according to the relevant legal system but there are commonalities, such as inspection, sampling, licencing and registration.You’ll look at the UK as an example to illustrate the delivery of food control. You’ll develop a good understanding of the English legal system and the sources of food law, as well as becoming familiar with crucial frameworks such as the Food Safety Act 1990.With this knowledge, you’ll understand that on a global scale, the law impacts food and principles can be used and implemented to enable safe food.Understand the roles of the Food Standards Agency and European CommissionDespite country variations, members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) base domestic legislation on international standards. You’ll examine these in the context of the EU and UK to understand how international standards can be implemented in domestic legislation.You’ll learn how to access, read, and apply food safety legislation issued by the Food Standards Agency and the European Commission to help you identify the roles and impacts of these enforcement bodies.Apply your understanding of food lawOnce you become comfortable in your understanding of food law, you’ll be able to identify how to use it correctly in typical situations and determine a suitable course of action.Examining the range of options available to enforcement officers, you’ll look at case studies to learn how to take the appropriate action, give advice, and carry out enforcement in relation to food safety.Understand the issues associated with environmental healthYou’ll also consider the factors that can impact the delivery of food controls, such as enforcement policy, industry structure, and resources.Engaging with food safety specialists, you’ll be supported as you discuss the legal, moral, and practical issues associated with food safety and food hygiene legislation.By the end of this microcredential, you’ll be able to identify complex factors that affect legislation development as you increase your understanding of food control and law.