Access free courses and educational materials from The Open University

As well as offering flexible and accessible degrees in a wide range of subjects, including undergraduate and postgraduate Music degrees, The Open University has hundreds of short courses and educational materials available for free. Dr. Naomi J. Barker, Senior Lecturer and Head of Discipline for Music, explains how their musical resources can support music educators in their teaching or to develop their own skills.

The Open University’s mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas, promoting educational opportunity and social justice. In line with that mission, we offer a BA (Hons) Music degree that is open to musicians working in any style, genre or tradition and does not require students to have any prior musical qualifications such as A-levels or grade exams. Instead, we step them into university-level music study and develop their skills rapidly.

The degree is flexible and can be studied while working, so it is well suited to instrumental teachers who may be working without formal qualifications and want to gain a degree, or indeed, school leavers who have not had the opportunity to study music at A-level. We also offer an MA for those who already have a degree, which is similarly flexible and can be studied while continuing to work.

As part of our open mission, we have a learning platform called OpenLearn that offers hundreds of short courses and educational materials free of charge, some of which are extracts of our course material, while others were developed specifically to help students without ‘traditional’ skills by providing additional study materials. There are a number of music courses on this platform at a variety of levels, from introductory materials on topics such as music theory and how to listen to music, to Schenkerian analysis.

There are many ways in which Music Mark members might use these materials. Primary school teachers who have to take on teaching classroom music lessons with minimal knowledge of music may find the introductory courses on music theory and on listening skills helpful in boosting their knowledge and confidence in working with music and sound. In turn, that can help them to teach children how to focus their listening. The same courses may be used to a different purpose in the secondary classroom. They could, for example, be used as an independent study resource for GCSE students, for group work in the classroom, or to help students work towards grade 5 theory exams. They can also be a bridging resource to A-level to boost music literacy, or even as additional study to prepare for university.  The introduction to recording music and sound is a similarly flexible resource, of use to both student and teacher. For Music Mark members in the HE sector, any of these materials can be used to support students entering university with poor notation or listening skills.

There are some items on OpenLearn that were created a number of years ago, such as the course Using Film Music in the Classroom. While the films referenced are now quite old, the principles and ideas remain useful and relevant. There are also suggestions for activities and video clips that could easily be shared in class.

Teachers looking for ways of expanding the range of music their learners are exposed to might find the videos on Wales a useful and important resource about music in the Celtic nations. A course on women composers is currently under development, and this will offer material to fill gaps in syllabi.

We also work with partners such as the BBC and have a dedicated platform called Open Connect for materials created to accompany co-productions. This is where you will find our recent material on Mozart. The animated graphics and linked videos are very accessible and suitable to use as teaching resources in the secondary classroom.

OU Music was also a partner with Stavanger University, Norway, the Royal Northern College of Music and the Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal, in an EU-funded project to create a free online course on conducting. This material introduces complete beginners to the basics of conducting, as well as a library of resources for musicians with some conducting experience wanting to develop their skills further. It is a brilliant resource for teachers who have to work with school choirs, bands, orchestras, or even conduct musical shows, especially newer teachers who may be having to do this for the first time. This material is also likely to be of interest to members from the HE sector to share with their students.

Some of the resources are listed on the Music Mark pages for the Open University. For others, go to the OpenLearn home page and search for Music, OU Connect History and the arts pages and ConductIT.