If you've been inspired by the historical stories revealed by the Timewatch team, and would like to discover more, the Open University has a selection of courses for you to look into.

General

Making sense of the Arts (Y160)
Making sense of the arts introduces some of the key ideas and ways of thinking involved in studying the arts and humanities. You will be exploring several different areas of study including poetry, history, art history, philosophy and religious studies.

Introduction to the Humanities (A103)
This is an intellectually stimulating course from the Faculty of Arts which introduces you to art history, music and literature, as well as classics, history, philosophy, history of science and technology and religious studies.

Start Writing Family History (A173)
Start Writing Family History is a short, but enormously popular, course that gives students a solid grounding in the principles of research into the past. It helps to develop the critical skills that are a precursor to higher levels of historical study. Using sources from different eras, students investigate the changing nature of the family and, putting the principles of historical research into practice, write about their own family history.

Heritage, whose heritage? (A180)
Who decides what should be preserved from the past as our heritage? Who is this heritage for and how should it be presented and explained? How can I engage actively with my heritage and have an impact on it? This course endeavours to answer these questions and to engage with current debates on the preservation of the past.

World Archaeology (A251)
In World Archaeology students learn about the human past on a global basis, from the last Ice Age to historical times. It will be of particular interest to people who have studied or are thinking about studying history; history of science; technology and medicine; classical studies; or art history.

Classical Period

Exploring the Classical World (A219)
This interdisciplinary course gives a broad introduction to studying classical Greece and Rome. Exploring in depth a wide range of topics, such as: the world of Homer; the political uses of theatre; art and rhetoric in Athens; the origins of Rome and the history of the Republican period; Latin poetry; and Roman social history.

Culture, Identity and Power in the Roman Empire (AA309)
What did it mean to be ‘Roman’ in the Roman Empire? Is it possible to speak of a single ‘Roman’ culture imposed or maintained through imperial power? This course examines how culture, identity and power were shaped in particular contexts by social factors such as religion, gender, the economy and status.

Cities and technology: from Babylon to Singapore (AT308)
This very wide-ranging course uncovers the interactions between technological development and the growth of urban living from the ancient world through to the present day. It scrutinizes in detail the applications of major technologies – in particular building construction, transport systems, energy sources, and communications. It is designed to develop critical skills such as comparative analysis and the use of historical models of urban development.

Medieval/Early Modern Period

Exploring history: medieval to modern 1400-1900 (A200)
This course is intended to give students a very broad introduction to the study of history. It highlights three big historical themes - changing beliefs, producers and consumers, and state formation - and looks at how they altered from the medieval period through to the nineteenth century. Amongst the topics covered are slavery and the slave trade, the European Reformation, Imperialism, and the Wars of the Roses.

Medicine and Society in Europe 1500 -1930 (A218)
This course traces the development of medical knowledge and its application from the early modern period through to the twentieth century. It is not just a straightforward history of medicine. Instead, it shows how western medicine interacted with ideas from contemporary science and religion and demonstrates its deep impact on European societies.

Ancient and Medieval cities: a technological history (AT272)
This short taster course enables students to get to grips with some of the fascinating technological developments that shaped ancient and medieval cities. It shows the complexity of these processes and attempts to unravel some of the mysteries of historical urban development.

The Rise of Scientific Europe 1500 - 1800 (AS208)
Why did modern science develop solely in Europe, and then only in some parts rather than others? AS208 attempts to answer these fascinating questions with a survey of scientific development from the Renaissance through to the eighteenth century Enlightenment. Along the way, it looks also at the roots of European science in Arabic and Chinese scientific cultures.

Modern Period

From Enlightenment to Romanticism c. 1780 - 1830 (A207)
This interdisciplinary module examines the critical ideas and texts that were produced in the epoch-making transition from the Enlightenment to Romanticism. Music, philosophy, science, and art are all discussed in a wide-ranging investigation that includes many of the great works of the period. The topics examined are diverse, and include Napoleon, religious revival, African exploration and slavery, the Lake District, New Lanark, the Soane Museum and the Brighton Pavilion.

Film and Television History (AA310)
If you are fascinated by the historical development of film and television then this introduction to the subject provides an absorbing initiation. The course explores film's social role and often deep cultural influence in the USA, Britain and western Europe. It enables students to analyse a range of film and television texts, and to place them in their contexts of production and reception. Thirteen feature films and seven television programmes are provided on DVD

Total War and Social Change, Europe 1914 - 1955 (AA312)
This course explores the relationship between war and the transformation of society that took place during the first half of the twentieth century. It examines questions about possible relationships between total war and social, cultural and geopolitical change.

Total War and Social Change, Europe 1914 - 1955 (Residential School) (AXR312)
The residential school course is designed to complement and enhance AA312 and further your understanding of the causes and consequences of the two world wars and your appreciation of the relationships between total war and social change in twentieth-century Europe.