Online short courses and events
Join a worldwide community of adult learners
Explore a topic in depth over one or two days; extend your knowledge over several weeks with a lecture series or a weekly learning programme.
Explore the different online course types below.
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Short online courses (Flexible): These have no live-time meetings, so you can study when it suits you.
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Short online courses (Live): These have weekly 1-hour online meetings to attend.
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Day and weekend events: Include livestreamed lectures and small online workshops.
Upcoming courses
Online - live • Short courses • Professional development
A seven-week online course introducing the current state of technology and addressing implications for safety, regulation and innovation. It is for professionals worldwide seeking an overview of this important subject.
- Mon 13 Oct 2025 – 30 Nov 2025
- 7 meetings
Online - live • Short courses
Positive Psychology offers a direct approach to help people create strategies towards wellbeing. Changing our interpretation of the world can help us feel happier, healthier, more positive, and become more resilient. Join us in Oxford to learn more.
- Thu 16 Oct 2025 – 17 Oct 2025
- 10:00am – 1:00pm
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series • Hybrid - in person or online
Evaluate the most controversial decisions in European foreign policy in the inter-war. As the utopian Versailles Treaty unravelled into a dystopian nightmare, the great continental powers positioned themselves for another deadly conflict.
- Fri 17 Oct 2025 – 21 Nov 2025
- 2:00 – 3:30pm
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series • Hybrid - in person or online
From grandiose national rhetoric to to a façade of industrial modernisation, explore Mussolini's failures in war and diplomacy in this hybrid lecture.
- Fri 17 Oct 2025
- 2:00 – 3:30pm
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series
Investigate the conflict between citizens and states concerning unrestricted encryption access, learn about surveillance and examine the Crypto Wars in this online lecture.
- Tue 21 Oct 2025
- 6:15 – 7:30pm
Online - live • Short courses • Lecture series • Hybrid - in person or online
Leonardo da Vinci advocated that painting was a form of visual knowledge. Discover his revolutionary ideas on the arts with Dr Juliana Barone, a leading expert on Leonardo da Vinci and the reception of his work in early modern Europe.
- Fri 24 Oct 2025 – 28 Nov 2025
- 11:00am – 12:30pm
Flexible learning with Oxford
As well as short online courses, we also offer flexible Oxford University qualifications and professional development programmes. Many can be studied fully online, some require short residencies in Oxford.
Short online courses
Our short online courses are taught in two alternative teaching formats - flexible or live. All of these courses are usually 10 weeks long.Distance learning
Study with Oxford from anywhere in the world. From part-time Oxford University qualifications and professional development programmes (CPD), to online short courses.Low-residency programmes
Our low-residency programmes allow students the flexibility of studying primarily from home, with short residential stays in Oxford.Continuing professional development
Professional development with Oxford University. From short courses and training in Oxford and online to flexible graduate programmes and bespoke courses.