11-year-old Meath boy does 11 online courses during Covid-19 lockdown
11-year-old Tiernán Eviston from County Meath has been keeping busy during the coronavirus lockdown.
Like many other schoolkids, Tiernán has been going online to learn new things and has already finished 11 online courses from The Open University’s free learning site OpenLearn, ranging from ‘An introduction to sustainable energy’ to ‘Square roots and powers’.
Tiernan’s mum said: “To have a resource like the OU and have free access is amazing.
"There are parents all over the world struggling to pay for courses like these to keep their kids' minds occupied and here is an untapped resource that I had never thought to use before.
"OpenLearn is user-friendly and the introductory courses are suitable for all learners.”
Clocking in at over 40 hours of additional study, Tiernan shared his success with his teacher who told him how proud she was and that she was “glad to see he was keeping his lovely mind exercised during lockdown.”
Tiernán’s favourite course was ‘Ratio, proportions and percentages’ and he is now taking a well-earned summer break.
Since the start of lockdown, visits to the site have more than trebled from the previous monthly numbers with more than 2.5 million unique visits since April.
John D’Arcy, Director of The Open University in Ireland said: “OpenLearn has become an even more useful asset for many people across Ireland during lockdown by enabling them to gain new knowledge and learn new skills.
"I would recommend OpenLearn to anyone interested in some short, free online learning at this time and particularly to parents who may want to support their children at home.
"The selection of courses is wide-ranging with everything from beginners Spanish to courses on cyber-security and the value of coffee.”
OpenLearn has over 15,000 hours of free online courses and content ranging from articles to videos and interactive elements.
Find out more about OpenLearn at https://www.open.edu/openlearn/.
