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WATCH: Kamala Harris’ full speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention

Once Kamala Harris took the stage on the final night of the Democratic National Convention, she made history.

Watch Harris’ speech in the player above.

The vice president formally accepted the party’s nomination for president, becoming the first Black woman or first person of South Asian descent to do so. If she wins November’s election, she would be the first woman president in U.S. history.

After a weeklong convention that touted her personal story and her career as a prosecutor and in politics, a cavalcade of speakers described Harris to voters as a “joyful warrior” and defender of personal freedoms and democracy — a stark contrast to the agent for division they’d find in her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

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In her speech, she laid out a choice for voters on Election Day.

“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past,” she said. “A chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans.”

Harris’ ascension this election season was swift. She stepped in after President Joe Biden faced mounting pressure to exit the race. In a matter of weeks, Democratic leaders and voters coalesced around Harris as their best chance to win the Oval Office.

With fewer than 75 days before the election, that urgency carried to her message to voters in the biggest speech of her political career: The nation can move forward and leave Trump behind.

“America, we are not going back,” she said.

Find more of our DNC 2024 coverage

• Live updates: Kamala Harris will accept her party’s nomination on Day 4 of the DNC
• WATCH: Tim Walz delivers pep talk in full speech at 2024 Democratic National Convention
• WATCH: Official explains why DNC denied a speaking spot to Palestinian American
• WATCH: Poet Amanda Gorman recites ‘This Sacred Scene’ at 2024 Democratic National Convention
• 7 takeaways from Day 3 of the DNC
• WATCH: Bill Clinton speaks at 2024 Democratic National Convention | 2024 DNC Night 3
• WATCH: Oprah Winfrey urges voters to choose joy by choosing Harris at Democratic National Convention

Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed from Washington.

Joshua Barajas is a senior editor for the PBS NewsHour's Communities Initiative. He also the senior editor and manager of newsletters.

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Teacher, coach and veteran, Tim Walz makes his primetime DNC debut to accept VP nomination

Politics Aug 21

Americans love free speech, survey finds − until they realize everyone else has it, too

Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, Head of Vanderbilt's Project on Unity and American Democracy, and Co-Director of Vanderbilt Poll, Vanderbilt University

Research Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, Vanderbilt University

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Americans’ views on free speech change directions every so often. One of those times was during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. As scholars of free speech and public opinion , we set out to find out what happened and why.

The Supreme Court itself, as recently as 1989, has declared that the “bedrock principle” of the First Amendment is that “ the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”

For years, conservative politicians and commentators have warned that college campuses are not strong enough protectors of free speech. But as demonstrations erupted, these same people complained that the protests were filled with antisemitic hate speech . Leading conservatives declared the demonstrations should be banned and halted, by force if necessary.

Liberals executed a similar reversal. Many of them have supported increased regulation of hate speech against minority groups. But during the campus protests, liberals cautioned that crackdowns by university administrators, state officials and the police violated protestors’ free speech rights.

As researchers at Vanderbilt University’s Project on Unity and American Democracy and The Future of Free Speech , respectively, we sought to determine where Americans stand. We drew inspiration from a poll done in November 1939 in which 3,500 Americans answered questions about free speech. In June 2024, we asked 1,000 Americans the identical questions.

When an abstract concept gets more concrete

We found that the vast majority of Americans – both then and now – agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. That’s in the abstract.

When the questions get more concrete, though, their support wanes.

Only about half of the respondents in both the 1939 and 2024 polls agreed that anybody in America should be allowed to speak on any subject at any time. The rest believed some speech – or certain subjects or speakers – should be prohibited.

This pattern is not unique to Americans. A 2021 survey in 33 countries by The Future of Free Speech , a nonpartisan think tank based at Vanderbilt, similarly found high levels of support for free speech in the abstract across all countries but lower support across the board for specific speech that was offensive to minority groups or religious beliefs.

We dug deeper in surveys in March and June 2024, asking which subjects or speakers should be banned. We thought the public’s appetite for free speech might have weakened amid the campus turmoil. We found the opposite.

When asked whether seven people with widely varied viewpoints should be allowed to speak, the share of people who said “Yes” rose for each one between March and June. Some of the differences were within the surveys’ margins of error, but it’s nevertheless noteworthy that all of them shifted in the same direction.

While showing a slightly increased appetite for free speech, these polls still fit with the overall contradiction: Large majorities of Americans passionately uphold free speech as a cornerstone of democracy. But fewer of them are supportive of free speech when faced with specific controversial speakers or topics.

The First Amendment is not an a la carte menu

Our surveys found that the public has a nuanced view of free speech. For instance, in our June 2024 survey we added some additional categories of potential speakers to the list we had asked about in March. More respondents were comfortable with a pro-Palestinian speaker than a leader of Hamas and with a scientist who believes that IQ varies by race rather than an outright white supremacist.

This pattern suggests that the public distinguishes between extreme and more moderate positions and is less tolerant of the rights of those with more extreme views.

This shift runs against the purpose of the First Amendment, which was intended to protect unpopular speech . The amendment very specifically was not intended to apply only to certain speakers or viewpoints.

Ours is not the only survey to find that many people don’t fully appreciate the logic and principles behind free speech.

In 2020, a Knight Foundation poll found that members of both political parties oppose speech that goes against their values or beliefs .

Later polls, including those conducted by other organizations, found more specifics: For instance, Democrats were more likely to support censorship of racist hate speech or vaccine misinformation.

And Republicans opposed drag shows and kneeling during the playing of the national anthem .

A February 2022 national poll commissioned by The New York Times and Siena College found that 30% of Americans believed that “ sometimes you have to shut down speech that is anti-democratic, bigoted, or simply untrue.”

A return to fundamentals

With the 2024 election looming and polarization increasing among Americans, some people may want only those who agree with them to be allowed to speak.

But a true commitment to the fundamental principles of free speech requires people to allow space for controversial and even offensive viewpoints to be aired.

History reveals that censorship of hateful ideas is often a cure that is worse than the disease , deepening social divides. James Madison, a key drafter of both the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment, wrote in 1800:

“ Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing … it is better to leave a few of its noxious branches, to their luxuriant growth, than by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits.”

As the founders knew, a respect for diverse viewpoints and the ability to express those views – good, bad and harmful alike – in the public sphere are essential to a healthy democracy.

• Freedom of speech
• Antisemitism
• Hate speech
• First Amendment
• US Constitution
• US Founding Fathers
• Free expression
• The politics of freedom of speech
• freedom of speech on campus
• James Madison
• Vaccine misinformation
• Pro-Palestine protest
• Controversial ideas
• anti-Israeli sentiment
• Israel-Hamas war
• Campus debate
• Pro-Palestinian protest
• Pro-Palestinian protesters

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Freedom of speech.

The right to freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Most categories of speech are “protected” to some extent by the First Amendment, but there are exceptions, including things like incitement, true threats, defamation, obscenity, fraud, and others.  Many people are often surprised to learn that “hate speech” is not one of those exceptions, and is typically protected by the First Amendment. However, even protected hate speech can sometimes lead to behaviors that fall outside the protection of the First Amendment.  It is also important to note that while “speech” is typically given a high degree of protection under the First Amendment, “conduct” generally receives a lesser degree of protection, or no protection, depending on the context and circumstances. 

As stated above, there are certain types of speech which may not be protected, including threats and speech that incites people to immediate violence. This is a high threshold. Generally, abstract or philosophical statements like, “The Puritans were correct to burn witches at the stake," would be protected, where a speaker saying, “Seize that woman and burn her at the stake right here, for she is a witch!” would not be. Additionally, if your supervisor were treating you differently than other employees because of your beliefs, that could be considered discriminatory.

While the University of Pittsburgh is bound to uphold these laws — in fact, the ACLU notes: “Restrictions on speech by public colleges and universities amount to government censorship, in violation of the Constitution.” —  we also believe in them, and have long held these principles as foundational to our identity and mission. For those looking to better understand what the law says, the ACLU has published a detailed overview of the legalities of free speech on college and university campuses .

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No laughing matter: Humorless scolds on the left want to silence your 'offensive' views

We have a broad guarantee of free speech under the u.s. constitution, and that includes misinformation and hate speech..

Tim Walz, Minnesota governor and Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has received a lot of criticism for fudging details of his military service . 

That’s definitely worthy of scrutiny, but something else that Walz said in an interview in late 2022 deserves attention, too. 

“There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech and especially around our democracy,” he told MSNBC . 

Walz is wrong. We do have a broad guarantee of free speech under the U.S. Constitution, and that includes misinformation and hate speech. Walz probably missed the irony, but his misinformation on free expression is protected speech. 

While Walz has a right to spread misleading comments, it’s concerning that a governor and now vice presidential nominee seems confused about what protections we have under our First Amendment. 

Unfortunately, Walz is not alone in his views. Many on the left – and some on the right – are turning to the government to regulate ( or force, in the case of Florida and Texas laws ) speech that some may find offensive.

That is antithetical to one of this country’s most important values. 

Speech under threat in Europe

We can already see how such intolerance is playing out in Europe . The United Kingdom has a notoriously harsh policy against speech, including social media posts, that it finds hateful or racist. 

The Crown Prosecution Service recently posted the following warning on X : ‘Think before you post! Content that incites violence or hatred isn’t just harmful – it can be illegal.” 

It's not kidding. Police this month arrested a woman over a social media post the government claimed was "inaccurate."

In France, “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and Tesla founder Elon Musk have been named in a criminal complaint from Algerian boxer and recent Olympic gold-medal winner Imane Khelif over alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment.” 

Their “crime”? Contributing to the discussion over whether it was fair for Khelif to compete against women, after being disqualified from a previous competition because of questions related to Khelif’s sex. 

Fairness at the Olympics: Olympic boxers deserve compassion. But questions of fairness shouldn't be brushed aside.

Liberal states want to be thought police

These speech crackdowns aren’t just happening across the Atlantic. We’re seeing them more and more in the United States, too. 

Even comedy and satire are getting caught up in the mix. And that isn’t funny in the least.

Musk, the face of Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) who has become one of the left’s most despised figures, last month reposted a “deepfake” video created by someone else, poking fun at Harris’ run for president. It was clearly a joke. 

Yet, California Gov. Gavin Newsom failed to see the humor in Musk’s repost. “Manipulating a voice in an ‘ad’ like this one should be illegal,” he said on X , promising to sign a bill to make it so. 

California dreaming: Harris and Walz champion the Californication of America. Voters should say no way, San Jose.

But political satire like the video Musk reposted is perfectly legal – and Newsom’s attempt to limit it would not be. 

“The First Amendment protects things like satire and parody which have, of course, deep roots in American history and could be potent forms of political or social criticism,” says Aaron Terr, director of public policy for the Foundation for Individuals Rights and Expression (FIRE). “And that's especially true when politicians or other public figures are on the receiving end.”

FIRE is representing the plaintiffs, which include First Amendment scholar and blogger Eugene Volokh , in a lawsuit against a New York law that seeks to target “hateful” speech but is overly broad in its expectations of what online platforms should be expected to do to combat the offending speech.

In practice, the law would chill protected speech for fear of retribution – not unlike the “ bias response teams ” on public university campuses that encourage students to spy on each other and that have faced similar legal challenges . 

The federal judge in the New York case issued a preliminary injunction to block enforcement of the law, but the case is on appeal . 

Christian satire site The Babylon Bee is among the groups concerned about New York's law and how it could be used to target its content. The Alliance Defending Freedom filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Bee. 

“These tattle-tale requirements chill reasonable people’s speech by discouraging them from making comments that might arguably fit within a reportable category of speech,” the brief states . “The marketplace for ideas and debate becomes a sea of suspicion and retaliatory reports.”

Can satire offend? Yes. And that's OK.

Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, says he’s confident New York's law won’t stand judicial scrutiny, but that he thought it was important to call out its unconstitutionality. 

“What the law basically does is it requires platforms to have hate speech policies, and to publish the state’s definition of what hate speech is and then to provide a reporting mechanism for that hate speech so that readers on the site can report it,” Dillon told me last week. “That is all extremely problematic.

“When you look at the constitutionality of these things, you know the state can't regulate your conduct, your speech, that way where disfavored viewpoints are made unlawful.”

The Babylon Bee has learned firsthand about intolerance for its views.

He points to stories that the Bee has posted that have come with consequences, including “ fact-checks ” of its obvious satire from news organizations , including USA TODAY. My favorite is a fact-check of this Bee headline , “ Ninth Circuit Court Overturns Death Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg .” 

There have been much more serious repercussions, too. 

In early 2022, Twitter suspended The Babylon Bee for sharing a headline that named U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, who is transgender, as “Man of the Year.” (Levine had recently been named one of USA TODAY’s “ Women of the Year .”)

The Babylon Bee remained banned for much of that year and was reinstated only by new owner Musk, who bought Twitter in part because of these speech crackdowns .

Does satire have the ability to offend or make people uncomfortable? Sure. That’s the point. And to open it up to government oversight is a huge problem.

As the author Salman Rushdie, who faced an assassination attempt and near death for his own views, has observed, it’s vital to “ defend the art of satire , which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.” 

Biden's overreach: Student loan borrowers beware: Biden and Harris keep making promises they know are a scam

Americans are losing their love of free speech

The United States has the most robust protections for free speech in the world. I’m worried whether we can keep them.

The Freedom Forum has found that about 40% of people surveyed say “preventing hate speech is more important than protecting free speech,” and that “about the same number say that hate speech should be illegal.”

And a new poll from FIRE found that 53% of Americans think the First Amendment “goes too far in the rights it guarantees.” 

Even more alarming, about 40% trust the government somewhat, very much or completely "to make fair decisions about what speech is considered" terrifying, intimidating, threatening, harassing, annoying, disturbing and indecent.

Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store .

“Hate speech” and “misinformation” may sound like good things to push back against. But that is not power we should ever cede to the government. The definitions of what constitutes offensive speech or misleading information are constantly changing.

For instance, during the peak of COVID-19, the Biden administration tried to pressure social media companies to silence views it thought were incorrect at the time. Plenty of this “misinformation” ended up being true , however, proving that the government has no business being the arbiter of truth.

As Dillon says: “Things that we think are false today, we might learn tomorrow are true. Well, how do we learn what's true and what's false if we can't even engage in the debate because we've preempted everything by deciding upfront? 

“That's not how truth-seeking works.”

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter: @ Ingrid_Jacques .

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page , on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter .

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U.S. colleges revise free speech rules to contain demonstrations

NEW YORK — As students return to colleges across the United States, administrators are bracing for a resurgence in activism against the war in Gaza, and some schools are adopting rules to limit the kind of protests that swept campuses last spring.

While the summer break provided a respite in student demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war, it also gave both student protesters and higher education officials a chance to regroup and strategize for the fall semester.

The stakes remain high. At Columbia University, President Minouche Shafik resigned Wednesday after coming under heavy scrutiny for her handling of the demonstrations at the campus in New York City, where the wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments began last spring.

Some of the new rules imposed by universities include banning encampments, limiting the duration of demonstrations, allowing protests only in designated spaces and restricting campus access to those with university identification. Critics say some of the measures will curtail free speech.

The American Association of University Professors issued a statement Wednesday condemning “overly restrictive policies” that could discourage free expression. Many of the new policies require protesters to register well in advance and strictly limit the locations where gatherings can be held, as well as setting new limits on the use of amplified sound and signage.

“Our colleges and universities should encourage, not suppress, open and vigorous dialogue and debate even on the most deeply held beliefs,” said the statement, adding that many policies were imposed without faculty input.

The University of Pennsylvania has outlined new “temporary guidelines” for student protests that include bans on encampments, overnight demonstrations, and the use of bullhorns and speakers until after 5 p.m. on class days. The University of Pennsylvania also requires that posters and banners be removed within two weeks of going up. The university says it remains committed to freedom of speech and lawful assembly.

At Indiana University, protests after 11 p.m. are forbidden under a new “expressive activities policy” that took effect Aug 1. The policy says “camping” and erecting any type of shelter are prohibited on campus, and signs cannot be displayed on university property without prior approval.

The University of South Florida now requires approval for tents, canopies, banners, signs and amplifiers. The school’s “speech, expression and assembly” rules stipulate that no “activity,” including protests or demonstrations, is allowed after 5 p.m. on weekdays or during weekends and not allowed at all during the last two weeks of a semester.

A draft document obtained over the summer by the student newspaper at Harvard University showed the college was considering prohibitions on overnight camping, chalk messages and unapproved signs.

“I think right now we are seeing a resurgence of repression on campuses that we haven’t seen since the late 1960s,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a Cornell University professor of labor and employment law who serves as general counsel for the American Association of University Professors.

Universities say they encourage free speech as long as it doesn’t interfere with learning, and they insist they are simply updating existing rules for demonstrations to protect campus safety.

Tensions have run high on college campuses since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants assaulted southern Israel and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.

Many student protesters in the U.S. vow to continue their activism, which has been fueled by Gaza’s rising death toll, which surpassed 40,000 on Thursday, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.

About 50 Columbia students still face discipline over last spring’s demonstrations after a mediation process that began earlier in the summer stalled, according to Mahmoud Khalil, a lead negotiator working on behalf of Columbia student protesters. He blamed the impasse on Columbia administrators.

“The university loves to appear that they’re in dialogue with the students. But these are all fake steps meant to assure the donor community and their political class,” said Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan was roiled earlier this year by student demonstrations, culminating in scenes of police officers with zip ties and riot shields storming a building occupied by pro-Palestinian protesters.

Similar protests swept college campuses nationwide, with many leading to violent clashes with police and more than 3,000 arrests. Many of the students who were arrested during police crackdowns have had their charges dismissed, but some are still waiting to learn what prosecutors decide. Many have faced fallout in their academic careers, including suspensions, withheld diplomas and other forms of discipline.

Shafik was among the university leaders who were called for questioning before Congress. She was heavily criticized by Republicans who accused her of not doing enough to combat concerns about antisemitism on the Columbia campus.

She announced her resignation in an emailed letter to the university community just weeks before the start of classes on Sept. 3. The university on Monday began restricting campus access to people with Columbia IDs and registered guests, saying it wanted to curb “potential disruptions” as the new semester draws near.

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in the community,” Shafik wrote in her letter. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters first set up tent encampments on Columbia’s campus during Shafik’s congressional testimony in mid-April, when she denounced antisemitism but faced criticism for how she responded to faculty and students accused of bias.

The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, only for the students to return and inspire a wave of similar protests at campuses across the country as students called for schools to cut financial ties with Israel and companies supporting the war.

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Tim Walz, in DNC speech, draws on past as coach, urging Americans to "leave it all on the field" before election

By Melissa Quinn

Updated on: August 22, 2024 / 12:12 AM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz officially accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday, casting the final weeks before Election Day as the closing minutes of a football game that will require the difficult work of "blocking and tackling" to defeat former President Donald Trump.

Walz closed out the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with a speech that drew on his time as a teacher and football coach in Minnesota.

"We got 76 days. That's nothing. There'll be time to sleep when we're dead," he told the crowd of Democratic delegates, elected officials and supporters. "We're gonna leave it all on the field. That's how we'll keep moving forward. That's how we'll turn the page on Donald Trump."

Walz's speech served as a platform for him to introduce himself to the broader public. He charted his rise from the small town of Butte, Nebraska, to joining the Army National Guard, becoming a teacher and then representing Minnesota's First Congressional District. 

Elected governor in 2018, Walz touted his achievements as Minnesota's chief executive, including passing paid family and medical leave, cutting prescription drug costs and protecting abortion access.

"In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make," he said. "And even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule: mind your own damn business."

Walz was nominated as the Democratic vice presidential candidate by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ingman, a former student who lived next door to the governor and his wife, Gwen. Walz coached him for seventh-grade basketball and track, and Ingam was soon joined on the convention stage by former football players from Mankato West High School, where Walz taught and coached.

During his speech, Walz accused Trump and vice presidential nominee JD Vance of pushing an agenda that would make Americans' lives more difficult. While Trump has distanced himself from the policy proposals described in Project 2025, a presidential transition initiative overseen by the Heritage Foundation, Walz likened the guide to a playbook that will be put to use if Trump is elected to a second term.

"It's an agenda nobody asked for. It's an agenda that serves nobody except the richest people and the most extreme amongst us. And it's an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need," he said. "Is it weird? Absolutely. But it's also wrong. And it's dangerous."

Walz denounced Trump's understanding of leadership, and said good leaders "don't spend all day insulting people and blaming people."

"Leaders do the work," he said. "I don't know about you all, but I'm ready to turn the page on these guys. So go ahead, say it with me: 'We're not going back!'"

He then laid out his and Harris' agenda if they are elected president and vice president, which includes tax cuts for middle-class families, lower prescription drug costs and affordable housing.

"No matter who you are, Kamala Harris is gonna stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead," he said. "Because that's what we want for ourselves and it's what we want for our neighbors."

Harris announced Walz as her running mate earlier this month after a truncated search that included several Democrats from battleground states, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

A popular two-term governor, Walz was selected in part because of his executive experience and policy achievements on key issues, including gun safety, abortion and paid leave. He served in the National Guard and coached football, and is a hunter and gun owner.

Walz sought to contrast his beliefs on gun ownership with those of Republicans, who have pushed back against efforts to enact new firearms restrictions in the wake of mass shootings.

"I believe in the Second Amendment. But I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe. That's what this is all about," he said. "The responsibility we have to our kids, to each other, and to the future that we're building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want."

Walz could also help bolster support for Harris in the "blue wall" states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The states have historically backed Democratic candidates, but went for Trump in 2016 and then Mr. Biden in 2020. Winning the trio of battleground states will be crucial for Harris and Walz as they look to deny Trump a second term in November.

While Democrats have responded with enthusiasm to Walz's selection, he has come under scrutiny for his military record. The Minnesota governor served honorably in the Nebraska and Minnesota Army National Guards for 24 years, but questions have been raised by conservatives about the last days of his service, namely his rank and if he retired to avoid a deployment to Iraq in 2005.

Walz achieved the rank of command sergeant major but was reduced in rank to master sergeant after his retirement because he hadn't finished coursework for the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, according to a CBS News review of Walz's record and statements from the Minnesota Army National Guard.

Records also show Walz retired before his battalion mobilized and deployed to Iraq. He deployed in 2003 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, before returning to Minnesota in 2004. The Minnesota Army National Guard said the governor retired in 2005.

Republicans, including Vance, have also accused Walz of lying about having children through in vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment that gained considerable attention after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law.

Walz has said he and his wife underwent fertility treatments for seven years before Gwen Walz became pregnant with their daughter, Hope, and he spoke about their experience in his first appearance on the campaign trail as Harris' running mate. The Harris campaign also said in a statement that the Walzes had their daughter "through reproductive health care like IVF."

But the couple is now facing criticism after Gwen Walz revealed this week she underwent intrauterine insemination, or IUI, a process different from IVF.

Walz spoke at the convention of his family's experience with infertility and decision to turn to fertility treatments, saying it underscores the role freedom plays in the upcoming election.

"When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And, yeah, your kids' freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall," he said.

James LaPorta contributed to this report.

• Kamala Harris
• Democratic Party
• Democratic National Convention
• 2024 Elections

Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.

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Kamala Harris DNC acceptance speech FREE live stream: How to watch today

• Updated: Aug. 22, 2024, 11:58 p.m.
• | Published: Aug. 22, 2024, 4:03 p.m.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will end the Democratic National Convention with her acceptance speech Thursday, Aug. 22. Find out how you can watch the speech if you don't have cable. Here, Harris speaks during the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, United States on August 19, 2024. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images) Jacek Boczarski/Getty Images

• Kaylee Remington, cleveland.com

CHICAGO, Illinois -- Vice President Kamala Harris will conclude the Democratic National Convention with a speech to formally accept the presidential nomination for the 2024 election today, Thursday, Aug. 22. Harris will speak at the convention, which is being held at the United Center in Chicago.

Harris’ speech will broadcast on channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and more. If you cut the cord on cable, you can watch the speech for free thanks to streaming services that have free trials, including Philo , FuboTV and DirecTV Stream . You can also try Sling , which offers promotional offers for first-time customers.

Harris will be the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to accept a party’s U.S. presidential nomination.

DNC officials have not put exact times on speakers during this week’s convention, but the final speaker of each night, which will be Harris tonight, generally has taken the stage around 10 p.m. Eastern.

Harris speaks after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her chosen running mate, spoke to the convention crowd Wednesday.

Others who have spoken during the DNC include Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton and more.

Here is more information on the streaming service options available to watch Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech:

Philo charges users $28 a month and has more than 60 channels to choose from which include AMC, Comedy Central, Discovery, History Channel, Lifetime, TLC, MTV, USA Today, VH1 and more. The service offers live TV and on-demand content. With Philo, you can stream all your favorite shows, movies, and so much more across all your devices. You can stream the speech on USA Today.

FuboTV users can enjoy a whole library of TV shows, live sports events, movies and more. It offers cloud DVR and live news and entertainment channels. You can get the Pro plan for $79.99; the Elite plan for $89.99; the Premier plan for $99.99; or the Latino plan for $32.99.

DirecTV Stream offers three packages after you’ve tried out the free trial: Entertainment for $84.99; Choice for $98.99; and Ultimate for $109.99. It is a no-term commitment service where you can enjoy live TV and on-demand local and national channels without having to commit to a contract.

Kaylee Remington is the shopping and entertainment commerce reporter and metro reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read her work online .

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OpenLearn: free short online courses from the Open University

Want a quick learning hit or to explore a subject in more depth? OpenLearn offers you the chance to try things out and learn for free. We spoke to OpenLearn's Simon Budgen to find out more.

Can you tell us a bit about OpenLearn?

It’s the home of free learning from The Open University (OU) – a website offering thousands of free learning opportunities, ready whenever you you are.

What’s the idea behind OpenLearn?

The Open University has always been passionate about providing educational opportunities that reach beyond our students. OpenLearn is part of that. We release a chunk of every OU course, for free, on the site; and we also publish a range of shorter pieces – articles, games, videos and more – for people looking for a quicker hit of learning.

Who is it for?

We’ve a wide mix of levels of material – so if you’re just getting started with Chinese, or want some quick help with maths, we’ve got you covered. But if you’re more confident, we’ve got something that can stretch you. Everything’s clearly signposted to help you quickly find what’s right for you.

So you don’t need a string of qualifications to get started?

Not at all. You can pick something, and get started. If it works for you, great. If not, and you want to try something to sharpen your basic skills, or to give you a bit more of a challenge, you can just move on. It’s all free, so you’ve nothing to lose by trying things out.

What sort of subjects do you offer?

Our offering comes from right across the university – science, engineering, languages; arts; psychology – and areas like business skills, law and healthcare and wellness.

How does it work?

You can start straight away; but if you choose one of our free courses, and you want to track your progress, you can create a free account.

Do you have to complete courses in a certain amount of time?

Not at all – there’s guidelines as to how long you might expect something to take you, and for longer courses suggested chunks you might want to space out over a few weeks, but there’s no deadlines: you can go as quickly or slowly as works for you.

Can you get qualifications?

If you choose to create an account, you can download a certificate to prove what you’ve studied – and on an increasing number of our courses, completing a short quiz will earn you a ‘badge’, a digital marker than allows you to easily share what you know. We don’t offer formal qualifications, but if you want to take your learning to the next level with formal qualifications, we can point you in the right direction.

How can it help with making career decisions?

Because everything’s free, and you’re free to try bits of everything, you might discover skills you didn’t know you had, or interests you hadn’t sparked before. You may also find out that something you thought was a passion doesn’t sustain your attention at all. You can try subjects that you avoided at school, or ones that didn’t make sense at the time – a different approach may unlock their mysteries.

And if you’re thinking you might like to try your hand at running your own business, there’s a whole collection of business skills support and advice which can give you a chance to try your hand at bookkeeping, marketing and more.

Find out more

Take a look at OpenLearn

You may also like

How to start thinking about your career

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From personal careers advice to finding work, see our round-up of useful websites to help you on your way

Explore more:

Fact-Checking Biden’s Speech and More: Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention

We followed the developments and fact-checked the speakers, providing context and explanation.

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President Biden praised his administration’s accomplishments and declared his vice president a worthy successor on the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday.

Mr. Biden’s speech capped a night in which Democratic lawmakers and party stalwarts praised Vice President Kamala Harris, warned repeatedly that former President Donald J. Trump was unfit for office and celebrated Mr. Biden’s legacy.

Here’s a look at some of their claims.

“While schools closed and dead bodies filled morgues, Donald Trump downplayed the virus. He told us to inject bleach into our bodies. He peddled conspiracy theories across the country. We lost hundreds of thousands of Americans, and our economy collapsed.”

— Representative Robert Garcia of California

This is exaggerated.

Mr. Trump’s comments, in April 2020, about the efficacy of disinfectants and light as treatments for the coronavirus elicited uproar and confusion . He did not literally instruct people to inject bleach, but raised the suggestion as an “interesting” concept to test out.

At the April 2020 news conference , a member of Mr. Trump’s coronavirus task force said that the virus dies under direct sunlight and that applying bleach in indoor spaces kills the virus in five minutes and isopropyl alcohol does so in 30 seconds.

Mr. Trump responded: “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too.”

He added: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

Jeanna Smialek

“Trump talks big about bringing back manufacturing jobs, but you know who actually did it? President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.”

— Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York

This needs context .

It is true that manufacturing employment is up sharply under the Biden administration, but much of the gains are simply a recovery from job losses early in the coronavirus pandemic. Manufacturing employment is just slightly above its 2019 level. And factory employment also climbed somewhat from when Donald J. Trump took office in early 2017 and the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

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“Thanks to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we reopened our schools.”

— Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina

This needs context.

President Donald J. Trump and President Biden took different approaches to school reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic, with Mr. Trump encouraging schools to stay open and Mr. Biden emphasizing the need to contain the virus before reopening classroom doors. While they could signal policy preferences, developments in how the virus spread and how states and school districts reacted were sometimes out of their control.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned schools to prepare for disruption in February 2020, and a high school in Washington State became the first to close its doors that month . More schools across the country followed in adopting online instruction, but by the fall of 2020, some schools — often in states with Republican governors — returned to in-person instruction.

One audit found that by the fall of 2020 more schools had reverted to a traditional or hybrid model than remained virtual. A C.D.C. study found that school closures peaked in 2021, under the Biden administration, when the Omicron variant spread. By the fall of 2021, though, 98 percent of public schools were offering in-person instruction full time, according to the Education Department .

“Donald Trump wants to put our 1787 constitution through his Project 2025 paper shredder.”

— Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas

Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals assembled by a Washington think tank for a Republican presidential administration, does not directly come from Mr. Trump or his campaign.

Still, CNN documented instances where 140 people who worked for the Trump administration had a role in Project 2025. Some were top advisers to Mr. Trump in his first term and a re all but certain to step into prominent posts should he win a second term.

Mr. Trump has also supported some of the proposals, with even some overlap between Project 2025 and his own campaign plans. Among the similarities: undercutting the independence of the Justice Department and pressing to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs. And he enacted other initiatives mentioned in Project 2025 in his first term, such as levying tariffs on China and making it easier to fire federal workers.

But Mr. Trump has criticized some elements as “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” though he has not specified which proposals he opposes. When the director of the project departed the think tank, Mr. Trump’s campaign released a statement that stated: “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”

“JD Vance says women should stay in violent marriages and pregnancies resulting from rape are simply inconvenient.”

— Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky

Mr. Beshear was referring to comments Mr. Vance made during his 2022 campaign for Senate. Mr. Vance has rejected such interpretations.

In remarks to a Christian high school in California in September 2021, Mr. Vance spoke of his grandparents’ marriage, which he described in his memoir as violent.

“This is one of the great tricks that I think the sexual revolution pulled on the American populace, which is the idea that like, ‘Well, OK, these marriages were fundamentally, you know, they were maybe even violent, but certainly they were unhappy. And so getting rid of them and making it easier for people to shift spouses like they change their underwear, that’s going to make people happier in the long term,” he said .

Asked by Vice News about his remarks in 2022, Mr. Vance said, “Any fair person would recognize I was criticizing the progressive frame on this issue, not embracing it.”

He also told Fox News that Democrats had “twisted my words here” and that “it’s not what I believe, it’s not what I said.”

And regarding pregnancies resulting from rape, Mr. Vance told Fox News that he was criticizing the view that such pregnancies are “inconvenient.”

In a 2021 interview , Mr. Vance was asked whether abortion bans should have exceptions for rape or incest. He responded, “At the end of the day, we’re talking about an unborn baby. What kind of society do we want to have? A society that looks at unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?”

“Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes will pay $35 a month.”

— President Biden

Mr. Biden signed a law that places a cap of $35 a month on insulin for all Medicare Part D beneficiaries. But he is overstating the average cost before the law.

Patients’ out-of-pocket spending on insulin was $434 on average for all of 2019 — not per month — and $449 per year for Medicare enrollees, according to the Health and Human Services Department .

“The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years.”

As a percentage of wealth held by white families, Black and Latino families did grow to the largest amounts in 2022 in two decades. But the disparity in absolute dollar value actually increased.

“He called them ‘suckers and losers.’”

The claim that, as president, Donald J. Trump called veterans “suckers” and “losers” stems from a 2020 article in The Atlantic about his relationship to the military.

The article relied on anonymous sources, but many of the accounts have been corroborated by other outlets, including The New York Times, and by John F. Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who served as Mr. Trump’s White House chief of staff. Mr. Trump has emphatically denied making the remarks since the article was published. Here’s a breakdown .

“Trump wants to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

This is misleading..

Mr. Trump has said repeatedly during his 2024 presidential campaign that he would not cut Social Security or Medicare, though he had previously shown brief and vague support for such proposals.

Asked about his position on the programs in relation to the national debt, Mr. Trump told CNBC in March, “There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements.”

But Mr. Trump and his campaign clarified that he would not seek to cut the programs. Mr. Trump told the website Breitbart , “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare.” And during a July rally in Minnesota, he again vowed, “I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare, and I will not raise the retirement age by one day, not by one day.”

Still, Mr. Trump has not outlined a clear plan for keeping the programs solvent. During his time in office, Mr. Trump did propose some cuts to Medicare — though experts said the cost reductions would not have significantly affected benefits — and to Social Security’s programs for people with disabilities. They were not enacted by Congress.

“He created the largest debt any president had in four years with his two trillion dollars tax cut for the wealthy.”

Looking at a single presidential term, Donald J. Trump’s administration did rack up more debt than any other in raw dollars — about $7.9 trillion . But the debt rose more under President Barack Obama’s eight years than under Mr. Trump’s four years. Also, when viewed as a percentage increase, the national debt rose more under President George H.W. Bush’s single term than under Mr. Trump’s.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that Mr. Trump’s tax cuts — which passed in December 2017 with no Democrats in support — roughly added another $1 trillion to the federal deficit from 2018 to 2021, even after factoring in economic growth spurred by the tax cuts. But other drivers of the deficit include several sweeping measures that had bipartisan approval. The first coronavirus stimulus package , which received near unanimous support in Congress, added $2 trillion to the deficit over the next two fiscal years. Three additional spending measures contending with the coronavirus pandemic and its economic ramifications added another $1.4 trillion.

It is also important to note that presidents do not hold unilateral responsibility for the debt increase under their time in office. Policies from previous administrations — and programs such as Social Security and Medicare — continue to drive up debt, as do unexpected circumstances.

Communication and Speech Studies

Public speaking and communication free and open textbooks and courses, introduction.

Thank you for joining in the effort to explore OER communication and public speaking materials for your courses! We hope the following resources and ideas will help you in your own efforts to adopt or adapt OER for your courses.

Open Courses

Explore the courses.  They are free and open.  Mix and match to fulfill the needs of your own course.

• Description : A Lumen Course that describes it’s desired result as: “Our goal in this text is to introduce you to the field of Communication as an academic discipline of study.
• Description :The course is an introduction to the preparation and delivery of oral presentations. Emphasis is on ethical research, critical and logical analysis, and organization of informative and persuasive presentations.
• Description :Assists students in developing oral communication skills. Classroom practice, the Internet, e-mail, community interactions, and other resources support learning and yield enhanced confidence and competence.
• Description :The purpose of this course is to systematically examine the elements and factors which result in an effective speech.  The textbook and associated lectures present an element-by-element examination of the essentials of public speaking while also identifying traits of the individual speaker and how they impact preparation and presentation.  In addition to these resources, a comprehensive series of brief videos demonstrate specific, performance-oriented aspects of public speaking.  Tying each of these course elements together are the themes of information and ethics, emphasized in each resource because they are becoming increasingly important to all communicators. 
• Description : This free course, Diversity and difference in communication, explores the ways in which difference and diversity impact on the nature of communication in health and social care services.
• Description:We live in an increasingly globalized world. Technology enables us to do business just as easily with our neighbors as with a businessperson thousands of miles away from us. Knowing how to navigate cultural differences is an increasingly valuable skill that will make you a more valuable employee. Encounters among members of different cultures frequently fail simply because of basic cultural differences, such as the importance of time, proper greetings, or even the use of eye contact. This course is designed to help you identify how to become a better communicator in these sorts of cross-cultural situations. You will learn about barriers to successful communication that involve cultural differences. You will also learn more about your own communication style and how it can be developed to facilitate more successful intercultural encounters. 
• Description :This course assists students in developing oral communication skills. Students will be able to speak effectively and comfortably to audiences; explain the nature, value, and requirements of effective public speaking; speak effectively to groups in an academic environment; speak effectively to groups in a non-academic environment; apply principles of cultural diversity to public speaking; and, employ effective information literacy techniques in public speaking.Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl
• Description :This free course, From sound to meaning: hearing, speech and language, looks at how language is understood by taking an interdisciplinary approach.
• Description :This free course will enable you to relate what you read to your own sensory experiences and indeed many of the questions asked have exactly that function. This course will be best understood by those with some biological understanding.
• Description :This free course, Key skill assessment: Communication, will help you recognize your strengths as well as the areas where you could improve. In developing and assessing your communication skills, you will learn to recognize, adapt and use your skills confidently and effectively in different situations and contexts.
• Description :This course provides learners with the foundational knowledge for caring and professional communication in nursing. It uses an experiential and self-reflective approach to develop self-awareness and interpersonal communication skills in the context of safe, competent and collaborative nursing practice. Communication theory, the nurse-client relationship, therapeutic communication, cross-cultural communication, effective teamwork and learning and teaching concepts will be covered.

The following courses have free content but are not openly licensed

• Description :This course gives you a reliable model for preparing and delivering effective presentations.
• Description :In this course, we look at how and why communication evolved as a science and reflect on today’s dominant paradigms. The course also extends beyond the boundaries of communication science itself, exploring dimensions of history, sociology and psychology.

Free Open Textbooks

The following are openly licensed textbooks. , you can explore the different content and use what you need.  , **please note that there may not be one textbook that meets all of your course needs.  one of the benefits of using open educational resources is the ability to use content from a variety of sources without the cost of a variety of textbooks**.

Stand Up-Speak, The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking

Description : From audience analysis to giving a presentation,  Stand Up, Speak Out: The Practice and Ethics of Public Speaking  will guide students through the speech-making process. We believe that it is important to focus on the practical process of speech making because we want this book to be a user-friendly guide to creating, researching, and presenting public speeches. While both classic and current academic research in public speaking will guide the book, we do not want to lose the focus of helping students become more seasoned and polished public speakers. We believe that a new textbook in public speaking should first, and foremost, be a practical book that helps students prepare and deliver a variety of different types of speeches.

Communication in the Real World:An Introduction to Communication Studies

Description:   Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies  overviews the time-tested conceptual foundations of the field, while incorporating the latest research and cutting-edge applications of these basics. Each chapter will include timely, concrete, and real-life examples of communication concepts in action.

A key feature of this book is the integration of content regarding diversity and organizational communication in each chapter through examples and/or discrete sub-sections. Discussions of diversity are not relegated to feature boxes. Also integrated into the content are examples that are inclusive in terms of race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, marital status, religion, and other diverse identity characteristics.

The Public Speaking Project

Description: Welcome to The Public Speaking Project! This website offers an assortment of virtual tools to help users improve their public speaking skills. A variety of speech professionals who are dedicated to providing free and low cost instructional materials contributed their original work. The project is growing and we will be adding and updating the content regularly.

Business Communication for Success

Description:  Business Communication for Success  (BCS) provides a comprehensive, integrated approach to the study and application of written and oral business communication to serve both student and professor.

Communication Theory Wikibooks

Description:  This book is an introduction to communication theory — the theory of how humans share, encode, and decode what they know, what they need, and what they expect from each other.

Survey of Communication Study-Wiki Books

Description: This text offers the opportunity to introduce people to Communication as an academic field of study. We have broken the book into two parts. First, we lay the foundation by covering the scope of communication study, its history, as well as a brief introduction to theories and research methods. Second, we provide chapters that survey many of the areas of specialization practiced in the field of Communication today.

Communications -Boundless

Description:  Boundless improves education for millions of students and educators through educational resources powered by cloud technology. With content created by a community of educators, who work side-by-side with subject-matter experts, Boundless provides ready-to-use online content, study materials, and assessment items to make teaching more efficient and learning more effective.

18 chapters dedicated to preparing students for a variety of different public speaking situations.

Foundations of Professional Communication (contains 4 modules and instructor resources)

Click HERE for information about the resource and modules

Description:

This OER comprises a series of modules covering the following:

• Foundations of Communication
• Communicating in Writing
• Communicating via Presentations
• Interpersonal Communication

You can download the  full eText  (a file containing Parts 1 through 4), or download each module’s eText individually.

Development Communication Sourcebook : Broadening the Boundaries of Communication-This Sourcebook illustrates how the emerging paradigm in development communication, focused on participation and two-way communication, constitutes a necessary element in order to avoid the mistakes of the past. It makes the case about the importance of incorporating communication practices into the policies and practices of development. It intends also to offer a broader conception of communication that would take into account other purposes and functions than the usual ones. The study claims that communication is not only about raising awareness, informing, persuading, or changing behavior. It is also about listening, exploring, understanding, empowering, and building consensus for change. This should resonate loud and clear for the reader. Two-way communication used to understand, assess, explore, and facilitate decision making related to change, combined with the effective use of one-way communication approaches, has been proven to significantly enhance results and the sustainability of development initiatives. This Sourcebook is intended to provide a small contribution in further promoting the understanding and subsequent adoption of such practices, in any sector of intervention. To sum up, these are the two key messages of this publication: (1) two-way communication, when used from the onset of a development initiative, is not only a useful but also a necessary ingredient to enhance development initiatives and avoid the failures of the past, and (2) two-way communication should be applied professionally by specialists familiar with the rich body of knowledge and the diverse range of methods, techniques, and tools of development communication.

Instructor Materials

Foundations of Communication Lecture Notes

Line B: Employability Skills Competency B-3: Use Interpersonal Communication Skills

Description:  No matter what your job is, you will need to communicate with other people. Your communication skills determine how successfully you receive and transmit information. Communication is arguably the most important of all life skills and plays a significant role in all aspects of work and home life. Communication is verbal, written, and non-verbal, and every gesture, voice inflection, or facial movement speaks volumes and conveys information to others. An effective communicator is also an active listener. Employers actively seek out Individuals who are good communicators. The following list of lines and competencies was generated with the goal of creating an entry-level trades training resource, while still offering the flexibility for lines to be used as stand-alone books. Line B – Employability Skills. B-1 Apply Study and Learning Skills, B-2 Describe Expectations and Responsibilities of Employers and Employees, B-3 Use Interpersonal Communication Skills

Communication Skills for Personal and Professional Development :The Seven Challenges Approach

Click HERE for license and attribution information

Description: Searching for what is most important. This workbook proposes seven ways to guide your conversations in directions that are more satisfying for both you and your conversation partners.

Exploring Public Speaking  (Communication Open Textbooks-Galilleo)

Description: In fifteen chapters the authors have attempted to address all the major concerns, issues, and material that an introductory, freshmen-level public speaking course involves. Beginning with the value of public speaking to one’s life and overcoming public speaking anxiety, the subsequent chapters cover listening and audience analysis; plagiarism and ethics; invention and thesis development; research; organization; introductions, conclusions, and transitions; supporting material; delivery; visual aids; language choices; informative speaking; persuasive speaking; logic and fallacies; and special occasion speeches. The book was written with students in the open access college and with diversity in mind.

Communication Skills (OER Africa-Chapter on Effective Listening

Description:  The chapters in this text include: Orientation to the Text,  Study Skills, How to use the Library, Listening Skills, Reading Skills, Writing Skills and Examination Skills

Logical Reasoning – The goal of this book is to improve your logical-reasoning skills. These skills are also called “critical thinking skills.” 

Introduction to Group Communication

Description: Exploring Group Communication  offers a practical introduction to the theory and practice of group communication, with an emphasis on real world applications to develop an awareness, understanding, and skills to effectively participate as a productive group member. Through a clear and concise approach to group decision-making and dynamics in teams and leadership, students are presented with the tools needed to create plans, find solutions to problems, produce goods or deliver services, and evaluate their performance through self and peer assessments.

Introduction to Organizational Communication

Description:This book will examine both the historic and modern theories of organizational communication.

Media Studies 101 (Some Information on Intercultural Communication)

Description: O pen educational resource for media studies studies. Each section builds on and refers back to previous sections to build up your knowledge and skills.

How Language Works:The Cognitive Science of Linguistics

License: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 .

Description:  This OER comprises a series of chapters covering the following: How and why we study language, word meaning, word units, word forms, combining words and sentences and grammatical categories.

Critical Theory of Communication-Christian Fuchs

Description:  Critical Theory of Communication offers a vital set of new insights on how communication operates in the age of information, digital media and social media.This book contributes to the foundations of a critical theory of communication as shaped by the forces of digital capitalism. 

Human Relations (Communication and Group Communication Information)

Description:  Knowing how to get along with others, resolve workplace conflict, manage relationships, communicate well, and make good decisions are all critical emotional intelligence skills students need to succeed in career and in life. Our Human Relations book will address all of the critical topics to obtain career success. The core concept in the book is emotional intelligence and how these skills carry over into career success, such as through ethics, communication, diversity, teamwork, conflict, good decision making, stress management, motivation, and leadership.

The Power of Selling (Chapter on Effective Communication)

Description: Interactive textbook written by a team of sales professionals.  Chapter 6 titled “The Power of Effective Communication” with the following learning objectives:

1. Understand the elements of effective business communication. 2. Recognize the implications of different types of verbal and nonverbal communication. 3. Learn how your dress communicates in an interview and the workplace. 4. Discuss how technology tools can help a salesperson manage customer relationships.

How to Communicate as a Health Volunteer

Description:  Mr. Daniel Erchick of Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering wrote this module. It prepares students to communicate during their internships in developing countries as health volunteers in clinical settings.

Mediated Communication Open Textbooks

Understanding Media and Culture 

Description: This book’s title tells its intent. It is written to help you understand media and culture. The text explores communication through a variety of media.

Culture and Media

• Image of microphone. Authored by : Kai Oberhauser. Located at : https://unsplash.com/search/mic?photo=V3vpxNUgheU . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved

Privacy Policy

• Edit source

Template:Cleanup OpenLearn is the UK Open University's contribution to the Open Educational Resources (OER) project. It is part-funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation [1] .

The Open University launched the OpenLearn website in October 2006 to provide free access to its educational materials throughout the world. The publication of such structured learning materials, designed for distance learning, is unique in the field of open educational resources.

Open Education materials make three contributions. They make new knowledge available to all, not just the few who can pay for it. They allow users to download, modify, translate, and adapt to their culture the material to enhance its usefulness. They provide the opportunity for people to work together to co-modify, co-produce, test, and again co-produce and retest derivative material which generates a cycle of rapid continuous improvement. Using technology Open Educational Resources aim to remove access barriers to knowledge and educational opportunities around the world.

Through the Moodle-based virtual learning environment learners are offered over 400 structured media-rich study units, supported by a number of learning and communication tools in the LearningSpace. Presence aware instant messaging, video conferencing, video blogging and forums enable the formation of communities of learners around thousands of study hours of learning materials. Personal profiles, learning journals and rating options empower learners to become self publishers and reviewers, tagging their entries to provide a means by which others can find and connect with their ideas. Knowledge mapping software enables learners to visually represent resources and the links between them, to construct arguments and frame debates. By publishing their work online, they share their own pathways through the material with other visitors to the website.

The OpenLearn website provides a standalone experience for the learner, but is also one that can be taken apart and remixed to take on a new form. The Web 2.0 approach to an open and collaborative LearningSpace primarily for learners, is complemented by the LabSpace, an area for experimentation, where educational practitioners are encouraged to download, amend and adapt both current and archived course materials. Published under a Attribution-ShareAlike-NonCommercial Creative Commons license, the Open University media-rich materials can be reused in alternative educational settings, repurposed for a local context, translated and built upon to form a larger open repository of derivative educational materials. Collaborators are encouraged to form their own areas within the LabSpace to personalise the materials, increasing the relevance of the content for specific learning communities and to test out course ideas and develop materials based on user feedback.

OpenLearn enables viral content not just through its licensing model, but also through a commitment to open technologies. The use of an open source virtual learning environment, along with the ability for people to download and upload materials in various formats – from RSS to print to IMS Common Cartridge - encourages replication of the content and enables interoperability with other provider’s content management systems. Innovators have already re-published OpenLearn materials in new environments by implementing a variety of freely available technologies. The materials have been replicated in offline desktop libraries to provide access for remote communities around the world. RSS feeds enable the content to be easily embedded in web based widgets and RSS readers, allowing the engagement with the content to happen away from OpenLearn.

By the end of the first phase of funding, 30/04/08, OpenLearn was hosting over five thousand hours of core OU materials and additional user generated content in the LabSpace area of the site.

OpenLearn is a member of the Open Courseware Consortium (OCW) [2]

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An introduction to electronics

The Open University via OpenLearn Help

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1 Electronics everywhere
• 1.1 Autonomous systems
• 1.2 The sensing–logic–actuation cycle in practice
• 2 Basic theory of electrical circuits
• 2.1  Basic electrical quantities
• 2.2  Relationships between quantities
• 2.3 Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff ’s laws
• Kirchhoff ’s laws
• Series and parallel networks (combining the laws)
• 2.4 Colour coding and standard resistor values
• 3 Some fundamental circuits
• 3.1 Voltage dividers
• 3.2 The Wheatstone bridge
• 3.3  Operational amplifier circuits
• 3.4  Designing a sensor circuit
• 4  Signals and signal processing
• 4.1  High-fidelity sound reproduction and electronics
• 4.2  Recording sounds
• 4.3  Recording and analysing speech
• 4.4  Signals and sine waves
• 4.5  Making signals from combinations of sine waves
• The square wave challenge
• 4.6  From the time domain to the frequency domain
• 4.7  Signals and noise
• 4.8  Filtering
• 4.9  Amplifying signals
• Acknowledgements
• united kingdom

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5.0 rating, based on 2 Class Central reviews

4.4 rating at OpenLearn based on 34 ratings

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• Pushan Bhattacharya 2 months ago It was highly interactive course. As a student who just completed his 1st year B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, this course was a breath of fresh air, as it followed a different path of teaching, swaying from the traditional way of how courses are made. i found the audio interactive sessions really interesting, as it was highly interactive, and made the course more interesting. Apart from this, gaining more knowledge on amplifiers and other circuits was really great too. an overall great course, and highly recommended. Helpful
• Chinmay Pawar 1 year ago This course helps me alot to enhance my skills in electronics.It is a very good course available on openlearn.This course contains all the basic concepts like Ohm's law and kirchoff's law Helpful

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