What is Oxplore?
Discover what we offer and how our website can support you and the people you know.
About us
Oxplore is a website created by the University of Oxford for those aged 11-18 and the teachers who support them. It's full of what we call Big Questions: open-ended questions that take you beyond the school curriculum into the ideas explored at university.
There's no single right answer here. Every big question is a chance to explore big ideas, weigh up the evidence and make up your own mind. Everything you see is underpinned by academic research so you can challenge your thinking on the things you've always wondered.
What you'll find
Independent study: Each Big Question comes with resources you can explore at your own pace, including fun activities and articles that challenge your thinking. Jump in for a quick look or dive deeper for a more detailed one. Along the way, you'll practise the skills that matter at university and beyond. It's independent study that doesn’t feel like homework!
Classroom resources: For the classroom, Oxplore Challenges are ready-to-use, teacher-led enrichment activities that take 10 or 45 minutes. They're made for learners of mixed attainment levels and need minimal preparation, so they fit easily into tutor time, enrichment days or lessons.
The skills we focus on: Whether you’re exploring independently or working through a challenge, you’ll practice three skills that matter at university and beyond: academic curiosity, critical thinking and oracy. In other words, being curious, thinking deeply and speaking up.
Join in
Register for a free Oxplore account to collect badges, watch live streams and enter our competitions.
For teachers
Alongside Oxplore Challenges, our free e-learning modules offer flexible, bite sized professional development for teachers, teaching assistants, tutors and activity leaders. They cover practical research-informed topics such as oracy and academic self-concept, so you can build them into your practice at your own pace.
Why we call it CPDL: We refer to our modules as CPDL (Continuing Professional Development and Learning) because we focus on how research translates into classroom practice and learning (Cordingley, 2015). Rather than just sharing information, each module synthesises key published research into practical insights that support student attainment. Use them to gain actionable strategies, develop a broad understanding of current research, or as a springboard into full academic papers.
