h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I could have a crack at the Open University.

Due to its nature, I rarely get to meet people from other faculties (i.e. not Mathematics), so I would particularly welcome experiences from researchers who have studied Arts and Social Sciences, and from those who have attended the infamous Summer Schools.

Also, experiences of graduation, as I haven't yet, and won't for some time.

Great - this is a really interesting one, Icy, as the experience of Open University students is so different. It must take loads of motivation to study relatively independently.

Some facts to start off:

Founded: 1969.

Website: http://www.open.ac.uk/

It has an extensive and very glamorous list of famous alumni, including actresses Julie Christie, Sheila Hancock, Susan Tully and Connie Booth, singer Joan Armatrading, former Monkee Micky Dolenz, Matthew Kelly, Jerry Hall, cricketer Vikram Solanki, football managers Dave Sexton and Craig Brown as well as a head of state! (Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia).

Thanks Natalie. I've got student access to open.ac.uk of course, as well as access to the student forums there.

The things I find fascinating about it is how Harold Wilson set it up (I believe his son is still there in charge of one of the faculties).

Then there's the stereotype OU hippy lecturers on the 1970's TV broadcasts.

The BBC & OU now work in partnership with the TV shows - think of series like "Life in the Undergrowth" and "Coast" for example.

Nowadays many of the students are senior citizens, but there's also a rapidly-growing number of young students. It's possibly the only way to get a degree without running up debt.

I've done an open university course on introducing astronomy which was shockingly easy, and so i had no contact with my tutor or anything. only a small course, so i'm afraid i'm not helping much. sorry

Yes, I've heard those new short courses are easy. Did it make you want to carry on with the meaty stuff?

I did my MA through the Open University (anyone would think I was addicted to Higher Education ). I did literature, specialising in the eighteenth century novel. The course material is great, and the tutors very supportive. At first it is odd studying on your own, but I soon found that I grew accustomed to it. My experience of tutorials varied:

- in my first year, the tutorials were in Croydon on a Saturday, so I managed to make most of them, and it was very useful to hear what other people thought of the texts and theories.

- in my second year, they were in central London on a weekday evening, and I found travel very difficult, so only made one. The tutor always sent out notes from the tutorials to everyone, which was helpful, and she kept in contact via telephone as well.

- my third year was dissertation year, and my tutor was based in the far northern reaches of England, so I never met her. We had scheduled telephone tutorials, which worked fairly well. Lots of e-mailing of dissertation chapters!

I didn't attend graduation, as I thought 'been there, done that' (you can't beat Canterbury cathedral as a location), so can't help there.

Thanks David!

I'll try and work some of that in - particularly how the tutors and tutorial locations get more remote as you progress. This year I've been scheduled Saturday tutorials in Croydon too, and I've been trying to find some more accessible ones.

I understand tutors are often assigned students from overseas, or in prison. (Are there any OU tutors reading this? I'd be interested to know what it's like)

Icy

The increasing remoteness is fairly inevitable, particularly with the MA course. The first year, everyone does the same module, so they can have lots of relatively local tutorial groups. In the second year, there was a choice of three modules, therefore less groups per subject area, and more likely to be widely spaced. And in the third year, you dissertate, and you are assigned a tutor who has research interests which most closely match your chosen subject area.

I like the mix of people from the tutorial groups (though mine were always very female-dominated). Great mix of ages, backgrounds etc., which leads to more interesting debates in the tutorial and in the pub afterwards!

Surprised no-one pointed this out already, but there already is an OU Edited Entry here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A592490

So there is! It's pretty good too.

I wouldn't have written it in that style. The only draft section I've written so far reads:

<>


I'll call it a halt for now. Could the editors please advise?

Would have been an excellent start, Icy.

'Educating Rita' is the only take I have on the OU. I wonder how realistic it was.....

Now, that's my fault - I think it proves I need to go in and have a look at the categorisation system, as I also left Bristol off the 'universities with Entries' list! Many apologies for that.

It looks to me as if we have potential for an entirely different Entry here. The existing Entry seems to be a good practical guide on how the programme of study works, whereas you have offered a lot of different info - how about you turn that into a I think you have offered loads of good stuff that could form the basis for a History of the OU - how does that sound, Icy? The existing Entry was written in 2001, so there's the possibility some things have changed since then.

Oh...I'm reminded of the old A Bit of Fry and Laurie sketch about an OU 'blooper' - love the kipper tie years!

Thanks very much, all.

Thanks Natalie.

I originally planned to cover a similar scope to the other university entries, it's just that the OU has some very interesting history involved, and I wanted to weave some of it in to make the article more readable.

I agree the history of the OU would make an interesting entry. I might need to find some better resources on this. I'll see what's out there first. If anyone reading this has any ideas, please let me know!

If the OU has changed in the last 5 years, it's in things like TV broadcasts, delivery of material, and the portfolio of courses offered. The existing entry is good and factual. A few minor updates could be made, so I'll have a think about that as well. I think the original article's author is still with us, isn't he/she?

Thanks very much, Icy. I think it'd be a really good Entry in its own right.

I don't know if he's a long-time lurker, but the author of the original Entry hasn't posted since January 2002.