User:James Neill/Moodleposium/2009/Price

Moodle at the OU

The Open University (UK)

The Open University (UK) - 40 years old; only educational institution across 4 countries (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland)

• Open to people
  • No prereq/entry requirements
  • But there are exit requirments
• Open to places
  • Can study whether they happen to be
• Open to methods
  • Using whatever approaches/technology/pedagogy will help to deliver effectively
• Open ideas
  • Research-institution (top 50 in UK)
  • Researching own pedgagogy is essential

JN note: This seems to be institutional-emodiment of flexible learning.

Scope

• 220,000 students
• 1200+ academics: Develop materials
• 8,000 associate lectures/'tutors': Face-to-face and online contact with students, marking etc.
• Technologies are central to what we do
• International reputation for quality
• International research profile
• International partners

KP indicated separation of material development and material delivery (separately bundled) is somewhat problematic - OU wants to bring the designers closer to the students.

JN: Comment; surprising separation by OU; maybe its a legacy of the British class thing?