Full Description
Still going strong today, The Open University, Britain's national correspondence - TV - radio University, excited much controversy when it first opened and in 1973 awarded its first degrees. With its adult, part-time students, its freedom from formal entrance qualifications, it deliberately questioned many orthodoxies of higher education at the time. Yet the OU differed so much from other universities that few outsiders grasped quite how complex, quite how revolutionary, quite how downright infuriating the OU was, or could be.Originally published in 1974, this book gives a first-hand account of what the OU was about and what it felt like to be an OU student or lecturer. The articles in the collection - edited by Jeremy Tunstall, himself on the OU staff - include contributions from outside observers, from OU staff, and from OU students. This is an unofficial yet informed and lively account of what it felt like in 1974, and what it felt like in the early days, to be part of a project so controversial and progressive.
Contents
Introduction Jeremy Tunstall Part I: Interim History 1. An Interim History of the Open University Brian MacArthur Part II: Implications 2. The Economic Implications Leslie Wagner 3. The Seeds of Radical Change Willem van der Eyken 4. A View from New England Norman Birnbaum Part III: The Students and the System 5. Admissions Policy Ray Thomas 6. The OU Student Naomi McIntosh 7. The OU in the South-West Dudley Buckingham 8. Evaluation for the OU David Hawkridge 9. Accounting for Themselves Jennifer Rogers Part IV: Some Students 10. Welsh Hill Farmer J. Elwyn Hughes 11. Secretary Valerie Saunders 12. My Hobby Michael Gardner 13. Married Couple Stan and Dinah Penman 14. Housewife with Five Children Jill MacKean 15. Local Councillor Elizabeth Murphy 16. Music Teacher Millicent Sherwood 17. Older Student Arthur McTaggart-Short 18. Perpetual Student J. Philpott 19. Factory Worker Tom Wellman 20. Insurance Manager Jack Mainwaring 21. Remote Student Barbara Abraham Part V: Teachers and Courses 22. Divide and Teach: The New Division of Labour Francis Castles 23. The OU Academic Graeme Salaman and Kenneth Thompson 24. Course Production at the OU: Basic Problems and Activities Brian N. Lewis 25. The Making of D100: A View from the Social Science Faculty Michael Drake 26. A View from the Science Faculty Peter J. Smith 27. A View from the Mathematics Faculty G. A. Read 28. A View from the Technology Faculty G. S. Holister 29. A View from the Educational Studies Faculty Phillip Williams 30. A View from the Arts Faculty Arthur Marwick Part VI: The Media 31. The OU Publishing Operation Hamish MacGibbon 32. Broadcasting and Multi-Media Teaching Anthony Bates 33. New Media in the OU: An International Perspective Richard Hooper. A Selected Bibliography. Index.
