University of the second chance

This is part 10 of my series on the history and impact of distance education. On Friday in part 9 we looked at how satellite technology has impacted upon global communication and e-learning. Today's post is all about the Open University model of distance education.

Under the Labour government of Harold Wilson, the UK’s Ministry of Education decided upon the ambitious plan of establishing a university that would confer degrees entirely delivered at a distance. It was higher education for all, regardless of age, social or economic status. Wilson’s government advisors proposed the name ‘University of the Air’ to acknowledge the institution's predominant form of proposed delivery method – broadcast telvision and radio. It was not long, however, before the UK government realised that the correspondence tools first established in Victorian times were still very valuable. Eventually, in 1969 the Open University (OU) was born, opening its 'doors' to students two years later.

With the OU came a whole new set of benchmarks for quality in distance education. Yet the British Open University was not the first Open University. That honour probably belongs to the University of South Africa (UNISA) which was established a few years prior to the British OU. However, under the guidance of several luminaries from the world of distance education, including the late Charles Wedemeyer (University of Wisconsin), the OU flourished and established a model of best practice that many subsequent open universities emulated. Now known as 'mega universities', several open universities around the world that deliver degrees predominantly via distance education can now boast over 1 million students. Indira Gandhi University in India is the largest with a staggering 2.5 million students enrolled each year.

The OU’s current foray into electronic forms of learning such as web based learning and computer mediated communications is an extension of its tried and tested model of distance-blended learning. Many OU courses have face to face tutorial contact and week long summer schools built into their structure, but most of the learning process is still conducted away from the parent institution, based in Milton Keynes. Regular television and radio broadcasts are still used, as are a range of other methods including online delivery, mailouts, and the OU still maintains a close partnership with the government owned British Broadcasting Corporation with a regular schedule of programmes broadcast on radio and television.

On a personal note, as an OU graduate myself (BSc (Hons) Psychology 1995 - 1st Class) I would like to pay tribute to the OU and all that it does. It really is the University of the Second Chance. I blew it at school, and left with few academic qualifications. I simply wasn't interested in study at the time. My teacher told my parents 'Steve's a very sociable lad, but he'll never be an academic!' Well, the OU gave me my second chance when I needed it (and teachers don't know everything). When I met Sir John Daniel (then the OU Vice Chancellor) over a few drinks during a conference in Ankara back in 1998, we talked long about the history of the OU and how it had changed so many lives, including mine. Sitting with us were a number of other pioneers of distance education, namely Tony Bates and Michael Moore (no not that one), and I'm still in touch with them to this day. They had a lot of stories to tell about the early days of the mega-universities, but that's for another blog post....

Tomorrow: Part 11: Spinning the Web

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Waxing lyrical about Malaysia

I spent the day yesterday touring around the area with some of the delegates from the conference. Our first stop was the Putrajaya 1 Secondary School. They have a colourful blog (but it's all in Malay). Putrajaya is the administrative area of Malaysia and houses many of the government buildings including the Prime Minister’s residence. A picture here taken with some of the sixth form girls we met during our tour shows the residence in the background. In the picture with me is my new best buddy Torsten Brinda (University of Erlangen, Germany). We visited several classes which incorporate ICT into many of their lessons, and where English is the spoken language in the lessons. Their aim is to prepare the children to be citizens of the information society. The staff were very hospitable and knowledgeable and the students came across as extremely polite and friendly. Their uniforms were also a sight to behold, the school was well maintained and evidently they were proud of it. Quite an impressive school.

We went on to visit a Batik factory workshop and observed a number of artisans at work as they created their ‘artwork to wear’ – a combination of layers of dye which were demarcated with wax. Needless to say, many of us probably spent a small fortune on shirts, scarves, sarong wraps and other clothing items, because they were attractive, and very very inexpensive.

We moved onto the Open University of Malaysia where we were hosted by Dr Zoraini Wati Abbas, who heads up the quality and innovation centre. The University is very new, having opened in 1999 but already boasts more than 70,000 students, all studying in blended learning format across all the states of Malaysia. A combination of face to face tutorial meetings, correspondence mail outs and online learning using web based delivery and tutor moderated discussion groups is the standard format, redolent of the British Open University programmes.

Malaysia is still reflecting its colonial history, and if you disregard the beautifully wamr weather, it feels very British (it even rained on the last day). English is spoken by just about everyone here, and there is a heady and exotic mix of races who call themselves Malaysian. Not only are there the Malays, there are also the Chinese, the Indians, and even a large group of ex-pat Europeans and Arabs. It is truly cosmopolitan. They drive on the left too, and use power sockets exactly the same as ours. The country (at least the parts we were taken to see) is very new, ultra modern in design and has much to offer to its population. The twin Petronas Towers and other high rise buildings in the Centre of Kuala Lumpur are stunning to observe during the day as the sun glints off their stainless steel surfaces, but at night they are simply breathtaking (pictured). This was truly a memorable finale to the LYICT 2008 conference.

On a personal note: I visited a bookshop in the massive 1.5 million square foot, 6 storey Suria Shopping Mall underneath the imposingly impressive twin Petronas Towers, looking through the Education section, with Zoraini. We were browsing through ICT and learning technology books and comparing our finds. Zoraini suddenly picked out a book and said – ‘oh, this looks good ... The Digital Classroom!’ Then she did a double take and realised it was one of mine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my humble jottings were on sale even over here on the other side of the world in Kuala Lumpur. To cap it all, one of the German Conference delegates actually bought a copy from the store and got me to sign it for him. A pleasant end to a very pleasant day.