The Open University: A history

by Daniel Weinbren

Overview

This analysis of The Open University's precedents, personalities, politics and pedagogies contextualises learners' experiences and illuminates the changing values of our society and our ideas about learning and our use of a variety of media.

In April 1963, Labour Party leader Harold Wilson sketched a proposal for a University of the Air. He launched the idea in the autumn and in April 1969 The Open University, OU was granted a Royal Charter. Aiming to be open to people places, methods and ideas, it has supported the learning of millions and, despite hostility from Ministers of the Crown and some within the BBC, the civil service, the academy and the press, it has won a place in the affections of the nation.

The OU produced relevant, successful innovations in teaching, technology, student guidance and ideas about learning for a wide variety of adults, including those without A-levels and those with disabilities, in prison, in the Services, and with full-time jobs. Its supported, open learning strategies and enabled living rooms to become laboratories, telephones to be used for tutorials and the bus to be where you caught up with your University reading.

Now the clear leader in part-time provision it is subject to the same constraints and opportunities as other universities operating within an increasingly globalised marketplace. This account of its development sheds light on the wider social and political developments and on the history of learning by adults. It reveals how a single institution has transformed the notion of the university.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526101457
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Daniel Weinbren is a Fellow in History at the Open University

Table of Contents

Part I: Creating a university of the air

1. The challenge of The Open University

2. Opening a castle of the air

Part II:The first two decades

3. Growth and acceptance: c. 1969-89

4. Sensemaking and sociability: The first two decades of learning

Part III: The Open University since the 1990s

5. Convergence and divergence

6. Pedagogies promoting participation

Part IV: Half a century of learning

7. Open to people

Select bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

The principal strength of this account lies in the intimate way in which we are presented with not only the institution but the people to whom it meant so much. Stories and anecdotes from staff, students, media personal and government combine to give a sense of how the institution later became known as something of a national treasure. The fact that it is in essence an insider account offers a unique perspective of the ways in which this ‘machine’—like structure with its mechanistic forms of production and delivery developed the capacity to offer students a uniquely personal learning experience.

From the Publisher