Open University

missbiggles1

zagubov wrote: »

I'll come clean and own up I worked for them 20 years ago. My students all thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I felt they were very rigorous and professional with their academic work.

They're more like the older universities in their quality. No-one seems to have got a bad word to say for them. I've never known anyone regard them as second-rate in any way.

Ask around, and don't take my word for this.

Even 20 years ago I knew a couple of people who found them really proscriptive, with tutors who didn't want students to put forward original ideas or read more widely than the course materials.

I think it depends very much on the tutor you're allocated - you were obviously one of the good ones.:)

Voyager2002

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Even 20 years ago I knew a couple of people who found them really proscriptive, with tutors who didn't want students to put forward original ideas or read more widely than the course materials.

I think it depends very much on the tutor you're allocated - you were obviously one of the good ones.:)

Similar things sometimes happen at traditional universities...

Tutors do have a responsibility to make sure that students do read the course materials before they read around: particularly if they are not yet equipped to interpret some of the material they might encounter. This could be a particular problem with mature students, whose life-experience might give them greater confidence than a typical school-leaver, but without the academic background to 'justify' that confidence. This can be a particular problem when it comes to putting forward original ideas: I heard about a group of mature law students being taught about Divorce: they all spoke passionately about their own divorces, and this got in the way of them learning what the law says about the topic.

zagubov

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Similar things sometimes happen at traditional universities...

Tutors do have a responsibility to make sure that students do read the course materials before they read around: particularly if they are not yet equipped to interpret some of the material they might encounter. This could be a particular problem with mature students, whose life-experience might give them greater confidence than a typical school-leaver, but without the academic background to 'justify' that confidence. This can be a particular problem when it comes to putting forward original ideas: I heard about a group of mature law students being taught about Divorce: they all spoke passionately about their own divorces, and this got in the way of them learning what the law says about the topic.

I found teaching mature students to be really rewarding, but sometimes it's as you say. There's original thinking and there's just getting lost in the forest of knowledge and thinking you've found a path or trail that's going nowhere. It's difficult to recognise when that's happened and how to diplomatically get an enthusiastic person to disengage from it and find a path that'll get somewhere rewarding.

missbiggles1

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Similar things sometimes happen at traditional universities...

Tutors do have a responsibility to make sure that students do read the course materials before they read around: particularly if they are not yet equipped to interpret some of the material they might encounter. This could be a particular problem with mature students, whose life-experience might give them greater confidence than a typical school-leaver, but without the academic background to 'justify' that confidence. This can be a particular problem when it comes to putting forward original ideas: I heard about a group of mature law students being taught about Divorce: they all spoke passionately about their own divorces, and this got in the way of them learning what the law says about the topic.

Do you mean just OU tutors or university tutors generally?

One of the people I mentioned was my late husband who was studying for an MA in a subject he'd taught for some years, so doesn't really come into the category you describe.