Hello everyone, I hope you’re keeping well and are primed and ready for some fresh Open University news. This week we take a look at the history of the distance degree, news of an award for the OU in digital innovation and Dr Laurie Taylor explains why sociology is important. Remember, if there’s a free course or bit of news on the agenda then hopefully we will pick it up and stick it on the next Open University news.
In the beginning, about 125 years ago, there was the correspondence degree. Correspondence programs, pioneered in higher education by the University of London in the mid-19th century, reached mainstream America in the 1890s. Over the next century, while various universities played with other modalities including radio and television-based distance learning – most notably in the UK, with the Open University – correspondence degrees in the U.S. remained solidly grounded on paper and the U.S. Postal Service.
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Congratulations to The Open University, winners of the ‘Digital Innovation of the Year’ award at last night’s Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Awards 2015. The university won the award for its flagship production portal, which has been designed to make it easier to discover and re-use material, while also simplifying the workflow associated with re-use, such as costings and rights clearances.
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Why does Laurie Taylor think sociology is important? What advice does he have for our students? In this series of videos the Thinking Allowed host answers questions on social sciences.
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