Sara Cormeny wrote:
> While in England on vacation recently, I saw part of the "Open
> University" television series on BBC2 (airing on Sunday, August 6
> around 8:00 am). The portion that I saw dealt with photos and films
> of cities throughout the world from the late 19th-C. to the Bauhaus
> movemement in the 1930s. At the end of the program, the preview for
> the next in this series said it would be on Los Angeles. Does any
> subscriber know about this particular "Open University" series, and
> be able to comment on its usefulness or coverage? It looked good
> enough to write down the above information but I really only saw
> about 15 minutes of it.
First, some basic info. about the OU.
The Open University is Britain's premier higher education distance
learning institution. It offers the full range of degrees, across a
wide variety of subjects. Courses range from Oceanography to Social
Work with the Deaf, via the Augustine Age.
Courses are offered at an entry level (they are the 100 series), for
which no previous study (even at school) is needed, at 200 level and
300 (honours) level. There are also Masters level courses, Masters
level research programmes, and doctorate level research programmes.
Teaching is via specially prepared course books, books of selected
texts, radio programmes, televions programmes, tutorials, and, in
some cases, summer schools.
The audio-visual materials for these courses are in general, very
good. Sometimes, the presenters give very biased/controversial views,
which are discussed in the course books (and the student, by this
stage, is supposed to be able to spot the bias, weakness in
arguments, etc), but they can appear a bit odd on their own. In some
subjects which change less over the years, some programmes are rather
old: rather ameteurish black and white images of bewiskered men in
bell-bottoms explaining mathematical concepts have not graced our
Sunday-morning screens for some years, but if I come down to the
statistics of mackeral fishing _one_ more time, I swear I'll never
eat one again.
*Searching for an OU programme*
Telnet to library.open.ac.uk, and follow the menus to the
audio-visual materials. You can do title searches or subject
searches. This will give you the course number: e.g. A102, ED367,
M202, the programme number, and the ISBN of the publication. I think
that the videos can be purchased, many of the course materials can.
The Open University's address is Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.
Patricia Reynolds
Keeper of Social History
Buckinghamshire County Museum / Freelance Curator
16 Gibsons Green
Heelands
Milton Keynes
MK13 7NH
ENGLAND