OU blog

Personal Blogs

Patrick Andrews

Stereotypes of OU lecturers.

Visible to anyone in the world

Some time ago I posted a Private Eye cartoon that featured a stereotype of OU lecturers.  I have discovered that there is at least one more cartoon that makes use of this view.

Thanks to Mike McNulty for sharing this.

Badly dressed OU tutors at a funeral

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Patrick Andrews

BBC course to support Distance Learners

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Patrick Andrews, Tuesday, 24 Oct 2017, 15:39

The BBC now has a course on being a distance learner and it provides perspectives from distance learners and tutors.  It can be found at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/gothedistance/about

I think I will be appearing in week 3.
Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Patrick Andrews

A cartoon about stereotypes and the OU

Visible to anyone in the world

I saw this cartoon  in the twitter feed of Fernando Rosell (@RossellAguilar).  I think it is interesting in showing how stereotypes can exist for all sorts of groups.  This is fairly harmless but, of course, stereotypes can often be damaging.


A man with beard and long hair being asked if he still worked for the OU

Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Patrick Andrews

Collini on universities and teaching

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Patrick Andrews, Friday, 15 Jan 2016, 10:31

Collini has written several articles and a book about universities and teaching and here is a new article from him in the LRB:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n02/stefan-collini/who-are-the-spongers-now?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=3802&utm_content=ukrw_subsact&hq_e=el&hq_m=4104260&hq_l=11&hq_v=d1401cc27b

As with previous articles, I find the arguments here persuasive.  There is an interesting comment that now academics are seen as "spongers", which seems to reflect current discourse.  However,  it only requires a little thought to realise that nearly all academics are dedicated and do the job because they are motivated and interested - almost by definition, they are educated and intelligent and could earn more money for less work elsewhere but do the job because they are genuinely interested in their subjects and thinking in general.

Collini also raises issues about how teaching could be evaluated and casts doubts on methods like retention, student satisfaction surveys and employment figures as means of analysis.  Low retention figures might reflect non-educational issues such as health problems and changes in people's circumstances.  This is particularly relevant for the OU as it has many students who have health issues and although many succeed despite great health challenges, others have their studies so disrupted that they have to leave.

Good teaching consists of interaction and helping students to see the world in new ways rather than in them simply being happy.  Evaluating teaching should make use of some qualitative methods of observation but I wonder whether this will happen.  There are opportunities for the OU to show how the materials reflect good pedagogy (eg by scaffolding interaction with content).

Employment statistics may also not be relevant for a university like the OU that has a number of older students.  I currently have a student who is 89 years old and was speaking to a younger, but still retired, student at a tutorial recently and he was telling me how much he loves studying and that he just does it because curiosity is what a rich life should involve.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 920810