Grad Ireland presentation

Distance Learning – Pros and Cons

Postgraduate Study

Why?

• “Distance learning is a way of learning remotely without being in regular face-to-face contact with a lecturer in the classroom”

• IT IS NOT ELEARNING

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What is distance learning?

What is distance learning?

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Misperceptions?

• Small Market compared to the UK

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Distance Learning in Ireland

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Lifelong learning

Career Progression

Upskilling

Reskilling

Management Development

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It’s Tough

Motivation

Discipline

Sacrifice

Finance

What is the Open University?

What is the Open University?

Is it a Proper University?

YES

Our Students and Alumni

The Open University

“The Open University was the world’s first successful distance teaching university, founded on the belief that communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend traditional campus universities.”

• Right from the start the OU adopted a radical open admissions policy, while attaining the highest standards of scholarship. It was a model which proved extremely popular with the public.

• When the OU accepted its first students in 1971, 25,000 people enrolled and 20,000 registered on a course – at a time when the total student population in the UK was only about 130,000.

How it works?

“The Open University was the world’s first successful distance teaching university, founded on the belief that communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend traditional campus universities.”

• Right from the start the OU adopted a radical open admissions policy, while attaining the highest standards of scholarship. It was a model which proved extremely popular with the public.

• When the OU accepted its first students in 1971, 25,000 people enrolled and 20,000 registered on a course – at a time when the total student population in the UK was only about 130,000.

How it works?

• “The OU teaches through its own unique method of distance learning, called ‘supported open learning’, which is:

• Flexible – students work where and when they choose to fit in with jobs, families and other commitments

• All-inclusive – students get all the high quality materials they need to study

• Supportive – personal tutors provide academic expertise, guidance and feedback and run group tutorials; and specialist advisers are on hand to help with other aspects of OU study

• Social – students get together at tutorials, day schools and informal study groups; and through online conferencing, study networks and course forums

How it works?

Course production

• Our modules are developed by multi-disciplinary course teams comprising:

• Academics, educational technologists and media specialists contributing pedagogic and technical expertise

• Respected academics from other universities working alongside OU colleagues

• External examiners

• This model has helped to build the University's reputation for innovation, rigour and quality and has been adopted by distance teaching institutions worldwide.

Overview

• 187,338 students – biggest University in the UK and Ireland

• 91% satisfaction rate

• 5,000 staff and 6,000 Associate lecturers

• Over 73% of OU students work full or part-time during their studies

• The average age of new undergraduate OU students is 29

• 9% of our new students are over 50

• We are the largest provider of higher education for people with disabilities:

Overview

• We offer 408 undergraduate modules, 162 postgraduate modules, 15 overseas versions and 15 curriculum partnerships

• 12,717 OU students are studying at postgraduate level

• 22,722 OU MBA graduates active in 91 countries

• 80% of FTSE 100 companies have sponsored staff on OU courses

• 77% of our students are studying to increase their career or employment prospects

• 30,000 employers including RTE, Pfizer, Boston Scientific, Aer Lingus, Gas Networks Ireland, Houses of the Oireachtas, AWAS have used the OU to develop their staff

Overview

• In April 2012 the OU became the first university in Europe to reach more than one million subscriptions through the new iTunes U App (launched in January 2012).

• The OU’s extensive material on iTunes U has had 66 million downloads by nearly 10 million visitors (February 2014).

• OpenLearn, a free learning resources website from the OU, has had 23 million visits since its launch in 2006. The site averages 400,000 unique visitors a month and has around 11,000 hours of learning materials including 8,000 hours taken from our undergraduate and postgraduate modules.

• The OU is YouTube EDU’s largest UK university channel with 1,600 videos that have received 21 million views by 10.8 million visitors (February 2014)

Overview

• In the UK’s last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) The Open University was ranked in the top third of UK higher education institutions

• 50% of OU research was assessed in the RAE as internationally excellent or above, with 14% being world leading

• In 2012/13 the OU attracted more than £14.7m in research grants and contracts

• Around 26,000 research publications are recorded on Open Research Online (ORO), one of the largest and fastest-growing research collections in the UK. 25% of these are Open Access

• Since July 2008, there have been more than 2.2 million downloads of Open Access content from ORO

• ORO ranks 6th among UK HEIs, and 49th in the world, in terms of deposits and activity (Ranking Web of Repositories)

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My journey so far…

[email protected]

linkedin/in/sdarcy