When discussing the history of The Open University and the impact it has made on the world of higher education more widely, one of the aspects most often mentioned is the impact of the course team. This collective approach to course production stood in contrast to the individually prepared lectures offered in conventional institutions. (more…)
Professor David Hawkridge
In 1975 David Hawkridge said that course teams were
made up of four kinds of people. First, there are the academic subject-matter experts. These are the physicists, the historians, the sociologists and so on. Second, there are instructional designers from the Institute of Educational Technology. Their interest lies in the structuring of the subject-matter, the selection and specification of learning objectives for the students, the preparation of suitable assignments, and in evaluating the success of the courses. (more…)