The difficulties of using television to support adult learning was a subject often considered at the OU. In 1976 Arthur Marwick (Professor of History at the OU) explained that his aim was ‘to leave each piece of film to speak for itself without being overlaid by an intrusive commentary’ (Arthur Marwick, ‘History at the Open University’, Oxford Review of Education, 2, 2, 1976, pp. 129-137). In spite of this Marwick’s own soft Scots burr intruded in that it was a
a friendly and melifluous commentary voice. OU students often remarked to me how accessible they found the television programmes and the audio cassettes he narrated, even if they did not always agree with his interpretations (James Chapman, Arthur Marwick(1936–2006): an appreciation, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol. 27, No. 2, June 2007, pp. 237–244 (p240)).
In 1995, Paddy Maguire saw things differently. Wr
iting in the
Journal of Design History, 8, 2, p. 155, made public his irritation about ‘self-conscious didacticism, tinged with aspiring populism customarily adopted by Open University or schools programmes’ producers, wherein an adoption of the familiar second person is presumed to serve as an aid to historical imagination’.
Richard Baldwyn’s autobiography Only Yesterday. Times of my life Kendal and Dean, 2008 includes his recollections of his OU degree which he started in 1986 and concluded in his sevenieth year, 1991. In the book he calls his experience ‘exhilarating, terrifying, humbling and oh so rewarding’. He describes the OU pedagogy which ‘teaches one to teach onself and at the same time to realise that the true purpose of education is the knowledge, not of facts but of values’. Richard Baldwyn mentions ‘the dreaded exam’ which led him to be ‘transported back some fifty years’ but spends more time recalling tutorials (which he clearly enjoyed) and Arthur Marwick who he met at Summer Schools in Westfield College, Hampstead and in York. While this summary indicates the importance that many students attach to their time studying with the OU, it does not do justice to the prose, described as ‘delightful reading’ by Wendy Craig. If you want to know more about the book, follow the link. If you want to tell us your OU tale, follow this link.