We had a wonderful session at an OU staff development meeting in Cambridge yesterday, discussing ‘Time well spent? Making the most of correspondence tuition’. Follow the links below for a copy of the handout on ‘theory’ and for a summary of our discussions. (more…)
At the UK Open University, the distinction between the formative and summative functions of assessment has always been blurred. This is because our tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and computer-marked assignments (old-fashioned CMAs or modern iCMAs) frequently count towards a student’s overall continuous assessment score. But yet tutors spend a huge amount of time writing comments on their students’ TMAs and we refer to the process as ‘correspondence tuition’ – a clear indication of the importance that we place on the formative potential of TMAs. In our distance-learning environment, where opportunities for face-to-face contact with students are extremely limited, the personalised teaching that takes place in correspondence tuition becomes extremely important. (more…)