Dr Richard Holliman, The Open University
Teamwork is key to successful planning
When we’re producing courses at the Open University we tend to work in teams; many of them are multi-discplinary and almost all of them combine academics with other forms of professional expertise (e.g. editors and media professionals). For example, the last course I chaired (with the catchy code, SH804) involved more than 70 people during the production phase (including academics, media professionals, editors, librarians and web developers).
Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to work with some excellent colleagues in various course teams. You might expect me to say that. But it’s not always straightforward working as a social scientist in a Faculty of Science. One of the many colleagues I’ve really valued working with is Professor Simon Kelley. We worked together as part of a larger course team on Science in Context.
Back row, l-r: Janet Goss, Diane Ford, Gareth Davies, Andrew Norton, Janice Ansine, Simon Kelley and Tim Blackman. Front row, l-r: Frazer Bird, Clare Warren and Richard Holliman. Photo: Kate Bradshaw
Serendipity meets planning for diversity and inclusion
Spin forwards several years: I’d been working on the Engaging Opportunities project for about nine months when we began to think seriously about organising the first of the three annual lectures that we’d promised RCUK we would deliver.
A conversation with Simon Kelley at the regular departmental coffee morning led to a collaboration with colleagues from the Denbigh Teaching School Alliance, Centre for Physical and Environmental Sciences (CEPSAR), eSTEeM, the OU’s AV team and our Research, Scholarship and Quality Unit.
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