Words of encouragement
To the thousands of readers of Sesame I offer my very best wishes for a new year, a new century and a new millennium. Particular greetings go to all who are new students of the Open University this year. You are all part of a record OU intake and those of you in DD100: An Introduction to the Social Sciences: Understanding Social Change have set a record for the number of people taking a single course.
But that does not mean that you are part of a crowd. Most of the time the OU will feel like a small and local university. When you graduate you will be invited to a degree ceremony with several hundred other graduates but before then you will rarely see a group of more than 20 students. Your tutor, the associate lecturer responsible for you and your group, can get to know you and your work well. Their role is to help you succeed.
You do derive hidden advantages from the OU’s scale. DD100 is starting this year. Its predecessor, D103, attracted 59,000 students over its 9 year life. With numbers like that the OU is able to make an investment in its courses that no other university can match. More than fifty people have worked on the team that put together DD100, so it represents a tremendous investment of intellectual energy and production skills. When a course attracts large numbers of students it means that there are more of you in any given locality, which in turn means that tutorials can be more local and self-help groups are easier to form.
I have referred to the course team. You should also think of all the OU staff as a one large team that is there to help you. Another advantage of our size is that almost any difficulty you encounter in your studies has already been experienced by someone else and we have probably found a way to help them deal with it. Don’t think of students and staff as we and they because at any given moment substantial numbers of my colleagues are also students. I myself took T171 You, Your Computer and the Net as a student last year and two of the pro-vice-chancellors are students this year. We know how it feels to have TMA deadlines looming and to juggle the demands of the OU with work, family and social life.
There were certainly times last year, as the pressures of the job built up, that I wondered if I had been wise to sign up for T171. But I took it a step at a time and completed it. Mailing the final assignment was a relief - and getting a letter just before Christmas to say that I had passed was also a great relief! I’m very pleased with the new skills and understanding that I acquired and I’m sure that will be your experience too.
I welcome you as a member of the Open University community!