Video lectures

An OU student on DD307 Social psychology: critical perspectives on self and others has penned a song about the frustrations of writing a TMA.

In the blurb underneath the video on YouTube, Eddie, who wrote and produced the song and accompanying video, says: “It's always an emotional time handing in a Tutor Marked Assignment for The Open University. This is for my fellow DD307 students this year. Unfortunately I had no cameraman, so had to enlist Surf Teddy to do the honours.”

OU Music Lecturer Ben Winters, a conductor and violinist, talks about the importance of music in film from the university's very own music studio…

Find out more:

• More about Ben Winters
• Study with the OU - Music
• OU music blog

 In this video Helen King, Professor of Classical Studies at the OU, talks to Documentally about ancient medicine and why Gladiator is one of her favourite films.
 

And here, in Classics Confidential, Professor King talks about the fascinating ancient story of Agnodike ‘the Flashing Midwife’, and its uses by medical practitioners in later eras.
 

Find out more:

• Helen is a contributor to the Wonders and Marvels blog, a place for specialists and non-specialists to revel in the stories of the past.
• More about Professor King
• Classical Studies - courses and qualifications
• Classical Studies - taster materials

The Bisexuality Report, the first of its kind in the UK and the product of research led by Dr Meg Barker, senior lecturer in Psychology at the OU, looks at bisexual inclusion and equality issues.

The report was launched on February 15 at 2012 BiUK in collaboration with the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at The Open University. It summarises national and international evidence and draws out recommendations for future bisexual inclusion in many different settings.

The report is part of Meg Barker's research on the bisexual community, particularly in the UK. She said: “Government policy and equalities agendas generally consider lesbian, gay and bisexual issues together.

“However, bisexual people often face prejudice from within lesbian and gay groups as well as heterosexual communities. They are invisible – not represented in mainstream media, policy, and legislation or within lesbian and gay communities.

“Government and communities need to single out bisexual people as a separate group in order to address this equality gap.”

The Bisexuality Report: Bisexual inclusion in LGBT equality and diversity was written by Meg Barker; Rebecca Jones, Lecturer, Health & Social Care at the OU; Christina Richards; Helen Bowes-Catton, PhD student in the Psychology Department at The Open University; and Tracy Plowman – all of BiUK, with Jen Yockney, of Bi Community News; and Marcus Morgan, of The Bisexual Index.

Listen to Dr Meg Barker and Rebecca Jones, both lecturers at the OU, talk about the topics covered in The Bisexuality Report in this podcast.

And in this two-minute video Meg sums up the key findings of the report…

Find out more:

• Read The Bisexuality Report
• Study with the OU – Psychology
• More about Dr Meg Barker
• BiUK, national organisation for bisexual research and activism

During the Learning At Work week, Olympic gold medallist rower Ben Hunt-Davis (MBE) came to the OU campus in Milton Keynes to deliver a talk entitled ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’. Here we offer you the thrust of his talk...

The question was always ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ if the answer was no then it didn’t happen. The strategy was simple and used by the mens-8 rowing team as part of their two-year training plan in the run up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It meant personal sacrifice and missing spectacular events, including taking part in the Opening Ceremony.

Ben Hunt-Davis spent seven years rowing and competing for team GB without achieving a win. But in 1998 something clicked for the team and instead of just going back and working harder, they decided they would "learn faster than anyone else". Ben suggests businesses can employ the same strategy to help motivate staff and work towards a shared goal.

The preparation for a task is different for everyone. Just before the final of the Olympics the men’s 8 team had a 90-minute wait. One paced up and down, one listened to a song over and over again, and some just lay on the floor.

Every time the men trained or raced their strategy was to change one thing. The aim was to improve and develop every day. After each race the team discussed if it worked and what they learned: good or bad. If it was a bad, for example they hadn’t won a race, then they would look at what could be changed next ‘to make the boat go faster’.

In the two-year build up to the Olympic Games there were 16 rowers competing for the final eight places. The final team was only chosen 12 weeks in advance of the games. This meant not only were the team competing against each other for their place on the boat but they also had to support each other during all the training. In a squad this size there will always be someone you don’t get on with so well, but the key is to always keep the overall objective in mind.

The team were important to Ben. He said “there were good days and bad days.” On the good days you would bring your ‘colleagues’ up and on bad days your colleagues would improve your performance by pushing you.

Ben says he now lives by a phrase to make success happen: “today is going to be a good day because I’m going to make it a good day.” With a gold medal from the Olympics as proof, it is definitely a motto to adopt.

Listen to Ben talk about the importance of continuous development...