A first time author with an inspirational journey from study to retirement has dedicated her book to the Open University because, she says, it changed her life.
Moira Coleman was one of the OU’s first 25,000 students starting in 1971. She undertook six years of degree studies, self-funded while working full time as a secretary but also taking on extra typing work to cover fees and books.
Remembering those days, Moira said: “I was excited to be part of something that was itself new and untried; I was ready and willing to take that risk. Everything about the OU appealed to me, not least the opportunity to continue working full-time while I studied. The approach to using tutorial support in conjunction with mixed media (then limited to TV, radio and printed materials) to support distance learning was revolutionary at the time and equally attractive.”
A full and successful career followed, with part-time work as a tutor for the Workers’ Educational Association leading to a permanent post on their professional field staff.
“This was the beginning of a 13 year career,” added Moira. “The range of work developed exponentially, opening the way to previously unimaginable opportunities, principally concerned with people who, against the odds, were keen to test themselves at higher levels, as I had done 20 years earlier. It was a chance to give something back.”
In her work with the WEA, Moira developed and delivered a series of courses preparing wary adult learners for the challenge of returning to study, with the objective of reducing first year drop out numbers.
Then in 1997, the work went a step further and on behalf of the WEA, Moira bid successfully for almost £250,000 of National Lottery funding to develop the courses into a computer-based, supported open learning format for disadvantaged adult returners living in rural Suffolk, known as the WEA Trailblazer Project.
“My OU pedigree came to the fore in a key element of the project,” said Moira, “which was enabling tutors to become communicators using digital resources. This was achieved by employing our own software programmer to work alongside both students and tutors.
“Unsurprisingly, he too was an ex-Open University student.”
Moira managed the project and bid to several other funding streams accessible in the Rural Development Area, securing another £500,000. A new post was created for her, Director of Learning Technologies, enabling Moira to cascade the entire experience within the Eastern District of the WEA and nationally.
When the funding ceased, so did the post, but the innovative approach of the Trailblazer project had caught the imagination of local education providers and Moira and the now redundant programmer set up a small software development business dedicated to enabling the education sector.
“This was my final taste of paid work, ceasing in 2010 by which time I was 63.
“Undaunted, I returned with relish to the historical research abandoned during the hectic, career-driven years.”
That research has resulted in Moira’s first book, ‘Fruitful Endeavours: the 16th Century household secrets of Catherine Tollemache’ which was published in August 2012.
The dedication reads: To the Open University, who took me in with an appetite to learn and sent me out with a hunger to learn more. Thank you from one of your first 25,000: 1971-76.'
Moria said: “The dedication is more than rhetoric; the hunger is still there, the desire to look into, not just look at.
“The OU changed my life and I have never ceased to be grateful.
“I found the OU experience to be rich and deep, providing me with a reservoir of mental stimulation that had been lacking before. This, and the gradual process of on-going personal achievement, helped me to gain self-belief. I learned to recognise my own strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies to enhance the former and overcome the latter. This had stood me in good stead for more than 40 years, enabling me to think outside the box, commit myself and finish what I start.
“At the risk of over-working a cliche, the Open University gave me an OPEN mind."
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