My tutor came up to me at the end of a tutorial and asked about my referencing. He was concerned that using references mentioned in an OU textbook should not be entered as direct references. I said it was OK as I had been to the local Uni library and read the actual paper.
“Ah” he said, “that explains why you have written outside the OU text”. “You need to keep your answers tightly scripted to the OU text and not use readings outside this”. “I can’t give you marks for that extraneous work”
“Oh’ I said.
“Yes, you see it’s an equality issue, it’s unfair on those who do not have library facilities.”
I was just wondering is this a local socialist equal opportunity view – working to the lowest denominator; or is this corporate OU speaking?
And why is there a bunch of papers and books at the end of each chapter labeled ‘further reading’.
Depends on the course. I'd be horrified if that was a level 3, but at level 1 it does tend to be pretty prescriptive.
Hi,
Just to reassure you it's not the corporate OU (if there is such a thing!) speaking. The OU does aim to help students develop as independent learners and many OU courses now expect students to be able to find and evaluate information for themselves - sounds as if yours may not be one of them?
Your tutor might like to know about the OU online library if they don't already: http://www.open.ac.uk/libraryservices
Assuming that your independent research was relevant to the question set, I think you deserve credit for going outside the materials provided.