{"id":2041,"date":"2011-12-07T14:23:01","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T13:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/?p=2041"},"modified":"2011-12-07T14:23:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T13:23:01","slug":"what-have-we-learnt-establishing-the-ou-in-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/?p=2041","title":{"rendered":"What have we learnt? Establishing the OU in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/scotland.gif\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2045\" title=\"scotland\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/scotland-125x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>One of the most relevant presentations to the OU&#8217;s own history at last week&#8217;s <em>What have we learnt? <\/em>forum was Professor\u00a0Judith George&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Judith-George-talk1.doc\" >paper\u00a0<\/a>on supporting isolated remote learners. Judith spoke of the challenges in establishing the OU in Scotland, with its specific geography and politics. However, it was essential that the OU in its early days grapple with these issues if it was to be recognised as\u00a0a British institution. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Judith&#8217;s paper concentrated on student support, pointing out that this &#8216;had to go the extra mile (or many miles) beyond the basic OU format.&#8217; While access to technology could not be taken for granted, it was embraced wherever possible starting with pioneering use of the telephone. It may have been surprising for some to learn that it was\u00a0calculated that &#8216;an OU student actually got more individual contact time than those in many conventional Scottish universities&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>Tutors were also isolated so getting the right systems in place\u00a0for their support\u00a0was crucial too. And Judith also highlighted the importance of\u00a0strong and creative links with Scottish further and higher education.<\/p>\n<p>The history of the OU project is keen to ensure that a range of perspectives are incorporated into the new history being written, including very importantly from the OU&#8217;s regions and nations. It was useful to hear from those present at the forum from the OU in Wales and the OU in Ireland, but we would also welcome more perspectives from staff outside Walton Hall on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www8.open.ac.uk\/researchprojects\/historyofou\/\" >website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most relevant presentations to the OU&#8217;s own history at last week&#8217;s What have we learnt? forum was Professor\u00a0Judith George&#8217;s paper\u00a0on supporting isolated remote learners. Judith spoke of the challenges in establishing the OU in Scotland, with its specific geography and politics. However, it was essential that the OU in its early days [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-history-of-the-ou","category-nations-and-regions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2041"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2047,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/History-of-the-OU\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}