The Open University

Social mobility isn’t just about 18-year-olds: adults need life chances too

10 February 2016

The prime minister has pledged to double the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds entering higher education by 2020. David Cameron has signalled an all-out attack on poverty and has thrown down the gauntlet to universities to deliver on social justice. He will be aware that many universities already have a proud history of widening […]

Shocked and surprised boy on the internet with laptop computer

7 ways to keep your children safe online

9 February 2016

From homework to games, research projects to connecting with friends, the internet’s a huge draw for children and a valuable modern-day resource. It’s also a potentially dangerous place to hang out. But while technology continues to change and evolve, the principles of keeping young people safe are the same online as they are offline. It’s all […]

From Bricks to Clicks: how data could revolutionise Higher Education

26 January 2016

Sharing student data in the Higher Education sector will “revolutionise” and introduce a “step-change” in the student experience, according to experts at The Open University. Impact of data sharing in Higher Education explored in new report OU experts endorse the sharing of student data across institutions Using data could improve the student experience and enhance […]

Why English language lessons are not the answer to radicalisation

26 January 2016

David Cameron used an article in The Times and an interview on Radio 4’s Today show to announce £20m of extra funding to provide English lessons for Muslim women in the UK to prevent them from becoming “second-class citizens”. The prime minister’s announcement has come in for harsh criticism, particularly his implication that not speaking […]

Girl doing computer research in a library. Image credit: Thinkstock

Useful tool or approach with caution? 15 years of Wikipedia

15 January 2016

As Wikipedia celebrates its 15th anniversary, OU Learning and Teaching Librarian Geraldine Smith explains the pros and cons of using it for study… Wikipedia celebrates being 15 years old on 15th January 2016. What it is? Set up in 2001 Wikipedia is one of the largest reference websites on the internet and as of September […]

Sport 2016: Here come the Brits

3 January 2016

Simon Rea, Lecturer in Sport and Fitness, looks forward to Team GB creating a carnival in Rio… The London Olympics saw an unprecedented level of British success. This has led the public having high expectations for the success of British athletes at the Rio Games later this year. In 2012 British athletes brought home 65 […]

Star Wars: Talk like Yoda

22 December 2015

How does Star Wars’ Yoda structure a sentence? And how does it differ to the way we tend to speak in contemporary English? This one minute film presented by Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, Senior Lecturer in Languages at The Open University, breaks down the mechanics of Yoda speech in this crash course on speaking Yodish. For more Open […]

Do you speak Star Wars?

16 December 2015

Main image: Mark Menzies, CC BY-NC-SA Unless you are C3-PO, fluent in more than six million forms of communication, you may not understand every Star Wars language. I’m not talking about the languages spoken in the saga such as Shyriiwook, Huttese, Bocce or even Binary (beep beep doop!), but the languages into which the Star Wars […]

Chalkboard and ABC letters. Image credit: Thinkstock

Zuckerberg is ploughing billions into ‘personalised learning’ – why?

10 December 2015

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg believes personalised learning is the answer to many of education’s current woes, and is one of the four key areas that he and his wife Prescilla Chan’s US$45 billion Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will fund. While some argue whether this is a philanthropic act or a shrewd business strategy, others will ask: […]

Why Tyson Fury’s sexist and homophobic comments make him unfit for BBC Sports Personality of the Year

7 December 2015

One could be forgiven for being under the misapprehension that the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year accolade should be about more than a sportsman or woman’s exploits on track, field, court or ring. The clue’s in the name: “personality”. Most of us, I would think, would expect that the honour should be bestowed on […]

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Category: Education, languages and health