The Beginning

Please bear in mind that my experience of starting out with the OU is probably well out of date by now.

My first experience of the Open University was in the late 1980s. The local Council ran free classes in short social courses. I did, among others, Health Choices and Parents and Children. We didn't get qualifications from the classes but we did get a certificate for each one and I got to know some very good friends.

This first experience encouraged me to think about trying for a degree with the Open University. I first enquired about it in late1987 but at that time courses were so popular that the "foundation" courses were fully booked for 1988. So I had to apply to do my Science Foundation for 1989, In the meantime I started with a 2nd level course U235 Nuclear Weapons: Inquiry, Analysis and Debate. I enjoyed this course but it was the first time I had studied since leaving school and I ended up giving up before the end for no real reason. If I had kown the system better I would have gone ahead and done the exam because even giving up half way I had passed enough of the continual assessment and all I needed to do was the exam.

I'll be posting my experience of my first degree course S102 very soon.

My OU experience

This site is about my experience with the Open University. I hope it will help anyone thinking about doing an OU course to get an idea of what they will experience. I also hope my friends from the OU will contribute to this page.