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Summary: The British Open University, one of the most successful
distance teaching universities in the world, is offering 20 places in
its introductory computing course (current course enrollment: 2,500
students per year, current university enrollment 200,000).
These 20 students will differ from the regular students in that they
will interact with their tutor via a conferencing/e-mail system and
they will live outside of Europe. They will get full credit for their
work and write a final examination at a location near their home.
Some portion of the regular UK course fees will be payable, but they
will be subsidized. Send e-mail to M205-enquiries@open.ac.uk for more
information and an application to participate.
Full Description:
The Open University in Britain is offering a limited trial
enrollment to its very popular "Fundamentals of Computing"
(M205) course to students outside Britain and Europe. The Open
University is a fully accredited British university and has been a
world leader in multimedia distance teaching for 25 years. Over
100,000 students have been awarded Bachelor's degrees since 1972
and today nearly 200,000 a year study some course with us. It is
university policy to limit admission only by available resources and
students are admitted on a first come, first served basis. No other
discriminating factors, such as educational prerequisites, are used,
although students are counselled as to appropriate courses for their
background. Some financial support is available for students who
cannot afford course fees. All courses are strictly monitored by
external examiners from other British universities to ensure that
the quality of teaching meets the national standards.
One of our most popular undergraduate courses is M205:
Fundamentals of Computing. This is a UK 60 point course (= 2
semesters or "full credit" in North American universities)
requiring 400 hours of study. There are no textbooks or extra
materials to buy. The course materials include the custom designed
texts, videotapes of case studies (no talking heads), and audio
cassettes. This course can be used as preparation for higher level
Computer Science courses and eventually as part of a B.Sc. degree
depending on the other courses taken. The course begins in late
February and runs until the final exam is written in October.
Open University students typically have a local tutor who presents
live tutorials, interacts with them by telephone or post, and grades
and returns their assignments. Students in the UK or selected
European cities write their final exam simultaneously at special
examination centres. Beginning in 1995 academic year we will be
offering a limited extension of M205 to students outside the UK and
Europe via e-mail and electronic conferencing. This group of 20
students will be treated as regular Open University students but
their interaction with their tutor, including assignment submission
and return, will be via e-mail. They will have the opportunity to
interact with their tutor and about 100 other fellow M205 students
via the university's electronic conferencing system and indirectly
with the other 2,500 students taking the course and the 200,000
other members of the university community through their
automatic (free) membership in the Open University Student's
Association.
These students will also be able to write the final examination at an
agreed site as close to their home as possible and get full credit for
their work. Credit for the course may be applied to an Open
University degree or used as a transfer credit at another university
in the UK or elsewhere. Fees for these students will be highly
subsidized and in return the students will be expected to provide
feedback on their experience.
For more information about participating electronically in M205 in
1995, send e-mail to: M205-Enquiries@open.ac.uk and we will
send you a syllabus for the course and an application questionnaire.
Further information about the Open University may be found on our
World Wide Web home page:
http://hcrl.open.ac.uk/ou/ouhome.html
or by e-mail to: general-enquiries@open.ac.uk
Further information about Open University undergraduate
computing courses may be found at:
http://pepper.open.ac.uk/computing/teaching.html