ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the range of factors both internal and external that makes imperative a review of the ways in which learners are supported in the OU UK, and by extension more widely in open and distance learning. The factors include, from within the institution: declining retention figures; the nature of learner expectations in the change of status from ‘student’ to ‘customer’; changes in the division and distribution of labour brought about by ICT; pressures on costs and the effect of competition; and from the external perspective the nature of consumer behaviour; the deterioration of time available for study with the increase of long working hours; difficulties with space for study in the context of increasing domestic overcrowding; and changes in the characteristics of learner populations with the impact of lifelong learning as governmental policy arena. The discussion concludes with what supports student ‘engagement’. All of these lead to the observation that a fundamental review of learner support in the OU UK is necessary after some thirty years of teaching and learning. As the OU UK has been so significant in the modernisation of open and distance learning from the perspective of learner support as much as in multi-media course design, it is felt that an analysis of change in this field is of broad interest and significance.
