ABSTRACT
SUMMARY Frequently, open and flexible learning are discussed as though their incidental benefits — better learning support using new technologies and quality assurance through standardising learning materials — are more important than their systemic purpose, which, in the case of higher education, should be to enable institutions and their employer partners to redesign their learning environments in order to meet the flexible learning requirements of future generations of learners.
The fact that the development and production of open and flexible learning materials in the UK is a flourishing cottage industry has not helped to move to this position. This chapter develops some of the major implications of this argument, in the light of research into the implementation of open learning initiatives in social work in the UK, carried out by the Open Learning Foundation (OLF), a consortium of universities and colleges based mainly in the UK.
This chapter deals with the following:
concepts of open, flexible and distance learning;
the context of professional social work education in the UK;
relevant developments in open and flexible learning;
mobilising factors, drawn from case studies of successful initiatives;
barriers to open and flexible learning initiatives;
wider relevance of findings;
implications for other professional/vocational areas of higher education;
the case for a systemic approach to the development of open and flexible learning environments in higher education.
