ABSTRACT
The Open University student’s tuition takes many forms. The major element is the series of correspondence units, despatched at regular intervals to the student’s home. Much of the working material is designed to help him to learn for himself. The correspondence units are closely related to radio and television broadcasts and the whole teaching package of written and broadcast material is produced by a course team which is composed of central and regional academic staff, members of the BBC and educational technologists. The student must respond to this teaching material in an active way, by carrying out experiments, writing essays, working through problems, projects, etc., and while some of this work may be used for self-assessment, the majority is assessed in written form either by a tutor (tutor-marked assignments) or by the computer (computer-marked assignments). Ultimately the best of the student’s assignments together with the final examination determine the award and standard of a credit.
