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The Open University in the United Kingdom

Perhaps the most well known and most successful distance learning institution in the world is the Open University, located in Milton Keynes, north of London. This institution was established by the labor government under Harold Wilson. In the early discussions of the University it was called 'The University of the Second Choice' because one aim was to give an opportunity for university education to many people who had not had that opportunity in their original school careers in the United Kingdom.

The Open University was formed in 1969, and now has about 50,000 degree students and 100,000 continuing education students. It is a degree granting institution, giving a variety of university level degrees. It operates in a fixed time mode; students do not have unlimited amounts of time to complete the learning modules, but must do things according to a schedule.

Except for a possible introductory session in some courses, most of the activities are conducted in the student's own home, or in study centers. A wide range of materials may be available to the student for a course, but the materials have tended to be, in recent courses, mostly print material. Laboratory kits may be supplied. In early courses there was considerable use of video broadcast by BBC. Video was found to be less effective than expected in Open University evaluations. The movement has been recently from broadcast video to video tape. Some courses have used computer based technology, but the University did not start from this basis, so such usage is still in the minority where student time is considered.

The Open University maintains study centers in many locations, where students can come for help from tutors. Some courses promote the notion that neighboring students who are working on the same courses at the same time come together in the study centers or elsewhere. Study centers have access to the computing capabilities of the Open University.

The skill of the Open University in developing courses has already been mentioned. Course teams work on development over a several year period. A typical course costs several million dollars to develop.