TELEVISION TEACHING-II Open University Courses In 1971

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32253, 23 March 1970, Page 15

TELEVISION TEACHING-II Open University Courses In 1971

(From GLENYS BOWMAN in London) The Open University, when courses begin next January, will be the only British university to use television as an integral part of its teaching. It could well turn out to be the only university in the world to make a success of it.

Students will work at home or at local viewing centres, which will be set up in a library or college wherever the number of students warrants it. These will be fitted out with television and radio receivers and will give students a chance to study and to meet other students and counsellors.

Some courses will be broadcast during the day but most will be in the early evenings and repeated on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This should enable all students, whether housewives or business executives, to see the programmes.

The biggest breakthrough will come when videotape and E.V.R. (electrical videotape recording) techniques become ■ cheaper. E.V.R. is a sort of play-your-own television programmes system. It consists of a box the size of a small record player into which you fit a tiny cassette. The box is connected to your television set and when you press a knob the cassette programme : appears on the screen. The cassettes hold two programmes, each 30 minutes 1 long. You can move from one i track to the other, stop it any- - where you want and it winds . itself back at the end. There’s no lacing or spooling—the ' thing is far easier to work . than a record player. : These magical little devices are being made at a ; factory in Essex. Boxes cost I around £2OO and 60 minutes , use about £lO. But prices will i come down substantially and , when they do, the Open Uni- . versity will be the first to r take advantage of it. The idea of the Open Uni- . versity or the University of the Air as it was i then called—was first mooted ; by Harold Wilson in a speech L at Glasgow in 1963. [ In its early stages it was . also known as the University of the Second Chance, for it will cater largely for those who want to study for a degree, but who, for some reason, have not been able to do so. Anyone over 21, whether or not they have the usual qualifications, to enter university, can apply for a place. This is a tremendous breakthrough, for unlike New Zealand universities, which anyone over 21 can attend, entry into British universities is

fiercely competitive and only those with the best qualifications make it. The demand for a second chance has made itself very clear. Some 3000 applications had arrived at the university’s headquarters in Buckinghamshire before the date given for their receipt. I visited the university on that date, and by lunch time the staff were coping valiantly with a further 5000. Since then another 14,000 have arrived. There is room for 25,000 students next year, which is well above the usual number of students at a British university. Sussex, for example, has little more than 3000. Eventually, the Open University hopes to take in 150,000. Six Credits Needed Only one degree will be awarded, a 8.A., but it can be taken in one of six lines of study (the university avoids the word subject)—arts, science, mathematics, technology, social sciences and educational studies. Six credits will be needed for a degree, eight for honours. Each credit will take a year’s study and only two credits may be taken in one year. In fact, the system is not unlike that at New Zealand universities. Already there is a full-time staff of 65 and this will go up to 130 when courses begin. Each faculty will have a dean, three professors, two senior lecturers and four lecturers. There will be fewer staff in proportion to students than at a conventional university. Most of the staff have been drawn from other British universities, some from universities abroad. In addition, there will be a large number of counsellors throughout the country, most from existing universities, who will work on a part-time basis. Every student will be attached to a counsellor. The cost of setting up the university will be between

£4 and £sm. Compare this with the £lom. capital expenditure on Sussex University and you realise how economical the new scheme is going to be. Costs for the students will also be low—about £l5O for three years’ study. The total cost of educating each student will be about £250. At Sussex University it is £B4O. The university will call for an ultimate build-up of radio and television transmission to some 30 hours a week in each medium. This will more than double the air time given to educational programmes by the 8.8. C. at present. The Americans have been experimenting with degree courses by television for more than 13 years now, but they have had little impact. Their biggest scheme is the Chicago Junior College of the Air, which uses television as the only teaching medium. New York has a similar University of the Air, and, in Boston, a smaller scheme is ■ loosely linked to Harvard. But these schemes have never really been academically accepted, which condemns them to a vicious circle. Because they are not fully accepted they are forced to operate on a shoestring, while because the courses are done on the cheap they are not academically respectable. But Chicago’s Dean of Studies, Dr James Zigerell, remains convinced of the tremendous value of television teaching. He believes that television courses should be the best in their field because the medium is' so demanding. Not only must a lecture be condensed into a ’ rigid time but the teacher is disciplined by a schedule sent out at the beginning of[ term and by a lack of breath-! ing space from interruptions or small talk by the class. Those dedicated to the idea of television teaching in the States are envious of Britain’s Open University. It’ should succeed, they say,i because it is being planned on a big enough scale to! be academically respectable,! while its lack of affiliation to! any other university should allow it to be wholly original.

(To Be Continued)