Open Learning – the Foundation for the Future

In the early 1990s some 35 universities formed The Open Learning Foundation (OLF), a charitable foundation, to promote education through the universities and to avoid individual universities having to duplicate research and investments in updating or providing new education programmes.

Through the OLF they would be able to pool their knowledge and resources, thus gaining improved synergy. In February 2000 the Open Learning Company (OLC) was formed to take over the foundation’s course portfolio and to provide the commercial knowledge and expertise to promote this extensive database while also promoting the UK universities. The Open Learning Foundation (OLF), which still retains its charitable status, is one of the largest shareholders in OLC.

The Open Learning Foundation supports members as they meet the needs of more and different students at a low unit cost whilst maintaining quality. It does this through:

• the development of learning materials:
• helping institutions implement new approaches to teaching and learning.

40 member universities and higher education institutions increasingly substitute Open Learning materials for class contact, freeing up staff to give better support to students as and when needed. Materials can be used by students across all modes of study – not just at a distance or part-time but also full-time campus-based students value them.

It is a model for the future – spreading development costs across many institutions and using material widely. This allows traditional universities and colleges to benefit from the sort of economies of scale to which only the Open University could until recently aspire.

The results speak for themselves, with evidence to suggest that students using Open Learning Materials are out-performing others. The priority for the future is to secure wider implementation of the materials and a continued commitment to quality and innovation

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