Support for you
For many OU students, becoming part of a community of learners is an eye-opener. There's an extensive web of support available through the main University campus, regional centres, your tutor and, of course, other students.
Learning Materials
The University distributes specially designed learning materials for your course to help you make the most of your individual learning style.
Georgia:
"The OU offers the best customer care in the world. The educational material is superb. They send you everything you really need to start the course, including workbooks and study calendars. They send you suggestions of how to make the most of your PC if you have one and how to use the Internet."
Regional centres
Regional centres throughout the UK offer individual guidance on study plans, provide your local tuition and organise exams. There are special services if you have a disability or health problem or need additional support.
Georgia:
"I will use the regional centre if I need help, for example because of my hearing impediment. When I needed references to complete my CV they provided me with them. I also go there if I need to borrow some of the educational materials. I enjoy open days because the atmosphere is terrific: I can see my future course books, have a chat, meet old friends and have a quick cup of coffee."
Tutor Support
You're allocated a personal tutor who's a specialist in the subject you're studying and who will give regular guidance and assessment on your work. You can be in touch by phone, letter or e-mail. Your tutor also conducts group tutorials that allow you to meet other students on your course. These can be the springboard for remaining in touch other students, either through informal self-help groups or more widely, through the OU Students' Association.
Chris Renshaw, OU Tutor:
"A tutorial is the opportunity for OU students to actually get together and have a conversation about the course with fellow students. It gives them the chance to express their ideas and learn about other students' experience of how they're doing.
They learn through working with the other students. They also like to be in the company of other students and feel that they are part of a university. Otherwise the rest of the time they feel isolated. If a student's motivation is slipping for whatever reason, other students can encourage them and keep them going. I think that attending gives them a boost."
Listen
Save this mp3 file to your computer
Save this mp3 file to your computer
You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our mp3 player - download Flash.
Read
I think students attend because they do like to be with other students. If they do attend, then they'll find they get a lot more out of the course. Otherwise, they’re missing the opportunity to share their views and hear others’ experiences, not only of the course but of things related to the course, examples from real life which can bring to life the course theories. Also they learn from just actually articulating ideas that are in the course where they’re trying to play around with ideas and trying to make the course materials their own, just by experimenting really, trying out their own understanding and they wouldn’t do this on their own. It’s something you need to do in a discussion group.
Personal support networks
Make the most of your own personal network of support - family, friends and work colleagues.
Paul:
"This degree should actually have on it: Paul Weir has passed his degree. So has his wife. We'd just bought the house when I started. I couldn't study and do overtime. The overtime had to go. I couldn't do the Open University without Esther saying 'I'll look after us'. It's little things. Little notes that she'll leave me and just say 'I hope your essay is good' or a bar of chocolate: 'Good luck for the exam' because she's gone off to work. Often there's a beer when I get home from the exam. It's silly little things like that which make me realise that she’s behind me 100%."
Listen
Save this mp3 file to your computer
Save this mp3 file to your computer
You need the Flash Player (version 7 or higher) to use our mp3 player - download Flash.
Read
I’ve a wonderful manager who will probably tell you that I sit there when it’s quiet, reading a book; very discreetly, under the desk. That extra hour or two hours a day sometimes is the difference between me getting an essay in on time or me running short of time for that week. It’s a godsend.
Brian who’s a porter, he’s changed shifts for me to have time off for summer school or exams. Rest of the colleagues and all the nurses, they know when my exams are coming up because I go quiet or I get stressed out or I go snappy and then the hospital manager says ‘You really ought to just calm down a bit, not too much, we know what’s happening, you’ll be okay.’
Samina:
"At Salford University, where I work, I'm quite lucky because I can approach some of the academic staff and I can actually pick their brains just to make sure I'm on the right track."
