A new strategic direction for the OU - OUeU?

The Open University has revised its strategic direction, with a decision taken to operate in five business areas. One of these "OU Supported Open Learning" is where most of the OU's current activity takes place. The plan is to grow the other four, and you get the feeling that the OU is aiming to be, as a monolithic entity, the heavyweight "eUniversity" that UKEU spectacularly (and predictably?) failed to become.

Here are all five in full:

1. OU Supported Open Learning — UK awards offered by the OU to students in the UK and other parts of the world (principally in Europe) through supported, blended open learning. This constitutes the traditional business of the OU.
2. OU Online — UK awards offered wholly online by the OU to students in the UK and throughout the world. Provision will initially be at postgraduate level.
3. OU Plus — UK or local awards and courses offered to students through or with partners who substantially augment and enhance the OU contribution. These will include organisations and companies drawn from the private as well as the public sector, operating internationally as well as within the UK. In the UK, they will include employers who will be engaged with the OU in the development of re-versioned and co-funded provision.
4. OU Freemium — new businesses deriving income from open educational resources (OER) and associated services. This business area was previously called OU for Free and has been re-titled to stress the need to monetise OER in order to create a sustainable business model. It includes OpenLearn, SocialLearn, iTunesU and Open Research Online.
5. OU Services — the sale of OU educational and research products and services throughout the world, usually on a for-profit basis. These are products and services created through the disaggregation of elements of the foregoing business areas and include not only OU course materials but also, and increasingly, stand-alone services, such as educational and careers guidance, credit rating and accreditation (where it is appropriate and profitable to do so), and academic consultancy and the licensing of intellectual property.

Comments

[Jonathan Darby]

This has been the OU's strategy for almost a year now so it predates Martin Bean. It marks a diversification of approach away from almost total reliance on the traditional business referred to in 1 above. The OU has always been a serious user of technology in education and due to its size has been in a position to invest at a level that few other HEIs can contemplate. The one to watch in this regard is SocialLearn. Due to go public this winter it will offer a disaggregated set of social and educational services – some free and some paid for – that learners can combine in ways that make sense to them and meet their needs. It’s all quite a far cry from UKeU though every bit as radical in how it seeks to add to the manner in which higher education can take place.

[Dick Moore]

A very clear articulation of their strategy, thanks for the post. I am a bit surprised that the OU on-line stream is restricted to their post-graduate offer. It will be good to watch this develop.

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I am not surprised at the initial restriction to postgrad. It is consistent with what most other UK unis do in their overseas online activity (there is more of this than many think), and fits what market research there is (not much, not public anyway).

Today in many of the countries across the world that might be OU targets, the local providers are more and more using e-learning - by no means just the US and developed Commonwealth now - 90 countries could mount some online defence, at my last count. Almost all the other leading open universities have gone online to a significant extent.

So online is not the differentiator it once was. What is, are convenience and the ability to link to global brand and to research-led teaching.

Notice that the "OU" contains no mention of "UK" - unlike the UKeU (one mistake of many - but the times were much more nationalistic then in the online world.)

Having said that, and not just driven by a desire to immigrate, a degree (u/g or p/g) fully recognised by UK authorities is still more valuable to students than one not fully recognised by the delivering developed country - and not all US providers can deliver that aspect. Of course Australia and New Zealand can - but watch other players like Sweden - teaching in English is no longer a differentiator of UK/US/Commonwealth either. (Bologna has increasing power - and beyond Europe - separate topic.)

I would not agree completely with the "far cry from UKeU" claim - perhaps true in what UKeU shrunk to but not so far from the planning documents.

Funny how "fully online" is respectable now - how the worm turns? (what was that "blended" word?) But it was not only the OU who brought that into being again, as several UK unis will probably point out shortly, such as at ALT-C !