uk.education.openuniversity is a usenet newsgroup formed for people to discuss The Open University (OU). The OU is a university in the United Kingdom that provides distance-learning degree-level courses.
Posts in the newsgroup are typically about the OU courses are on offer, help with coursework and questions about distance learning.
History
The newsgroup was created in 1999 with the intention that it would be an alternative to the OU's Firstclass computer conferencing system, which is used by the OU's students and tutors. Firstclass is used by the OU to hold 'bullitin board' style conferences and for email communication.
The creation of uk.education.openuniversity was intended to form a discussion group free from several limitations of Firstclass, which included:
- Course discussions that were only open to students studying the course
- The Firstclass system being inaccessible to those not currently studying/teaching at the OU
- Some Firstclass groups that were seen to be unfairly moderated
- Firstclass has a unique "look and feel" (proprietary interface) that some users disliked
Present Day
The newsgroup has since comprised people asking questions about courses and those generally letting off steam about their studies. The newsgroup is generally not a busy group but has many regular and friendly readers who appear when questions are posted.
Relevant links
- The announcement of uk.education.openuniversity group creation
- The official uk.education.openuniversity charter page
- The FAQ for uk.education.openuniversity (no longer maintained)
- A 'useful links' article that was posted to the newsgroup on a regular basis for some time
Page written by Mark Hill
Page last modified Sunday, March 25, 2007 at 11:50 (UK local time)