WORKSHOPS AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

Apologies if you receive this more than once.


There are a few places left on two of our workshops in February:

Strategies for higher education - a mathematical social science approach
A 1-day workshop with Gordon Burt

10 February 2000, 09.30 - 17.00.
Workshop aims: 	To study the literature on strategies for higher education
and also on the more specific areas of distance education, media, quality
and educational effectiveness; and to explore the strengths and weaknesses
of mathematical and statistical approaches to the investigation of these
areas. 
Models are drawn from the disciplines of statistics, psychology, economics
and politics. Models for each of the following areas will be offered and
participants will discuss application to their own situation.
1. Where is higher education going? 
2. Models of choice: individual and social choice; rational choice and
choice under obscurity.
3. Does distance education make face-to-face contact unnecessary? 
4. Formal models of distance education.
5. Do media matter? 
6. Formal models of media.
7. Questioning quality.
8. Effective action in education.
9. A level-1 model of individual students studying a course and its
components.
10. A level-2 model of student populations on courses: student motivation
and preparedness, course design, assessment, dropout and the achievement of
broader educational goals.
11. The flow of student populations through the curriculum.
12. Towards a mathematical social science of education.


Design and production of open and distance learning materials

A 2-day workshop with Dr Fred Lockwood

16-17 February 2000, 09.30 - 17.00.
Workshop aims:	The two-day programme will be a combination of presentations
and seminars, workshops, simulations and games. It is designed to help you
to:
1. Identify the characteristic features of self-instructional material.
2. Describe, illustrate and begin to analyse the main parameters within
which any self-instructional material can be assembled.
3. Assemble a realistic course proposal and production plan.
4. Consider the research evidence associated with the context of learning.
5. Explore the role of formative assessment materials and their design.
6. Generate summative assessment materials and associated marking schemes.
7. Specify the target audience for your teaching material.
8. Estimate learner workload and readability of the materials.
9. Produce guidelines for commenting on draft materials.
10. Consider the mechanisms for materials production.
11. Explore the role of 'old' and new media in assembling teaching material.


For further information or to book a place on one of these workshops please
contact Brenda Parish , tel: 01908 653055, fax: 01908 654173, email:
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Christine Wellard



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