OUseful Info

Open Tentacles

Yesterday, I got what feels like my weekly Amazon delivery (1-click goodness...!) and was surprised to see an OU logo (or sorts) staring back at me from the back cover of one of the books that fell out of the package.

The book in question - Game Cultures: Computer Games as New Media (Paperback) - just happens to be published by the Open University Press, which I hadn't realised at the time I purchased it (not that that would have made any difference...).

Just like other universities, we have a university press (via McGraw-Hill Education) that publishes books, err, according to what criteria I'm not quite sure? [see comment]

Unlike many other institutions, we also enter into co-publication deals for books that will be supplied with some of our courses, a consequence in part of being a distance learning organisation that operates at large scale.

We also co-produce broadcast radio and television with the BBC. Most of the programmes are supported with a page or two on Open2.net (which is produced by BBC Worldwide under contract to the OU, I think) and DVDs of some of the programmes - such as Rough Science and presumably Coast - can be bought through Open University Worldwide (OUW).

OUW also sell course packs (but site navigation is lousy; and guys - check out the favicon...and if I were you, I'd make http://ouw.co.uk point somewhere sensible, too - you'll see why in a minute...)

Corporate Open University Services - COROUS - is the "company that works with you to develop the full potential of your workforce" by using "an appropriate blend of online and offline learning strategies to enable organisations to develop their human capital"; that is, it's the bit of the OU that provides "learning, tailored to needs, to many of the biggest names in international commerce and UK public services."

That site doesn't respect a dropped www in the url either (I'm thinking: http://corous.com - DON'T TRY IT) with rather more unfortunate consequences than the 404 that http://ouw.co.uk gives:

[UPDATE: Open University Worldwide (OUWorldWide) seems to be an internationalist education wing of the university, looking to promote our values, social justice mission and methods across the world.

Open University Worldwide can put the Open University's wealth of materials, technology and expertise to work to support your interests, capabilities or productivity. We manage the OU's international teaching partnerships, corporate e-learning programmes and educational consulting services. We handle multimedia product sales, distribution and licensing. We foster academic fellowship and mutual exchange.

]

The OU also has a raft of other URLs (http://openuniversity.com, http://openlearn.com and http://openlearn.org come to mind), but at the moment they seem to resolve/redirect to the open.ac.uk domain.

[UPDATE: There are also some services we offer that don't have their own domain, but which could do? Open University Validation Services, for example: "The Open University offers a quality assurance and validation service for higher education organisations which do not have their own degree awarding powers."

Or how about CPD Services for Employers. Err, oops - the CPD site is here: Continuing Professional Development]

PS just because, here are some Ozric Tentacles...

Posted by ajh59 at July 26, 2007 10:40 PM