Cracking ‘Open’ a Learner‐centred Door: Open Learning or Just an Open Question?

SUMMARY

In many educational settings a move to more open learning presents difficulties. In the context of ‘massified’ higher education, in a new and impecunious British university, those difficulties are considerable. This paper discusses the problems in attempting to focus learning more upon the student in a popular undergraduate module which introduces the topic of business computing. The changes are described and an analysis of whether greater openness has been achieved is presented. Difficulties in encouraging students to move from a passive model of education are considered. The unexpected changes flowing from withdrawal of academic staff in favour of technical demonstrators are noted. A conclusion is that students, university management and academic staff themselves have reasons to resist greater openness, and that continued rapid change in a climate of stringency also limits the opportunities for innovation. Funding the continued research that is clearly needed will be difficult.