Re: OK
Hi docks
Yes I would definitely recommend the OU but from a support and course choice/variety angle mostly. Because DL is all they do, the entire OU framework is designed around DL students, whereas organisations that to DL to supplement (mostly) full-time/part-time class-based courses seem amateurish by comparison. The OU has been doing it so long they seem to have dealt with whatever problems or issues you might face many times before and are reassuring. I would guess that state subsidies from the UK government mean that they have more funds than other institutions for student support systems.
All that said, I don't know how recognisable their degrees are in the workplace. They come up very highly in surveys in the UK as regards course content and employer response to qualifications but I don't know how Irish employers see it. I suppose it depends on the field of work you are in. From my previous experience (of a recognisable business degree by DL with an Irish institution), unless you are get a First class or go to Oxford or Harvard or something, a degree is a degree. Often the degree is the basic job qualification that gets your toe in the door and after that it is how you sell yourself and your experience that gets you a job/promotion. I've certainly never been made to feel that it was any less of a degree during job application processes. If anything most interviewers/employers have been really impressed with my having "stuck it out".
One word of caution; an OU honours degree from scratch will take you 5 or 6 years generally (although you could try and squash it into 3, something I get shivers even thinking about). Generally speaking an Irish DL degree seems to take 4 years, depending on the institution.
Best of luck with it!
Rebecca