I enrolled for the social science postgrad foundation course last year, with a view to completing a Masters in Cultural and Media Studies, but dropped out at Christmas.
I found the course notes to be excellent, the set book on the philosophy of the social sciences very good, the 'research methods' materials less so and the audiovisual ones a bit pointless. The course was interesting and well constructed and the tutor more than helpful. Unlike many of my past full-time college courses, there was a lot of emphasis on engaging with the course materials rather than just regurgitating them. I didn’t find the workload to be particularly high. However, after a while it became obvious that the OU way of doing things just didn't suit me.
Most of the assignments were quite short by postgrad standards (800, 1200 and 2000 words) and came with a lot of contradictory and rather confusing ‘instructions’ about issues to be discussed. I’m not the most concise of writers and after coming from writing a 60,000 word thesis I found it impossible to stay within these limits. My tutor emphasised the importance of referencing the audiovisual materials and I felt like we were expected to do this almost to prove we had watched or listened to them, regardless of their relevance or quality.
After a while, it became evident that the social science courses I had chosen are assessed on knowledge of course materials only and students are discouraged from including any outside readings in assignments. We had access to excellent online journal and database resources, but there was zero emphasis on using them, prior to the dissertation module. (I understand that this is different in the postgrad humanities courses, where there is more emphasis on library research.) I found this very frustrating, especially as many of the readings included in the set books were a bit overedited, to say the least.
There is little editing in the later courses (materials were kindly loaned to me by the OU to assess) and the course descriptions emphasised the importance of reading widely and including material from your reading in assignments. However, when I asked student services to double check this with the course leaders for me, I was told once again that students are examined on course materials only and that the marking scheme reflected this. I realise that I’m in a minority here, but this would really kill the degree for me, especially as some of the later courses are up to a decade old, with no updating of materials since their inception. This is a bit unfortunate in a Cultural and Media Studies degree! As it turned out the degree itself is being withdrawn.
On the whole, I would say that most of the course materials I saw were of a high quality, even if some were a bit dated. I did learn a lot from the postgrad foundation course, even though I didn’t complete it. I’m sure many students would be more than happy to work solely with the materials they were given, but after doing a research degree I found it a bit restrictive.