Anyone around the age of 23 or 24 and their experiences of the OU.

I was that age when I started, will my opinions count?

I'am 23 going on 24, i have never done a course with them.
I did think about it but in my opinion & the way i work i would not get much done.
I would prefer to be in a classroom having first hand experience on learning something new. I always find visuals are a much better way of learning.
And i have known a couple of people who "studied" with them and they gave up after a couple of months.
But it depends on what you would like to study.
You would need to be really dedicated and have the discipline to get down and study.

If it were me i would strive and achieve more being in a classroom, hence why i'm starting over & going to university this year.

Good luck with what you decide.

Hey thanks for your reply. I suppose that advantage of having other students to work with in the classroom helps, where with distance learning you have to do things on your own, but to be honest I think I would probably work better that way.

What is it that you plan to do at University?

You get more support than people seem to realise. You have a tutor who you can contact by email or phone, and there are tutorials (some courses hold these online but many are face to face). There's also the forum, where you can discuss problems you're having with the other members of your tutor group - tutors also participate in these, so they can be very helpful.

It's not really just learning from textbooks, as the OU have developed study guides that deal with the common problems they know students have. Many courses also have DVD or audio components, and interactive tasks on the website.

That sounds good. Much better than I thought What course did you study with the OU?

Well, I started in 2008 and am on my last module now. I've had an interesting journey - I originally wanted to do Economics but the OU don't offer that so looked into their Economics and Mathematical Sciences degree, but was worried I'd struggle with the maths part. So then I was going to do Business with Economics, but absolutely hated one of the compulsory modules so looked into dropping that - and found they do a degree in Social Sciences which is absolutely perfect for me!

But the OU is flexible, so although I've swapped a million times I've been able to use all my completed courses towards my degree.

I have done:

Y159
DD131
DB123
MST121
B120
DD202
DD201
DU311
Currently studying U316

That sounds cool. Is that one of the environmental units? What is it that you plan to do after you have completed your degree?

Yeah, DU311 is "environmental policy in an international context" and U316 is "the environmental web". I seem to have gone quite environmental and sciencey recently!

Cool Well I hope you enjoy it and good luck with it.
Thanks for your info as well.

I think I'm just a good example of how flexible the OU can be. Many courses have some elements of free choice, so if you take a module and later change your mind that work can be counted towards your new course. And many courses share compulsory modules with other courses, so some courses can be used towards other courses without even having to count as free choice.

When I started (bearing in mind this was a while ago: they've added new courses and degrees since then, and the funding has changed a lot), I was intending to put DB123 and B120 towards the business studies with economics degree, and these would have both been compulsory modules for that. When I changed to social sciences, DB123 was able to be counted as a compulsory module and B120 was counted as free choice.

So although I started in 2008, I didn't choose Social Sciences until 2010.

I'm 23/24 This is copied and pasted from another thread but basically sums up my experience with the OU. I no longer study with them due to them continually changing course dates, plus I have found I NEED good A-levels and no OU degree is going to help me with that!

I was studying Nat Sci between 2010-2012

I was with the OU for 2 1/2 years. Overall my experience was good, I was only once ignored by a tutor and generally both the workload and academic expectation were higher than I experienced at uni. Two words of warning though.

1. You must apply for finance EARLY, finance for courses starting in October closes in August. They aren't like SFE, there are no late applications. I applied late once because the Job Centre had lost my P45 and refused to send proof of my earnings, I was under the impression that the man I spoke to at the OU had extended my deadline. He did not take down any record of my phone call, so I couldn't prove that I had called. That meant a whole 6 months of study was lost which has now turned into nearly 2 years (for various reasons, OU and non-OU related), so I won't complete my degree on time.

2. Don't plan too far ahead because sometimes the courses change weekly. It isn't like at uni where you can plan the credits you want to study over the 3 years and expect them to not change. At one point I had my whole degree planned out, it was going to be ~40% chemistry, ~50% biology and ~10% physics. Then the OU started messing with course start dates and cancelling courses all over the place. So I couldn't do the courses I needed when I wanted to do them. Over the 2 1/2 years I was studying with them most of the courses I wanted to study were cancelled and replaced with courses which would start after I went to uni. I believe this was to tie in with the fee changes which came into effect in September (2012). BUT to my knowledge from people I met whilst there and someone who is studying with them locally they continue to be changing courses all over the place. If you have a place on a course then they won't cancel it, but if you plan to study something now which starts in October it is highly likely that the start date will be changed. It is VERY annoying.

My experience with them was much better than at uni though. Though be aware that many uni's don't understand OU credits, or believe that they are equal to A-levels/access let alone degree level, so if you want to convert it to a 'normal' uni you may struggle.

But you will get a good degree from the OU. You need 85%+ to gain a distinction and therefore a first with the OU this is the same as Oxbridge. It is hard and sometimes unrewarding work, especially now they have taken away the 'merit' grade. e.g. I got 83.5% overall in one of my modules and was awarded a 'pass' mark, the same as someone who scraped through with 40%! Many people don't understand the OU and think it is some kind of lazy or stupid peoples' way of getting qualifications, it certainly isn't! It is hard work and sometimes you get little support (though rarely in my experience). Good luck.

Ah I see.

So what did you end up doing after the OU? I actually heard OU degrees were held in quite high esteem, is this not the case?

Whilst the OU do cancel modules, they don't do it that often - and they do show the future presentations and expiry dates for courses. They've also moved towards signing up for a degree rather than a succession of courses, so it's unlikely it will happen to you. It's not "highly likely the start date will change" - it's completely the opposite. No uni, including the OU, would change courses weekly.

And I got an offer from NCN for direct entry into the secnd year (though work reasons meant I didn't take it up). Other posters in the OU Chat thread have also had similar experiences. Unis do understand OU degrees, and I don't believe the prospects for changing from OU to another uni are any worse than people who want to switch unis. Not all unis accept transfers, but that's no different just because you're studying with the OU.

Like I said I found that they changed start dates etc so often it wasn't worth studying with them anymore. I would go on the site on the day that the applications for a course were meant to open and they would have changed the start date. This meant that I was unable to complete modules when I needed to do them and so, along with my funding problems my whole degree was up in the air. Also like I said this has probably stopped now, because they seemed to be setting it up for those starting this September. So you might be ok now.

OU degree are held in very high esteem by those who know what they are. I got my last job as a Microbiologist due to the fact that I was studying with the OU, even though I was totally under qualified with no experience. You tend to find that people who don't know anything about them and how they work see them as degrees for people who are too stupid or lazy to get into a 'normal uni'

Providing they have sorted the module changes then I would recommend them, though at the moment I wouldn't consider ever going back.