Open Learning

Everyone has a view on online and/or blended and/or hybrid learning these days, thanks to COVID-19, the main effect of which appears to be the reproduction of a whole set of pre-existing prejudices and chaotic conceptualisations of how education works. I spent a decade working at The Open University. Teaching at the OU is a weird and wonderful thing. It teaches you to value learning design, something that ‘real’ universities a still somewhat behind on (they tend to be immersed in the wizardry promised by technological ‘enhancement’). During my time there, I had a part in making various modules:

The Level 2 course Living in a globalised world (DD205). The two course texts, Geographies of Globalization and Material Geographies, are co-published by Sage. Some the course materials are also available on the OU’s iTunes U site. The open access unit for this module is available at the OU’s OpenLearn site.

The Level 2 course The uses of social science (DD206), one of the first OU courses to make full use of online ‘virtual learning environment’ modularity.The open access unit from this module, Social Science and Participation, can also be found at the OU’s OpenLearn site.

A Masters level CPD course, Changing Cities: urban transitions and decision making (D837). This course explored the links between contemporary urban issues and critical spatial thinking. It was developed in collaboration with the RTPI. The open access unit from this module, Changing Cities, can be found at the OU’s OpenLearn site.

And here are couple of short introductions to theorising urban issues developed in 2020-21 for undergraduates students at the University of Exeter:

Doing Things with Urban Theory

Mobilizing Urban Issues