these are NOT official Open University Web pages   

 

My experience as a student in:

      Development Studies:
Human, Community and Environmental

OU Courses I Have Taken

 
In the Fall of 2002, I went back to formal studies for the first time in more than 14 years -- and for the first time, post graduate studies. I pursued a Masters degree in Development Management at The Open University, which is based in the United Kingdom. In this context, development means intentional actions, in the form of projects and programs, meant to improve social, economic, health and environmental well-being of a community or region. It usually also means working to preserve cultural aspects of the target area. That means development relating to human development, community development, environmental development, institutional development, country development, etc. How does one successfully manage activities and initiatives meant to improve people's lives and their environment, and address critical situations such as HIV/AIDS, violence and discrimination against women, child labor, illiteracy, environmental destruction, hunger, and so forth, in sustainable ways and ways that respect local culture - local language, history, food, community practices, etc.

What's wonderful about studying development management is that its applicable to so many, many professional and personal settings, in any country. I officially finished in December 2005, when I turned in my final paper, just three months shy of my 40th birthday, and since then, I've used the materials from courses again and again in various work, including in Afghanistan and Ukraine and in the USA. I've seen the lessons from these courses affirmed over and over.

The MSc in Development Management at The Open University is taught by more than 20 faculty members that are a part of an interdisciplinary group which includes economists, sociologists, geographers, scientists, engineers and political scientists. Each course required approximately 300 hours of study.

OU was established in 1969 and is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire. OU is the biggest university in the UK for undergraduate education and the largest academic institution in the UK (and one of the largest in Europe) by student number, and qualifies as one of the world's largest universities. The OU actively engages in research. For instance, the OU's Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute has become particularly well known through its involvement in a variety of international space missions. The Open University is one of only three UK higher education institutions to gain accreditation in the USA by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an institutional accrediting agency, recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). 

It is very helpful in going for the OU MSc in Development Management if you already have experience, as a volunteer or as a professional, in helping a community anywhere address a particular issue, educating a particular group of people about a specific issue, etc. My professional, volunteer and activism experience in the USA gave me the background I needed as much as my UNDP-related development work abroad to understand and relate to what I learned in these courses. For instance, before I started working for the UN, I had worked with American Indians in California who were relocated off their reservations through the 1970s, worked in initiatives that brought theater to youth who would never have experienced such otherwise, worked with a nonprofit organization promoting access to technology and tech education for people with disabilities, and undertaken advocacy work for various reproductive rights groups -- all of these experiences were incredibly helpful in relating to what I studied (let alone to working abroad in development for the UN).

According to OU materials, nearly all OU students are part-time and about 70% of students remain in full-time employment throughout their studies. OU courses are considered to be among the world's best distance education materials. Several people at UNDP's UNV headquarters, where I worked until February 2005, got or were pursuing Master's Degrees through OU.

 
Courses I took for the degree:

 
How much do you think all of the materials for all of the above weighs? You can read the official descriptions of each course I've listed above.

Also see How I Studied and my Advice for TMAs and Exams

In November 2007, I started taking a free course through Open University's open content initiative, OpenLearn. The 43 units of study offered through OpenLearn are spread across nine subject areas: Arts & History, Business & Management, Education, IT & Computing, Mathematics & Statistics, Science & Nature, Society and Study Skills & Language Learning. In short: it's free university courses online, except you don't pay... and you aren't graded. I'm currently taking Achieving public dialogue (S802_1), which looks at active forms of involvement by the public in policy relating to science: how is the public voice heard and understood? What is public involvement of this type for and is the outcome in some way Œbetterš than traditional methods of policy making? What do phrases like "public consultation," "public engagement" and "Œscientific literacy" really mean? How do non-experts weigh the risks and benefits that science offers?

Why am I taking this OpenLearn course? Several reasons:

Only downside of OpenLearn: it requires that you use a latest web browser. So if you use an older operating system and cannot update your browser, you are locked out of many of the features (but not the reading materials).

Also see:

 
Back to my development resources main page

 


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