The Free Internet Cafe for the Blind & Visually Impaired, the first in the whole of Africa, which opens the World Wide Web, making The Gambia a leading light in Africa, with this technology by allowing free and total access to surf the net send and receive emails and for students to enhace their studies with the aid of this pioneering software. No more do they need to rely on a third party to read to them newspapers, magazines, books, letters and world wide information. Nonvision.KingfisherGambia.com - Open University (novice)
 

Open University ../../www.open.ac.uk/

Level: novice

What is the Open University?

The Open University is the biggest online, distance learning provider. Essentially it is indeed a university, you can obtain degrees in various disciplines, even a mixed degree composed of a range of subjects that interest you.

Its not just for degrees, however, they offer pretty much all of their courses as stand-alone certificates, which means you can start a course or two, then if you really like what you’re doing use these towards a degree.

The Open University does pretty much all of its training online, through downloads and documents, accompanied by books/cd's sent through the post. Assignments and essays are often submitted online too. With certain courses you will have to do exams, these are either online tests which you can do from your own home, or you may have to go to a local examination centre to complete them.

Not all courses have exams, however, and so you can check this out when you pick your course and if necessary switch to a similar one which doesn’t require an exam.

Being the biggest distance learning provider the OU are very accessible and many blind and partially sighted students have completed courses and degrees with little hindrance. The RNIB stocks some OU materials already produced, but if the ones you require aren’t available, you may well be entitled to DSA funding to assist; alternatively the OU do already offer most course materials in one accessible format or another.

Using the OU website

You may notice near the top of the OU homepage there is a link to have the page read to you, this, whilst it may sound useful to start with is unnecessary if you’re already using a screen reader as it doesn’t do anything extra than you can get from the software you’re already using.

From the homepage you will find links to various sections, full of information.

The forms you see here are one to search the whole website, and another for your username and password once you’re a registered student.

The OU website is pretty easy to use, click on the links that interest you and read the information about help available for students, what the OU is like and what courses are available. To get you started, choose the "study at the OU" link from the homepage.

Once you’ve done this, sections are navigated easiest by headings, and you can then find the lists of courses, contact details and other useful information about study at the OU.

You can view the courses by either downloading a prospectus, or more simply, clicking on either all courses or the specific section you are interested in, for instance under graduate/short courses, or psychology/ICT.

There are also some links to A-Z’s of courses, subjects, qualifications and where to start.

Once you’ve decided on a subject and course you can view details of it online – for instance, you might select childhood and youth as your subject and An introduction to health and social care – as your course.

Clicking on the course title will then give you details such as price, next start date, units studied, method of assessment, what qualifications you require to take this course, where you can gain employment once this is completed and information if you’re a disabled student.

The OU has a dedicated site for disabled students, this can be reached from their main website – there is a link to it on every course page. When viewing course details, you will find a heading for disabled students which will briefly tell you whether the course materials are available in an accessible format and whether there are parts of the course that are not suitable. These notes are only a guide and the OU themselves recommend you talk to one of their disability advisers before making a final choice.

The OU offer such a massive range of courses its vital you explore thoroughly before making a final decision. There are set degrees, starter courses and small short-course certificates to open degrees compiled of a range of courses of your choice and post-graduate certificates and PhD’s. In essence the OU has something for everyone wanting to further their education.

Navigation suggestions

This website is easiest navigated by headings and links. Due to the amount of information shown and the relatively small and uncluttered pages it is also a good one simply to read.

 

The Free Internet Cafe for the Blind & Visually Impaired, the first in the whole of Africa, which opens the World Wide Web, making The Gambia a leading light in Africa, with this technology by allowing free and total access to surf the net send and receive emails and for students to enhace their studies with the aid of this pioneering software. No more do they need to rely on a third party to read to them newspapers, magazines, books, letters and world wide information.