OpenMusings

A while back, I had a bit of a whinge about the number of Online Application CDs that I was amassing – OU was including one in the mailing for every module I did, and when you’re approaching 20 that starts to add up.

We all have broadband these days, just set up a students’ download page and save the money all those damn CD’s cost. Likewise, a PDF of the Electronic TMA guide would be plenty useful enough for those that need it – I have enough courses under my belt now that I need neither. With those gone, there would be no need for the mailing at all, thereby removing the need for packaging or postal costs. The OU’s been going on for a while about the need to control costs & raise student fees – well there’s a place to start on the cost-cutting that I doubt too many people would care about. It would even be environmentally-friendly.

There were a few CDs / DVDs in with the T214 mailing so I didn’t notice at first, but, praise the maker, there’s no Online Applications DVD – although with the retirement of First Class (bless its soul) and what I’ve taken as a strong hint that we should be using MS Office (the hint being the restrictions placed on TMA filetypes), there’s really nothing else that it could be used to distribute. But for me at least, it’s a welcome omission.

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