Bringing archaeology alive
January 5th, 2011 | 
Author: One of the greatest strengths of the BBC/Open University link up from years back was that you got what would today be called deep links between the two. Thus you got co-productions that could just as easily have been normal BBC documentaries or OU programmes.
Sadly, that deep linking is no longer in place thus whilst the almost glossy brochure approach of Ancient Worlds that recently finished its run on BBC2 would have complemented perfectly the global reach of World Archaeology, there are no links in either direction. In days gone by there would have been at least a mention of the World Archaeology course on the Ancient Worlds website as a “if you’d like to have more information” type of link but instead there’s a reference list to a series of books. I’m not complaining about that reference list as it gives people a way to follow up the subject in more detail if they wish but it does seem a shame that the BBC/OU crosslinking is no longer there.
Oddly, the only linking from the OU to the BBC programme is via the OU course forum and that too seems a shame as a set of DVDs of the programme wouldn’t look that out of place were they to be included with the course. In fact, they would bring the subject to life as they have for me. It’s all very well reading about places like Uruk, but actually seeing the present day ruins is quite a different experience.
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I saw on a previous article that you said open university is not accredited in the United States. Where did you find this information ? I know that Open University of America is not accredited ( “situated in Puerto Rico”) but I thought Open University of London would be. I am think of finishing my BA there and want to be able to get my MA in the states. Your information on accreditation would be helpful, maybe an article :).
It all dates back a number of years.
Basically what happened in the 1990s was that the OU thought that as they’d a heap of courses in English that it would be quite profitable to expand into America. They then set up the Open University in America (not sure of the exact name) which has no relationship with the one you mention. This operated with a subset of the OU courses available at the time (mainly liberal arts as the sciences were limited by import regulations).
Unfortunately, in the US it’s quite common to start at one distance learning university and transfer points to another which the OU didn’t allow for. Moreover, the OU basically just started promoting courses and didn’t get any accreditation from the appropriate American authorities which had the unfortunate effect that it looked like a scam to the Americans thus student numbers were quite low; apparently a lot lower than the OU had anticipated which was a problem as the OU is basically set up for high numbers of students.
Anyway, net effect of all that was that OU America was never profitable, never got around to getting themselves accredited and eventually it was closed down.
That said, it isn’t a problem for you. If you complete a number of courses (or an entire degree) with the OU in the UK then you can get your courses or degree accredited by one of a number of places in America. I gather that http://www.wes.org is the most popular (with American universities) service; essentially it translates your degree into the American equivalent so that universities and others can compare it with American universities.
Another option, if you’re definitely going to be doing a masters in America, is simply to start with an American distance learning degree. For sheer impressiveness of certificate, Harvard Extension School (www.extension.harvard.edu) is hard to beat (it’s essentially the night class version of Harvard and offers the equivalent of BA & MA [these can be in anything from arts to sciences]) but there are heaps of others amongst which I personally quite fancy the offerings of New York State University (www.suny.edu) which has a very wide range of courses.