Innovation and quality assurance in short course production: An evaluation and strategic programme for the Open Centre for Languages and Cultures

The Open Centre for Languages and Cultures (OCLC) is launching in October 2020 as a one-stop shop for studying languages and communication for professional, academic and leisure purposes (for more details, see here: http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/language-short-courses).  

The Centre speaks directly to the OU’s social justice mission, as it aims to address disparities in accessing learning opportunities nationally but also internationally. It provides individuals who lack access to affordable learning with the opportunity to update their skills or gain new ones and to do so flexibly. These skills vary from learning or brushing up knowledge of global, international and socioeconomically important languages in post-Brexit Britain (short courses in Spanish, French, German and Chinese), to understanding how to interact with artificial intelligent systems in the workplace to maximise efficiency and working in diverse teams while ensuring fairness and inclusivity (short courses in British Sign Language, Leadership and Intercultural Communication). It also promotes the importance of languages and of awareness of the key role of communication in a globally connected world. 

The Open Centre for Languages and Cultures pioneers an innovative operational model for course production, testing out a business model for product and income diversification that is expected to be useful to other parts of the university. In that respect, it aligns with the University’s strategic prioritisation of product diversification and content innovation through lifelong learning for corporate workforce that Malcolm Sweeting, Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council, recently highlighted in his e-newsletter (October 9th 2020).  

The Centre provides an ideal test-bed for designing, implementing, and evaluating those much-needed innovative and inclusive models of course creation and delivery at a time of accelerated change in the world of education.  

This scholarly inquiry seeks to evaluate the design, production and delivery of the first suite of Open Centre short courses to ensure and further enhance quality, accessibility and inclusion in these new processes. An additional aim is to synthesise aspects of good practice and innovation and plan for their rolling out to the production of core curriculum, and other areas of university activity, as appropriate.