Open University in Germany

anyone else have any experienced with the OU? i know there is a whole Munich thread on this, but duh, I'm not in Munich. i was looking at simply taking a couple of computer science classes, but the prices! the basic Java course was 900£ for continental residents. i realize i would probably get to know Java well and that is kind of appealing, but it's also a 6 month class.

i know a few people who are doing the business school curriculum and are highly enthusiastic. just wondering what the rest of y'all have to say.

also, in Germany, I am aware that you can claim around 30% back from taxes.

P.S. Is there anything else comparable to OU for distance learning. I've been surfing around, but so far nothing has really popped out at me. My university (in the US) has a very small distance learning program, but nothing on the OU scale and reputation, I suppose.

OU in Germany can really be hit and miss. It depends on whether there is a tutor for the subject near you. Munich seems to have a large group of students for certain subjects which makes it way better. My ex tried OU and it was a bit of a disaster for her subject as the tutor wasn't even in Germany and there weren't any study groups.

I did a few programming courses with them a couple of years ago and I have to say I really enjoyed them. Not sure if they still do but they used to use a piece of software called FirstClass (think TT but students)

I used to have some great nights on there drinking and chatting to folks

thanks for that input. my worry is that since i would be starting out in compsci, i would miss out on some hand-holding & gentle guidance from a prof or so, so the OU without a tutor in my area, intimidates me a bit.

Hubby finished MBA in March with OU. Good results for him. Costly, yes. Study groups, well, he didn't use any this past year but I think he did prior to that. One must consider their accediation throughout the world which is top notch. His classes were held in Zurich, Manchester, Brussels and tests were taken in Munich. He did receive some tax breaks but he'd have to clarify that. If you have more questions, PM me and I'll hook you up with him via e-mail.

You are from Austin, you should know all about OU - mainly that they suck.

I have never heard of this sort of thing but I would be delighted to do a course I will look it up.

uh-huh

I've studied quite a few courses with the OU here in the UK. I'm currently coming to the end of the Beginner's German in fact

None of the computer courses I've done have had a tutor, but there is a lot of information swapping and advice given out through (as has been mentioned above) FirstClass.

I have never seen my German tutor as she lives in München. Tutorials are conducted over the net using a program called Lyceum, which is a combination of audio using a headset, and a white-board kind of thing where the tutor can put up slides for discussion or you can write and move things about. You can also submit your course-work and take the final exam online, so it is truly remote learning.

Overall I have never had a bad experience with the OU: the teaching materials are well written and up to date, and quite sumptuous on the arts courses I have taken. I'm not working towards any kind of degree; it has just been a pleasure learning with them.

Sadly though, I will not be able to afford to study any more at the OU after I move to Germany, because of the cost. The course fees are very high if you are not studying in the UK. But then again, it's the taxes of UK residents who keep the OU going and providing such a high quality and highly regarded institution.

thanks for that info. with fees for public universities in the u.s., it's the same. out of state residents pay more than in-state. i was just floored to see that the Java class was 380£ for UK residents and 910£ for others. That blew me away!

So what we need is a German university that has distance learning courses in English (I'm interested in maths and possibly computer science).
Unlikely but you never know. Is there any?
From a quick Google ("fernstudium") I could not find anything

I study with the OU in Milton Keynes. I just registered with my parents address in England, had them forward me the books and then told my tutor that I was living overseas for "a few months". I'm not sure why they hike up the prices on courses if you are abroad. It seems to me that, providing you are studying a course where you can submit TMAs online, and have a reasonable correspondence address in the UK that has a willing go-between, then I can't see the reason to double the fees. My solution was to lie. That probably makes me dishonest, but I can live with that.

I did some business courses with the OU, to be honest I found the beginner courses too shallow in their content (duh!but it was more the frustration that it cost 350 pounds to go over stuff that most people already know), and then for the harder courses I found it quite hard to motivate myself to study things that were quite complex and sometimes boring with only myself to motivate myself, and discussion amongst other students was limited because many of the people on the course were pretty thick and by asking them questions they could quickly come to misunderstanding the task at hand (if one person posted a wrong idea in the forums it spread like wildfire amongst those struggling with the studying, so people quickly stopped sharing thoughts)

now I study at evening classes at my local university and its ace and I learn twice as fast. But yeah, the OU courses can be pretty fun sometimes!!! dont let me put you off!

Take a look at Chadron State College (a US school) or the University of Illinois's online campus (both have bachelors in maths). I think the University of Washington has a Masters (might be in applied maths).

Also, U of London external has a Diploma in Maths (I think it's a postgraduate one). They also have computing degrees.

That's Illinois' of course. Also consider is.lsu.edu for the introductory, i.e., mechanical maths courses, e.g., Calc, Diff. Eq., Linear Alg.

I'm sorry Conquistador, that last sentence was just a blur of random words to me...

Thanks for the suggestions, if my plan to get some time off work works, I'll look more into it.
I thought a Germany University might still have lower fees for German residents, but haven't looked in detail yet.

I would think so (at least in most cases) for classes in German. For ones in English, well, there just aren't that many opportunities in those disciplines at public university prices, esp. at the bachelors level. You could try Fern Uni for math courses (but the course materials and exams will be in German)