Dr Derek Rowntree

e-mail: d.g.f.rowntree@open.ac.uk

So far, I‘ve had 40 years of researching and developing innovative ways of teaching ­from programmed learning through multi-media open learning to online distance learning — and helping teachers come to grips with them. It was my good fortune to join the infant Open University (UK) in 1969 and, with colleagues in the Institute of Educational Technology and other faculties, to help design those first courses that established its distinctive style and quality of teaching.

I never meant to stay so long with the OU but I was hooked on the continuous innovation. Fortunately, they let me out from time to time so that­—by means of workshops, mentoring, critical commenting on draft teaching materials and joining teams to produce courses myself — I have helped colleagues develop new approaches not only in the Open University but also in many educational and other institutions elsewhere in the world.

Now, at last, I have retired from the Open University — as Professor of Educational Development and Director of the online MA in Open and Distance Education. This sets me free to explore higher education more widely, to write what I wish (without worrying about RAEs) and to make available my 40 years of experience to other institutions looking for ways to improve their teaching and assessment.

Over the years I have written a great deal on learning and assessment. Some of my books are listed below, followed by links to some online articles that embody my approach to curriculum innovation.

Books for teachers

• Developing Courses for Students (Harper & Row)
• Educational Technology in Curriculum Development (Harper & Row)
• Assessing Students: How Shall We Know Them?
• Teaching Through Self-instruction
• Exploring Open and Distance Learning
• Preparing Materials for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning
• Teaching with Audio in Open and Distance Learning
• Making Materials-based Learning Work

All but the first two of these books are still in print and published by Routledge Education.

Books for students

• Statistics without Tears (Penguin)
• The Manager's Book of Checklists (Pearson Education)
• Learn How to Study (out of print while being revised)

Online articles

... about distance learning

• Who are your distance learners?
• Desiderata for a distance learning operation
  
• Developing a distance learning course
• Making online and distance learning work
  
• The tutor's role in online teaching
  
• A new way with words in distance education
• Back to the future with distance learning -- from independent learning to interdependence?

... about assessment

• Designing an assessment scheme
• Teaching better through formative feedback

... about evaluation

• Appraising the quality of materials-based teaching and learning

... about staff development

• Motivating teachers for materials-based learning
• The role of workshops in developing staff for open and distance learning