openED 2.0 is a FREE and OPEN online course for business students and practitioners alike. The course consists of 10 distance learning modules which should each last between 2-3 weeks. This website provides all you need:

• +   Learning materials
• +   Suggested activities
• +   Forums for meeting people and discussion
• +   Calendar of the live chat sessions scheduled
• +   Repository to save your assignments
• +   Mechanisms for providing peer assessment and support
• +   Records of previous participants work
• +   Help in getting started with open learning

You can participate in any combination of the 10 modules and, whilst most people will probably want to study the course, we also offer the chance for you to help teach it or to help moderate the forums. The next formal round of the course (this will be supported by the openED team) starts in November 2011. Find out more at the First Steps to Studying page

	Study the Course   Register for the course and then you can begin to study the materials and participate in the forums and chat sessions There are 10 modules available
	Teach or help facilitate the Course Register your interest in helping to facilitate the course, providing tuition or additional teaching session or offering to mark or accredit assignments
	Gain recognition for supporting other participants New for November 2011 is the chance to gain credit (a 'Letter of Recommendation') for providing peer support and moderation

Please feel free to browse the site before registering and we look forward to welcoming you to the course.

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26 / 1 / 12: Why not organise your own IRC session or start a Forum discussion? We know that sometimes it can be hard to attend the IRC chat sessions that we have arranged so why not organise your own? The #openED IRC chat room is always open and anyone can lead/facilitate a session (once arranged you can add the event in to the timetable so that no one else organises something for the same time!). The forums could be a great place to suggest a time or try to arrange something with others. And if you haven't the time for this; just keep an eye on the timetable - next week there's a Module 2 introductory session.

24 / 1 / 12: Module 5A2 and Module 3 IRC Online Text Chat Session this week: Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be an IRC chat for Module 5A2 at 6.45pm UK Time and on Thursday one for Module 3 at 7pm UK Time. Remember, if you are planning on attending these please post in the forum. For for the Module 5A2 post here and for Module 3 post here. 

9 / 1 / 12: Modules 3 and 5A2 begin today: Happy New Year and welcome to the second part of the openED course (round 3). We look forward to welcoming many of you who started in November back, and also new participants. The website moved server over the New Year so apologies if you had difficulty accessing it (you can report any issues we haven't yet spotted in the Technical thread in the forums). There wil be Introduction IRC chat sessions for both Modules tomorrow evening. Please look at the timetable for more details (and for information about when Modules 2, 5P2, 5P3 and 6 take place).

5 / 12 / 11: Module 4 begins today: Module 4 should take around 2 weeks and is the final module to start before the Christmas break. In January there are further openED courses. There are several IRC chat sessions planned for Module 4 - the first should take place tonight (watch out for updates on the Module 4 forum). If are not doing Module 4, these next few weeks will give you the opportunity to finish off earlier modules such as 5A1 or 5P1 (remember to upload your end of Module assignment).

29 / 11 / 11: Final IRC chat sessions for Modules 5A1 and 5P1 this week: The final IRC chat for Module 5A1 takes place tonight at 8pm UK time - sign up on the forum (if no one signs up it may be canceled). The last Module 5P1 chat session happens on Saturday 3 December at 3pm UK time: for more details see the timetable.

24 / 11 / 11: Module 5P1: the next IRC text chat session for Module 5P1 will begin at 15:00 UK Time tomorrow (Saturday 25 November). Check out the 5P1 forum thread for more details. 

23 / 11 / 11: Module 1 Second IRC chat session: The second IRC Chat session will take place tomorrow at 18:00-19:00 UK Time. For more information and to sign up visit this forum thread.

22 / 11 / 11: Daily visits to openED website remain stable. Around 150 to 200 unique visits are made to the openED website every day. This indicates lots of you out there are studying the course even if you haven't had chance to post to the forums much yet. Yesterday for example, our system logged visits from: Greece, Switzerland, France, Norway, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Singapore, Australia, Canada, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and South Africa. So how is the course going so far? - why not share your thoughts and feedback in this forum thread or using the Learning Reflection Form.   

21 / 11 / 11: Don't forget to post your activities to the forums. All three modules underway at the moment invite you to post the outputs of some activities in the forums. Last week this would include: Activity 3 from Module 1, Activities 3, 4 and 7 from Module 5A1, and Activity 1 from Module 5P1.

18 / 11 / 11: Module 5P1 sessions move to Saturday afternoons: Please note that the Module 5P1 text chat sessions will now take place over the next three Saturday afternoons rather than the original advertised times. Whilst we try to keep timetable changes to a minimum, each facilitator has to fit their sessions around ever changing work commitments so please do check the timetable regularly. The session will take place on: 19 November, 26 November and 3 December. Each session: 15:00-16:00 UK Time.

14 / 11 / 11: Module 5P1 IRC chat session: The first IRC text chat session for Module 5P1 will now take place on *Saturday* and will be facilitated by George Alexakis who is based in Athens, Greece. Look at the Timetable to check the time *as this session has been rearranged* and also the Help section for support on how to join these chat sessions.

14 / 11 / 11: Learning Reflection forms update: many of you have already completed your first learning reflection form - if not the beginning of a new week is always a good time to do this. Every Monday evening we will aim to send you, by email, copies of any forms you have completed in the last week. Reflection forms done in the last 7 days will be sent tonight. 

12 / 11 / 11: Modules 5P1 and 5A1 start Monday: Module 5P1  presents an Introduction to the contemporary enterprise and managerial functions and will help you in building an awareness of the nature and the aim of contemporary enterprises; understanding the inner and outer environment of the enterprise; identifying the main categories of stakeholders and realising the role of management. Module 5A1 will help you gain experience of critically examining published research papers; an understanding of how the nature of the research questions asked affects the choice of research methods; and typical categories of research methods (including epistemology, validity, reliability and objectivity). Each module lasts 3 weeks and will take 5-10 hours a week to work through.

----------  for more visit the News Archive (14 posts archived), #openEdr3 Twitter Stream and the News Forum -----------