Resumen de Success and Failure in Innovation at the Open University
Despite its deserved acclaim, the Open University is still in the early stages of development. Although the University has survived the first major hurdles to its existence, it is now moving into a far more difficult range of problems, which could threaten not only its capacity for innovation, but even its ability to maintain some of the innovations for which it has already been praised. These difficulties stem from the need to find an appropriate structure for decision‐making within the University, and the need for changes in the structure of higher and adult education generally. These problems are not necessarily specific to the Open University. There are however aspects of the general design of the Open University which promise ways of coping with such problems. In particular, it looks as if the concept of the “course team” could be a powerful medium for change in education.
