STiP@50 Celebrations – OpenLearn – Open University

STiP@50 Celebrations

Updated Tuesday, 14th December 2021

STiP@50 celebrates fifty years of distance learning at The Open Univeristy along with Systems Thinking. Find out more about systems thinking in practice with these podcasts and videos.

What is STiP@50?

STiP@50 celebrates the unique coupling, in 1971, between the provision of Supported Open and Distance Learning as developed at the OU since 1969, with tertiary level teaching of systems thinking in the UK and beyond. 2021 marked the 50^th anniversary of the founding of a new academic department – the Systems Department. Under the leadership of a newly appointed first Professor of Systems, John Beishon (1930-2001), a group of Systems thinking practitioners (STPs) collaborated to design and then present a new undergraduate module (the first of many) called Systems Behaviour (T241). Through various organisational and operational changes over that time the name, personnel and educational offerings of this group of systems practitioners have changed with the current incarnation being the ASTiP (Applied Systems Thinking in Practice) group in the School of Engineering and Innovation. The life and contribution of John Beishon to establishing the nature and scope of this systems thinking and practice is celebrated through an occasional lecture series called the John Beishon Memorial Lecture (see Summary overview of Memorial Lectures in Open University ASTiP, 2021) while a short history of OU systems thinking – Systems Thinking at the Open University: 50-year celebration (OU Systems @50) is available to download (Ison, 2021).