The Open University is Britain's largest university, with more than 200,000 people studying its courses. Since its establishment by Royal Charter in 1969, it has opened the door to higher education for more than 2 million people.

The Open University has always been a world leader in the use of new technologies to improve the quality of education for students and to broaden their access to it. E-learning — making intelligent use of media such as computer conferencing, email, CD-Roms, DVDs and the internet — has for several years formed a major part of the university's courses and student support services, and today the OU is regarded as Britain's major e-learning institution.

Visit the Open University online at http://www.open.ac.uk.

Major funding for Rough Science was provided by the National Science Foundation. Corporate funding was provided by Subaru.

Copyright © 2002 The Open University and WETA.