Like any large organisation the Open University has a particular fondness for acronyms and abbreviations (in truth so does the Student Association though we are trying to break ourselves of the habit).
Most committee and working group names end up reduced to abbreviations, so Curriculum Awards and Validation Committee becomes CAVC, and CASG is actually the Complaints and Appeals Steering Group.
But WREEG! I ask you! WREEG! I told my boss I needed a day off to attend a WREEG meeting and he laughed! Which is a bit of a shame really when you consider that I work for a training company who do a lot of government funded training, and the meeting he was laughing about was the Work Related and Employer Engagement Group.
But I ask you! WREEG!
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News, views and information from the Open University Student Association Vice President Education.
O U S A
MAKING A DIFFERENCE - TOGETHER
Vice President Education
Specific responsibilities: Consideration of the Universitys educational programmes and related matters; conduct of research into factors promoting or inhibiting study; ensuring effective communications and feedback with Student Academic Links; operation monitoring and development of student representation within the university; oversight of progression of policies through representation; initiate election and appointment procedures for central representatives; lead training of central and regional representatives and publication of reports in Bulletin; briefing student members of Senate; and maintaining Register of Decisions with other Officers.
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4 comments:
I entirely agree with you Poll. It would go a long way to demystifying both the Open University and the Open University Students Association if both had a policy of ousting acronymns from documents. Plain English should be the key (as should inclusivity and a push towards understanding of procedures.) PS Well done on your blog spot - what a cool idea. Donald Hedges.
Have you forgotten Donald that we (the Student Association) do actually have such policy? And while I support the explanation of abbreviations and acronyms before use, I'd much rather be able to write or say WREEG after initial explanation, than have to churn out the Work Related and Employer Engagement Group every other sentence ;-)
Hello Poll
Well, actually we do have policy on this thing but you will pardon me for not being able to recall where in the Register of Decisions it is. I agree with you, however that we should explain the meaning of the words first, such as Work Related Employee Group, then use the acronym. Can I also bring to your attention something which I learned on the Curriculum and Awards Board, which is that a lot of the OU documents are written in "academic-speak" and some are written in technical jargon. I would very much like OUSA as a policy to encourage the OU to demystify documents for student representatives (or maybe have editorial notes for student reps). How about that for an idea? Many thanks, Donald.
The policy is in the Register of Decisions (ROD) 1.a.iii 2006/48 Acronyms and Abbreviations.
And if you want to find something in the ROD one easy way is to find it in OUSA Information in FirstClass, open it as a Word Document and then run a search on it.
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