What are the Foundations of Legal Knowledge?

There's a lot of talk about "the FLK" in relation to Law degrees. Just what is it and why is it relevant?

Quite simply FLK stands for the Foundations of Legal Knowledge, an umbrella term for the core subjects that a prospective barrister in England, Wales or Northern Ireland or a prospective solicitor in Northern Ireland (or, until a recent radical change in legal education, previously a prospective solicitor in England or Wales) is required to have studied as part of the academic stage of their journey to becoming a qualified lawyer.

(Scotland has its own Law, legal system, legal profession setup and required subjects. I have struggled to find a simple single webpage to link to. The Law Society of Scotland website unhelpfully says "There isn't one 'required subject list' that applies for all courses, as it will vary dependent on where you study." Suffice it to say that a Scottish law degree is the starting point.)

These are requirements of the professional bodies, primarily the Bar Council of England and Wales who set the standards for barristers and, previously, the Solicitors Regulation Authority who do the same for solicitors (though, as we'll see, the SRA has moved away from these requirements). Crucially there is no formal requirement from universities themselves or from legislation for a student to have studied the FLK subjects for their qualification to be a "Law degree". Indeed, there are some Law degrees that do not require the full FLK to pass including the Open University's "Academic law degree route" and "Solicitors Qualifying Examination route" (detailed on the Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB) page, but unhelpfully with drop down boxes - see under "Course details").

But most Law degrees still require the full FLK. For those who wish to qualify as a barrister in England and/or Wales, the seven subjects are (with links to the OU module description pages):

• Contract Law
• Criminal Law
• European Union Law
• Land Law
• Public Law
• Tort Law
• Trusts Law

For those who wish to qualify as either a barrister or solicitor in Northern Ireland they have to take the above seven subjects and also:

• Evidence Law

Note that some of these subjects are sometimes described using different words. For example Public Law is sometimes called Constitutional and/or Administrative Law. Land Law is sometimes called Property Law.

And to answer many questions, yes European Union Law is still a required part of the FLK post-Brexit as previously discussed. I will eventually do a later post discussing whether this still feels relevant. Notably the SRA has reduced the amount of EU Law required for the SQE, which has the effect that the SQE route of the OU only has six of the FLK subjects covered in compulsory modules, though EU Law can be taken as an option.

Students are also required to learn basics such as legal research skills, but this often isn't a set subject in its own right and instead incorporated into other modules.

The FLK used to also be compulsory for the academic stage of a prospective solicitor's learning and training. However, in recent years this has been radically reformed in England and Wales such that a would-be solicitor now must be a graduate, but their degree doesn't have to be in law (though it helps) and there is more flexibility to what must be learned for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, of which more detail can be found on the Law Society's SQE page.

The basic Law curriculum has changed before and will no doubt change again in future. But for now these are the "Foundations of Legal Knowledge".

(Photograph my own.)

How to cope during assignments (2)

So now that the assignment is over, just what is the best way to cope with them?

For starters don't panic. Many an assignment looks daunting when you first see the question but by the time you come to do the task it's much easier to tackle.

Looking at the questions early is useful as it helps with note-taking on each unit. It also means if the question has to be submitted in a particularly complicated format (looking at you, academic posters) you can start preparing the document or thinking about how to create a particular mode.

For most of the written assignments there's usually at least a whole week before submission set aside for the assignment. Often there's at least one special online tutorial devoted to how to tackle it, in particular format and logistics, so make sure to either attend or watch the recordings.

Try to find somewhere quiet and away from distractions to get as much done as possible. This might be a room at home, it might a library, it could be anywhere.

Make sure you have notes, both from the regular units but also specific to the assignment.

If you're on any online forums or groups, check in with them at a reasonable pace. They're good for knowing you're not alone and for getting advice on any technical problems but don't let yourself get too distracted by online conversations.

Everyone has their own pace of writing things. Some people can sit down and dash off a whole first draft in a few hours. Others find it better to write a single paragraph then go away and come back before tackling the next one. There is no one right way to write things.

When drafting, make sure you keep reasonably within the word limit and have time to go back and trim things down if needs be. All my OU assignments have been rigid with word counts and anything over the limit simply will not be marked.

Aim to get a first draft completed early enough to give you time to come back and go over it again.

The submission time is normally 12:00 but with a twelve hours' grace period after this. However, this grace period is intended for handling technical problems, not extra time in which to do the work. Make sure you are able to submit it before the absolute deadline. If necessary, check for the email address to send a copy to if there are problems with the online submission system.

When the assignment is completed and submitted then it's important to relax. Don't spend time worrying about what you've submitted after it's too late to change things.

And of course don't forget about them. Some students have only remembered they have them due at the last minute.

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Is European Union Law still relevant?

It's been exactly ten years since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

Over six years since it formally withdrew.

And yet European Union Law remains on the curriculums of Law degrees up and down the country, often as a compulsory module. Why is this? And is it still justified?

The most direct answer to the first question is that EU Law remains a part of the Foundations of Legal Knowledge, the core subjects which are still required for prospective barristers. The Bar Standards Board has upheld this position in recent reviews, arguing that as the law of England and Wales still contains much law that originated from the EU and that transnational transactions remain key, it should continue to be taught. The Bar Qualification Manual states this as follows:

EU Law in Context

The UK has now left the European Union, but EU Law still has significant relevance to the laws of England and Wales and therefore practise as a barrister. Knowledge of current and developing EU Law may be used to assist in the interpretation and evolution of retained EU Law and as a result, for the purposes of the academic component of Bar training, the Law of the European Union will continue to be a required academic element of a barrister’s training.

However, legal education in England & Wales has been shaken up in recent years by the shift in the solicitors' route away from requiring a qualifying law degree with the Foundations and towards learning functioning legal knowledge to pass the Solicitors Qualification Examination. Significantly the Solicitors Regulation Authority has reduced the amount of EU Law required for the SQE to a portion within Public Law.

This effect can be seen on the three routes the Open University offers on its Bachelor of Laws degree. Those taking the barristers' route have to take the full seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge, including the European Union Law module. But for those taking the SQE route, only the other six are covered in full in the compulsory modules. This is shown by the way that students on the Graduate Entry route who want to get a qualifying law degree with the full seven Foundations have to take the three SQE modules to cover six of them and then EU Law as a standalone module. This module is also available as an option for students on the solicitors' route. For those taking the academic route EU Law is one of several options (as is Land Law).

(EU Law is also still compulsory for prospective barristers and solicitors in Northern Ireland. The Scottish legal system is very different and the core curriculum is described differently on regulators' websites but there's still an element of EU Law there. However, whilst an OU LLB with the right modules meets the requirements for the academic stage of qualification in Northern Ireland, it does not do so in Scotland.)

So EU Law at the OU remains compulsory only for those taking either of the barrister routes of the law degree. The position in other universities is mixed and it would take a lot more research than is usual for a single blog post to see just how many make it compulsory for all students and how many now have it as an option, though such a decision probably owes more to the debate as to how much all law students should take the full Foundations than a more specific one about EU Law.

Will this change in the future? This depends primarily upon the amount of law remaining in the system that ultimately came from the EU. The last decade has seen a number of developments surrounding the Brexit process and its aftermath with effects upon the state of the law here with changes in the relationship with the EU under different governments.

Any decision about whether it should continue to be compulsory for any route in legal education should be taken on the basis of what are the most important components of the law that a prospective legal practitioner should learn. It should not be a proxy for one's opinion on whether or not Brexit should have happened or if the United Kingdom should seek to rejoin the European Union in the near future.

So do I think it still deserves a place on the curriculum? Well I'll try to answer that when I've completed the module.

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How to cope during assignments (1)

What's the best way to cope with an assignment?

Well one basic piece of advice is to not get distracted by writing blog posts!

When this current assignment is done I'll post something more substantial on the subject.

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What Law degree options are there?

This is a relatively straightforward post looking at the various options for studying Law. So what are the degree options with the Open University? There's actually more than you might expect...

Let's start with the main degree:

• Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB)

The LLB is the main Law degree, but it comes in multiple forms at the OU with most of the variation at Level 3 (the equivalent to the third year of a full-time degree). There's the most traditional route based around taking the seven Foundations of Legal Knowledge. There's another route where Level 3 is mainly given over to preparation for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. And there's the "academic" route where the final year options are more flexible and allow a more varied study of law.

• Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (graduate entry)

Similar to the above, this degree allows existing graduates to study in a shorter period of time, omitting Level 1 (the equivalent to the first year of a full-time degree). It has the same routes as the regular LLB, though some of the options on them are different.

• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Business and Law
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Criminology and Law

Both are mixtures that combine key modules to give a more focused degree.

• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and Languages
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and French
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and German
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Law and Spanish

The opportunity to combine the study of Law with one of three continental languages.

• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science (Honours) Open degree

Perhaps the Open University's most original degree, the Open degree allows a student to study a wide range of modules, combining all manner of different subjects. One can focus on one or more subject areas whilst still dipping into studying a range of other subjects. Law modules can be taken though the Level 2 and Level 3 modules sometimes require students to have studied earlier Law modules.

• Master of Laws (LLM)

The main postgraduate law degree focusing upon academic study of the subject.

• Master of Arts/Master of Science Open

The postgraduate version of the Open degree, though it's somewhat more restrictive as to module combination choice, requiring at least two-thirds to be taken from the same study area and the different sizes of modules restricts choice further.

As I'm doing a Bachelor of Laws that will be the main focus on this blog but it's far from the only option out there.

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LLB, FLK, QLD, "law degree" - which is which?

There are a lot of terms flying around about Law courses, creating much confusion. Here's an attempt to clear up what the various terms mean.

A law degree is, strictly speaking, any degree in the subject of Law. However, it is sometimes used in a narrower meaning for a specific qualification required to practice as a lawyer, not least because of usage in the United States.

An LLB is a Bachelor of Laws degree (the abbreviation is from the Latin Legum Baccalaureus; for reasons known to those who understand Latin the double-L abbreviation indicates a plural). In the United Kingdom nearly all Bachelor's degrees in Law are LLBs though there are exceptions, mainly at Cambridge (which offers a "Bachelor of Arts in Law") and Oxford (which has an undergraduate "Bachelor of Arts in Jurisprudence" and a very confusingly named postgraduate "Bachelor of Civil Law"). In and of itself a Bachelor of Laws degree is simply a degree concentrating on the subject of Law. However, many LLB programmes are specifically designed to meet the requirements of the legal profession. Exceptions are known as academic pathways or liberal law degrees or some similar terms.

A QLD is a Qualifying Law Degree. This means that the degree meets the requirements of, and is recognised by, the Bar Council as completing the academic stage of becoming a barrister. Formerly a QLD also met the academic requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become a solicitor; however the route for qualification as a solicitor has heavily changed in recent years. A QLD will include the Foundations of Legal Knowledge (FLK) and also must be completed within six years.

A GDL is a Graduate Diploma in Law. For those graduates who either did not study Law or did not take all the right courses on their degree, the GDL is a route by which they can obtain the relevant legal knowledge without taking a second whole degree. It includes the full FLK.

The FLK or Foundations of Legal Knowledge is a term for the core subjects a student must study to qualify as a barrister (and, in years past, a solicitor) in England and Wales. The core subjects can vary in exact name but they include Contract Law, Criminal Law, Equity and Trusts Law, EU Law, Land or Property Law, Public or Constitutional Law and Tort Law. To qualify as a barrister or solicitor in Northern Ireland the same seven subjects must be taken along with Evidence Law. It's not possible to give full justice to the FLK in this post so I'll devote one to it specially in due course.

The SQE or Solicitors Qualifying Examination is a pair of exams that must be taken to qualify as a solicitor. Along with holding a bachelor's degree in any subject (not necessarily Law though it will help) and two years' cumulative qualifying work experience, this is the modern route for qualification following a recent review.

An LLM is a Master of Laws degree (the abbreviation is from the Latin Legum Magister), a postgraduate degree. An LLM is normally an academic focused degree and generally not a Qualifying Law Degree; however there are some conversion LLMs that function as QLDs such as Birkbeck's LLM Qualifying Law Degree and Wolverhampton's LLM Law Conversion.

An MLaw is a Master's in Law degree (note the difference). This is an integrated Master's degree that combines the content of a Bachelor's degree in law with an additional year at Master's level covering preparation for the SQE exams. Integrated Master's degrees are better known in Science and Engineering courses. (The Open University does not currently offer such a degree in Law; however it does offer them in several other subjects.) As a single degree they can offer better funding options than taking things separately.

An LLD is a Doctor of Laws degree (the abbreviation is from the Latin Legum Doctor). This is awarded by universities in one of two ways. Either it is given as an honorary degree or it is awarded as a "higher doctorate" to an established academic based on a formal assessment of their existing portfolio of published research.

A DCL is a Doctor of Civil Law degree which is awarded in much the same way as a Doctor of Laws.

And one I only thought about after generating the graphic...

A JD is a Juris Doctor, the name for the standard degree required to qualify in some countries. Normally a degree taken by graduates, it seems to be functionally similar to a Bachelor of Laws, or at least a graduate entry one. In some countries it co-exists with the first degree LLB, in other countries it has replaced it. In the UK it appears to have only been offered on its own at Queen's University Belfast and not currently (at least when I checked their entry for Graduate Degrees in the QUB School of Law), but some other universities offer a joint LLB/JD or LLM/JD programme in collaboration with overseas universities.

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What is a barrister and what is a solicitor?

One of the basic features of the legal system is the division of lawyers into distinct professions. The two main ones and best known are barristers and solicitors. But what is the difference between the two and how does this affect legal education?

It's more than just what they wear.

Barristers primarily work in the courts or at tribunals, representing individuals or organisations by presenting evidence and marking arguments. Barristers are members of one of the four Inns of Court, part of the Bar and represented and regulated by the Bar Council. And yes, they're the ones who wear wigs and gowns, at least when they're actually in court.

Solicitors generally work outside the courts, mainly in offices but also in accompanying clients in particular situations. They prepare legal documentation and undertake actions on behalf of their clients. Solicitors are members of the Law Society and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. They don't have fancy robes or headgear and are generally found wearing suits or other office wear.

In terms of legal education, each profession has separate requirements which results in different pathways to them. Until recent years both followed a model known as the academic-vocational-training route and for the academic stage both required a Qualifying Law Degree (containing the Foundations of Legal Knowledge; a future post will go into more detail) or a degree in another subject plus a conversion Graduate Diploma in Law (again containing the FLK). In recent years the solicitors' route has been radically overhauled whilst the barristers' route remains much the same. The latter continues to influence the structure of Bachelor's degrees in Law but there are some law schools that offer greater variation to be able to follow either route or even neither. The Open University is one such.

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Full time or part time?

So what's the best way to study? Full-time or part-time?

As is so often the case, the answer is "it depends..."

With most universities there's either a single option or a binary choice. One option is to study full-time, taking modules equivalent to 120 credits in a single academic year with most Bachelor's degrees taking three years. The other option, if available, is to study at half this speed, taking modules equivalent to 60 credits in a single year, with most part-time degrees taking six years.

(There is some variation from this. Most notably Birkbeck, University of London, has a part-time model of 90 credits a year, so part-time degrees there take only four years.)

But the Open University is even more flexible than this. Students are able to study at whatever rate they like and even interrupt their studies, subject to an absolute time limit of normally sixteen years to complete a standard Bachelor's degree. Law is a more complicated case because there are tighter time limits for completion if the degree is to be used to qualify as a legal professional. There are also shorter limits when degrees are due to be withdrawn and a student has to complete whilst the modules are still available or find a way to transfer their credit onto another programme.

So one can study 120, 90, 60 or even just 30 credits in a single year, as well as taking years out if other factors intervene. It's a very flexible structure that puts the student first.

(Things are a bit more complicated at the postgraduate level. A Master's degree consists of 180 credits and in a full-time university programme it is taken over a whole calendar twelve months, including the summer holidays. But at the OU it is very difficult to take a whole Master's in a single year and sometimes difficult to take it in even two years, not least because many modules can only be started after a previous module has been completed and they each run year long. The new Master of Laws (LLM) degree is currently only available over three years. It is expected that in later years it will be possible to take the first two 60 credit modules simultaneously; however both will still have to be completed before doing the dissertation module in the following year.)

But despite the flexibility, on the Law Bachelor's degrees the most common patterns amongst the students I'm in contact with are either full-time (120 credits a year) or traditional part-time (60 credits a year) though there are exceptions. Full-time can be intense but if you have the actual hours available, the time management skills and the dedication that are all needed for an OU degree then it's perfectly possible to study full-time. In general the modules last half the year so it's only in an awkward six-week overlap period that the workload truly piles up and staff on modules that start around February are perfectly aware and understanding that students are wrapping up their outgoing course. Things are slightly different on Level 1 where the Law modules are 60 credits each and have a longer overlap period but with only two many have successfully balanced them in a single year.

Of course not everyone has the time to take so many modules all at once and that's perfectly fine. And one can vary the rate, especially when you move up between levels so you're not locked into a particular pace for good.

Related to this, legally all Open University students are classified as part-time regardless of how many credits or hours a student does (or is supposed to do). However, there is a limit on overall fees in a year that full-time students can hit (at least in England, the different fee structures across the UK are a regular source of confusion). So there are some financial benefits from going full-time but not all compared to attending a "bricks and mortar" university (though equally accommodation and/or transport costs are fewer).

So ultimately the choice is down to the individual student.

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Years and levels?

Much of the terminology used about universities is based around the experience of students who've come straight from school or sixth form college, studying full-time at a "bricks and mortar" university. The statistics indicate this group is actually a minority, albeit the largest single cohort (see HESA: Student numbers and characteristics for 2024-2025). But despite this most terms (and many tables) default to this experience and talk about other students with reference to them.

The Open University is, by definition, very different. There are no standard rates for taking qualifications with some students taking three years to get a Bachelor's degree and others spreading it out over the sixteen-year limit, taking only one module a year or even a break. Most students study at less than full-time rate and legally all OU students are part-time. So talking of "years" to mean stages of a degree is fairly meaningless.

Instead, the talk is of "levels". These map to the separate years of a three-year full-time Bachelor's degree but avoid confusion with the time taken. So there's Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.

In addition, modules are weighted in terms of "credits" with each level requiring a student to pass modules worth a total of 120 credits. This aligns with, and uses the same level names as, the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS) which is used nationally by many universities to measure the value of courses if a student transfers or even just takes a module at another institution. (A more detailed guide to CATS can be found on the University of Southampton's website.)

(Things are a little different with Master's degrees. The taught Master's level appears to always be labelled "postgraduate" rather than "Level M" which has been used elsewhere. A student taking a four-year integrated Master's degree, such as the Master of Environmental Science, will take modules at both Level 3 and postgraduate level at Level 3.)

What can confuse further is the use of other "levels" in qualification frameworks. For example on the page for Criminal law and the courts one will see "Level" and then a list of "OU level: 1, SCQF: 7, FHEQ: 4". These latter two refer to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework and the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (although there's multiple within that). These frameworks cover qualifications all the way from school to doctoral work so have more numbers.

But much of this detail doesn't have to be dived into to take courses with the OU. Instead, there's a straightforward structure that makes clear where one is on the journey to a qualification no matter how long they're taking.

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The biggest myth about distance learning

"Where'd you graduate from, a correspondence school?"
R.H. Macy to Granville Sawyer, Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

There's traditionally been a lot of cynicism about distance learning or correspondence schools or whatever it's been called. And it gets to the point where some question the validity of the qualifications at all.

To cut to the chase, much of this comes from countries (particularly the United States) with historic lax systems of accreditation for schools, colleges and universities. Often they did not have a system of national verification of the quality and validity of institutions and instead either left it to lower levels of government or, worse, allowed a free-for-all that relied on local reputations to make or break an institution. Sometimes this fed into a culture that viewed government accreditation as being hostile to academic freedom. As technology and travel developed more and more people studied further afield so a need for a system of validation became clear. Some accreditation bodies did emerge, but often the culture of academic independence was already rooted and it was difficult to get legislation to force the issue. And so unaccredited institutions, both good and bad, persisted for a long time.

Distance learning developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and faced the question of whether the teaching was any good, especially in a country and world where anybody at the other end could set up an educational institution that would be known only through its advertising. (It also has to be said there was a debate about the teaching methods of distance education though time has resolved that one.) And so distance learning developed an unfortunate reputation for dubious quality courses from questionable institutions. Or more simply "diploma mills" just selling the qualifications.

Law in particular suffered from a backlash in the United States against correspondence schools by the existing law schools and legal profession in the years before the First World War. One of the results was the American Bar Association pushing a requirement for physical attendance at a law school for admission to a state bar, effectively limiting the value of legal distance education in the US. Most correspondence law schools closed by the 1930s at the latest though LaSalle Extension University was still offering Law courses into the 1970s (and fighting against the restriction). More about the rise and fall can be read at Legal History Blog: Missionary Man: William Sprague and the Correspondence Law School.

Fiction also added to this reputation, with TV Tropes even having a whole page cataloguing examples at Correspondence Course of dubious institutions and courses that really shouldn't be taught by distance learning such as driving. Though the page does (currently) acknowledge that in real life much distance education is highly valid and respectable, even giving the Open University as an example.

But the reality is that many countries do operate strict systems of accreditation and quality assurance such that distance learning universities are just as valid as physical attendance "bricks and mortar" institutions. And this is definitely true of the United Kingdom where a "university" has to be authorised by charter or Act of Parliament and it is illegal to offer unauthorised qualifications or even use the word "university" in a name.

So an Open University degree is just as legitimate and valued as one from a bricks & mortar university. Ignore the myths.

How is Open University studying done today?

Originally the Open University was going to be called the "University of the Air". It's perhaps fortunate they didn't adopt that name as they would have eventually had to face changing a well-known brand to match modern teaching methods.

When I was young, the internet was barely a thing. The Open University still broadcast many lectures on the BBC, either very early in the mornings or taking up a whole morning and into the early afternoon on BBC2 at weekends. (Fortunately the rise of the video recorder was steadily releasing students from the tyranny of the early morning schedules.)

I also remember seeing a lot of OU course materials in the reference section of a borough's central library. Again these were the days before the internet was significant. Back then libraries would often contain a lot of reference-only materials ranging from encyclopedias to national sets of phone directories to all manner of special reference books so people could go there to look things up. Amongst the items at this particular library were shelves containing back-up sets of the core materials for each OU module that were otherwise mailed out to students.

Media depictions of the period show students studying at home with mailed out items but also sometimes interacting either through physical tutorials with OU tutors (e.g. Educating Rita) and/or physical attendance at weekend and summer courses (e.g. Goodnight Sweetheart - "The More I See You", the fourth episode of series 1 if you're wondering). The broadcasts also popped up in many other television shows as background detail (e.g. in Keeping Up Appearances they were often watched by Onslow whilst Life on Mars later used them to good effect as to invoke the world of 1973 with a twist). Many courses were assessed with formal exams at the end.

Today things are very different. I can't comment on other degrees but on Law the teaching is now all delivered online and assessed by coursework. We used to receive physical copies of textbooks but now even these are supplied digitally on Law Trove.

For each module the materials are broken up into a string of units. These are a series of webpages supplying the course material mainly in text form but interspersed with diagrams, graphics and video clips. Some clips may be a direct explanation to camera of a key concept, others may be a news report or other stock item to illustrate a subject. The units often have activities to do as you go, whether a straightforward test of understanding or a bit of substantial research and writing.

Supplementing this are the online tutorials. There are basically two versions but both operate as an online meeting. One is a general, module wide affair where one or more tutors will talk through slides, taking questions mainly at the end. The other is smaller with individual tutors taking students through materials, including activities and discussion. There are several different sessions for each tutorial and a student is not required to only attend with their own assigned tutor - indeed often the tutors rotate and not every one takes a presentation of every tutorial.

Students have access to an online library and multiple databases with Law being a subject that requires an especially strong amount of independent research to find statutes, cases, articles and the like.

Assessment so far has been mainly through submission of written assignments of various lengths and in various formats, known mainly as "TMAs" - Tutor Marker Assignments, "EMAs" - End of Module Assignments and even "EMTMAs" - End of Module Tutor Marked Assignments. On some modules there are also "iCMAs" - Interactive Computer-Marked Assignments whereby a series of factual questions are asked; so far all mine have had multiple choice answers. Traditional exams were phased out relatively recently.

Tutors are assigned to a group of students to provide guidance and support as well as to mark individual assignments and give feedback. Tutors can be interacted with through email, occasional arranged phone calls, online forums and in online tutorials.

There is an app that in theory allows students to read the materials on their phones but it's not very good with clips and activities so I rarely use it.

It's very different from when I did taught degrees at a "bricks and mortar" university though I suspect the teaching there has also changed a lot. My first degree involved almost no academic use of the internet beyond a few emails to lecturers and the ability to use the library catalogue outside the library itself. The exceptions were a Computing course and one other module where one of the academics posted the text of their lectures online.

One thing that is similar, though voluntary, is studying in libraries. Sometimes to get peace and avoid distractions I take my laptop and go and study in another institution's library, even sometimes consulting the books there (although usually the editions are too old). The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) run the SCONUL Access scheme under which students can register to us other institution's libraries.

Although it may be different on other subjects with physical meetings and summer schools, on Law so far I have never interacted in person with another student or academic (although I have met some students at an Open University Law Society event). Nor have I had to attend anywhere in person, let alone had to travel to any physical OU facility. Truly this is studying Law at a distance.

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