Most of UKOU's characteristic components were in operation right from its first year, and the student record file was soon called upon to provide a central data resource for a wide variety of processes. It was the basis for the mailing of course materials and of home experiment kits to the student. Indeed, selecting a great range of mailing labels across a variety of courses and students became one of the chief occupations of the computer, which is at the centre of a continual series of communications from the institution, asking for fee payments, informing of allocation of summer school or exam, requesting return of the home experiment kit, prompting course choices for the next year, and so on. Not all mailings were premeditated. We were obliged to send out corrections, afterthoughts or apologies more frequently than we would care to admit.
Stories abound of instances where simple errors created simultaneous bewilderment across the nation.
The evolution of data processing at UKOU appears to be falling into three stages. It was clear that to follow the admissions system, a system of student records was the next step. Then, as the institution developed its strategies, we found the need for systems to maintain records of the growing number of part-time staff becoming tutors and counsellors, and systems to process students' assignments. As is now generally known, the University adopted a dual assignment policy, using traditional tutor-marked assignments allied to objective testing marked by computer. Year-end procedures provide perhaps the most noteworthy example of using data processing to achieve results impossible by less sophisticated means.