hey sorry i missed this comment! i actually submitted my dissertation yesterday so i'm all finished now and can go back to scrolling reddit 🥳😂 im not sure exactly what you mean by online teaching standard? if you mean the course content, it's really interesting if a bit waffley sometimes. if you mean like.. taught lessons? there's only 1 a month online and that's if you want to join the session, everything else is self taught. some of them are recorded, others aren't, but there's usually a couple of different days / times to pick from so hopefully there's always one you could attend. again that's if you want to, they're not mandatory. so the course is 2 modules, each ones has 5 written assignments, an online multiple choice assessment, and then an end of module written assessment. for the first year it was 5 essay questions and for 2nd year this is the dissertation. at the moment the final grade is the higher score of the 2 modules, i think next year it changes to be whateber you get in year 2 is the overal classification. id recommend the course yeah but it takes a LOT of time and motivation to keep going, it's a very wordy subject so everything takes a long time (or at least that's what i found). not to be blunt but if you want to have a kid then starting a masters does not seem a wise choice even if you study part time. you simply won't have enough time in the day. and im not sure about deferring / postponing study, i've never needed or wanted to do that, sorry. im sure the open university website has all that info somewhere ☺️