Open University Study Journal

Thanks for the feedback And_I - is that name pure ...

2008-09-19T01:28:10.865+01:00

Thanks for the feedback And_I - is that name pure coincidence?

I did initially reserve my places online. But then...

2008-09-17T22:21:00.464+01:00

I did initially reserve my places online. But then I got the stuff through the mail which wasn't very clear on how to proceed, and that's where we came into the story here. I think the problem, if there is one, is just the old one about undertrained temporary staff - a very difficult balancing act for management, I'm the first to admit. I'm sure that if I'd got lucky and spoken to the "right" person first time there would have been no hiccups. Still, all's well that ends well: As soon as I've finished my current ECA, filling in the registration form for M255 is my top priority.
I'm uncomfortably aware that my blog looks like an OU-bashing forum at times. I think I'll make a special Queen's Speech style end-of-year post and put things into perspective a bit. There may be niggles - even BIG niggles - but the OU is opening doors for me, not closing them and any student lucky enough to be part of it should feel grateful and any teacher honoured enough to be part of it should be proud (even though one or two should then be dragged into the street and shot through the lungs!)

I'm curious, why didn't you just book on line?

2008-09-17T18:58:38.678+01:00

I'm curious, why didn't you just book on line?

No, but she has been called worse. :-)

2008-09-17T18:55:47.836+01:00

No, but she has been called worse. :-)

I'd never thought of it like that - perhaps we sho...

2008-09-17T12:29:51.903+01:00

I'd never thought of it like that - perhaps we should ask in future, lol. They really couldn't complain.

Some years ago a friend of mine was paying for a sandwich in a supermarket. The cashier took his £20 note and ostentatiously held it up to the light before accepting it. My friend proceeded to do exactly the same with the notes she gave him as change. I just loved that.

It wasn't me that logged in. But your blog is gre...

2008-09-17T12:12:18.164+01:00

It wasn't me that logged in. But your blog is great, so I guess a lot of people are having a read. Reading about your negative experiences is as valuable as reading about your positive ones.

Good luck with your degree. It will probably pay dividends before you even finish it.

"Or so I would have let myself think had I not lon...

2008-09-17T12:00:55.607+01:00

"Or so I would have let myself think had I not long ago learned my lesson about people entrusted with important jobs."

Lol, lol, lol! So true. The best part is when they ring YOU and ask for a range of personal identifiers, without being able to prove who THEY are!

SimonI tried to find the free videos on learnvisua...

2008-09-11T00:07:48.033+01:00

Simon

I tried to find the free videos on learnvisualstudio.net as you suggested but it appears you have to subscribe? Please advise.

Thanks Mary.I was reluctant to sign up for even on...

2008-09-01T17:45:27.436+01:00

Thanks Mary.

I was reluctant to sign up for even one course before January, but having reviewed my financial position I realise I can afford to do both.

However, I've decided only to start M263 in October. I'm going to leave M255 till February as it seems that might get me a "known quantity" for a tutor.) I wonder if she's ever been called that before!!)

You can do M255 starting in Oct 08.

2008-09-01T09:31:34.215+01:00

You can do M255 starting in Oct 08.

You could postpone the decision by doing M263 and ...

2008-08-26T13:56:22.360+01:00

You could postpone the decision by doing M263 and M255 this year, using M263 as half of your free choice for B44. Just a thought.

BTW if you do M255 in Feb, you may get stuck with me as tutor again - just thought I would warn you.
:-)

And your interpretation of simple facts as hatred ...

2008-06-26T13:45:25.865+01:00

And your interpretation of simple facts as hatred is yours. Think about that.

I have exactly the same frustrations with some of ...

2008-03-29T12:25:50.271Z

I have exactly the same frustrations with some of the material in T175. But I'm not finding T175 as frustrating as M150.

One of my biggest gripes is at T175 was filling in the boxes that state what a computer's function is. For example, stores information, manipulates information, etc. If you apply these abstract labels onto what actually happens in a computer, you quickly realise that you cannot manipulate data unless you can store it somewhere to be manipulated (be it in RAM or the hard drive, a memory stick, where ever). So if you manipulate data you have to store it. One cannot exist without the other. So these labels are incredibly confusing to me.

What interests me is that it seem you have a bigger problem with T175 than with M150. I have a bigger problem with M150 than T175. But the root of my problem is the friction in the feedback I received from my tutor.

Personally, I don't see value in either course (except for the final goal of a degree - can't loose sight of that!). But T175 has at least been tolerable for me so far. Some of the comments received back from my M150 assignment are puzzling because they are simply wrong.

I've always believed that a good tutor can make a bad course enjoyable. Is the tension you have because of the course material or because of the feedback you have received to your concerns?

I'm sad to hear that you are having health problems. I hope this wont deter too much from your studies. FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION!

Hi Martin - thanks for visiting.One of the T175 tu...

2008-03-28T20:30:53.814Z

Hi Martin - thanks for visiting.

One of the T175 tutors spotted my blog post and we had quite a chat about it all. I had been scouring the Web for anything pertaining to the course since December. (The equivalent of an excited kid feeling his unopened Christmas presents, I suppose.) As I found so many references to the course, it's not possible for me to state for certain where the bogus TMA came from. However, in the dialogue I had with the TMA tutor (whose name escapes me... I can dig out his e-mail if you want) we seemed to reach the conclusion that out-of-date stuff was posted onn the T175 Web page for a very short time, the day it was "launched." I gather we're talking mere minutes, so if this WAS the source of the offending file, we both had very bad luck stumbling upon it at the right (or wrong!) moment. I hope you get a sympathetic response from the OU. To put it politely, T175 seems to have had some "issues" this year. Though the knee-jerk reaction to initial comments was predictably defensive, I suspect that the course admin are beginning to accept their own fallibility, as more than once they've issued warnings of TMA errors. My advice is not to lose your rag with them, but make it clear you expect them to make some allowances. The worst case scenario would be if they accused you of buying the answers on Ebay, which would certainly "fit the facts" from their point of view. If they try that approach, object on the grounds that they should have disqualified you before returning your assessment and that issuing an actual mark implicitly accepts the work as your own. On a more positive note, you need an overall score of 40 in the continuous assessment of T175. TMA01 represented only the first 10. So, even if your score for TMA01 was zero and you put your CMA through the shredder without submitting it, you could still pass by getting 80% in the other two TMAs. (Disclaimer: FFS don't take that as gospel, I'm only human and may have read the score thingy wrong!)

Good luck!

Greg,I had also downloaded the wrong TMA from the ...

2008-03-28T19:34:34.620Z

Greg,

I had also downloaded the wrong TMA from the O.U website.
Unfortunately, as I downloaded it within the first two weeks of the course,from the BLOCK 1 details as directed by my Tutor. It did not occur to me that it would be the wrong one. As questions 1 and 4
are the same on both companion TMA, I did receive some marks. I am appealing to the O.U. Do you mind me asking where did you downloaded the 'wrong copy' from.

Your hatred of Firefox is your weakness...

2008-03-13T17:24:55.643Z

Your hatred of Firefox is your weakness...

Greg,If your interested in a gentle learning curve...

2008-03-03T21:39:14.127Z

Greg,

If your interested in a gentle learning curve into VB 2008 check out the free videos on learnvisualstudio.net. They are geared at vb2005 but to be honest the framework and majority of coding is identical, 2008 is not a massive change syntax wise for VB it just leans towards Vista.

Good luck with your studies

Simon
(www.abscforme.co.uk)

It's difficult to state exactly what problem I'm h...

2008-02-25T22:34:44.292Z

It's difficult to state exactly what problem I'm having, because I don't want to make the powers-that-be jumpy about possible collaboration/ cheating. My post titled
AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! is an attempt to point up the kind of thing I'm moanig about without explicit reference to the question. Once the cut-off date has passed, I'll e-mail you and let you have the gory details!

Re: Your comment about RAM. Yes, I've sometimes felt the urge to interupt in PC World when I overhear a salesperson trotting that one out to some poor unsuspecting customer.

As to course materials and teaching: The actual course materials are by and large well written and presented. (I was several pages into one book before I found a grammatical error, which is much farther than I've ever got on the BBC Web site!) That's why I was so shocked by the ambiguous and treacherous TMA! I suppose that distance learning will inevitably consist of teaching methods which are less than ideal. The positive side is that we're free to go our own way in many respects. I have a lot of time for the tutors. I have to say that if my stepson's teachers were as intelligent and committed, I wouldn't be fantasizing about sending him to a public school. Both the OU tutors I've met (and more online) have helped me in ways far "above and beyond the call of duty." That's one reason that I absolutely hate having to slag off any aspect of the courses; the individuals I've come across are so impressive and dedicated that I wouldn't want to offend them for the world.

There will always be mistakes in any publication. ...

2008-02-25T20:42:27.245Z

There will always be mistakes in any publication. What’s your concern?

If the author of the material does not understand the mechanisms behind the subject matter and this is reflected in the material, I’m with you in reporting it. If the author has made a mistake in one line or a question, etc, then I’m more concerned about the process of review in the submission of the material.

Having said the above, I have read statements in the T175 material that go something along the lines of ‘increasing RAM in your computer will speed it up’. This is a false statement. I have three gigs of RAM in my computer. If I increased it to sixty-two gigs I would see a 0% speed increase. The increase of speed is a by-product of the operating system no longer having to cache data on the hard-drive. Increasing your RAM prevents slowing your machine down, it doesn’t speed it up!

It seems to me that the problem mentioned above is in the method of teaching. In the case mentioned with RAM, the author labelled a bunch of things and regurgitated them onto the course material.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on criticising the lack of teaching the mechanisms on the subject in favour of placing labels on everything? Stating what something can and cannot be is the process of teaching, right? I couldn’t disagree more strongly with the previous statement.

I expected to learn how things work, what the mechanisms of computing are. Instead I’m faced with the bullshit of the course leaders defining and limiting my world for me. As you have probably already worked out, I’m really hating M150 & T175 so far!

But, as you are rightly angry about, if the author gets the mechanics of the course wrong, the teaching is marred. There should be many stages of expert review before the material is published. If the tutor/author gets the labelling wrong, it’s even more disastrous as the student has no grounding of why it’s wrong.

I Don't think the labeling method of teaching works and it's all over M150 & T175!

In the words of Sheriff Vasey, "A CLUE: NO!"

2008-02-23T22:29:51.462Z

In the words of Sheriff Vasey, "A CLUE: NO!"

Hi Greg,I’m experiencing many of the same frustrat...

2008-02-22T16:49:48.093Z

Hi Greg,

I’m experiencing many of the same frustrations!

The questions in the TMA don’t contain enough information to arrive at one definitive answer. I spent a few lines explaining my answer and then explaining that it was only right if you made a series of assumptions. I then went on to explain that these assumptions had assumptions of their own. I then explained why all of the mentioned assumptions had an impact on the answer.

I then went around in a circle to explain why my original answer was probably the one they were after. But it’s very frustrating that the example used in the question wasn’t good enough for the answer they wanted.

Don’t want to go into detail in case the assignment police read this, but question (2) (a) (iii) is a prime example of ambiguous bollocks. What kind of printer are they referring to? Different printers will give different answers.

I don’t believe it’s a trick question. I think they assume the student is more stupid than they are.

But don’t let it get you down! The fact you’re thinking and questioning will get you the higher marks as long as you explain your reasoning. Or piss the tutor off…

Anyway, I wouldn’t worry too much. You get the highest grade available if you only get 40% of the course right.

And remember the Netiquette Principles. Don't post I HATE GOD in the Christianity forums. I'm glad they point this out in the course - I was ready to start tallying the number of flame wars I could start in a day.

Adam

Thanks Simon - It's good to know I'm not the only ...

2008-02-17T20:18:32.294Z

Thanks Simon - It's good to know I'm not the only one to be disappointed.

Astonishing! Why on earth do people sign up to do ...

2008-02-17T20:06:13.125Z

Astonishing! Why on earth do people sign up to do a course and then try and find someone else's answers instead of coming up with their own.

That is just depressing.

On a lighter note, Greg, I have been enjoying your updates about your tutorials - keep it up!

It's basically the same orienteering scenario, but...

2008-02-16T14:45:10.600Z

It's basically the same orienteering scenario, but the illustration (and actual work required) is slightly different. I'm just glad I noticed now, rather than in a fortnight (or never!)

Hey Greg,Oh no! You will need to consign it to rev...

2008-02-16T13:06:54.060Z

Hey Greg,

Oh no! You will need to consign it to revision!

The one I am doing has a question about an orienteering machine, same one?

Best of luck with the course and keep blogging, its an interesting read!