OT : Paging those with distance learning experience (OU)

Last year I contemplated doing an OU degree course, but decided against
it.

I've hacked your post about a bit to make it easier to reply to:

Contemplating it again this year with a bit more intent and also
because what I want to do doesn't seem to require me to attend sessions
with other people unless I want to (yay).

Some distance learning courses make collaborative work done over the
web (e.g. discussion boards, Wikis, etc.) not just possible, but
compulsory. In some cases part of a students' coursework mark is based
on their contribution to those forums, e.g. their posting of problems,
and their participation in the solving of other students' problems. I
think this is a good idea.

what sort of course, and why?

I'd tell you but I'm feeling sensitive today and wouldn't like the rude
remarks.

Fair enough - I wasn't looking for specifics (hence the "what sort" in
my post, rather than "which"). I was just wondering if you were
looking for something related to your current career or not. Because,
if it was related, I was going to advise you not to waste your time.

Why? Because I never intended to do IT as a career - it was a stop gap
until I decided what I wanted to do - unfortunately I got comfortable
but would like to now sort that out before I become too old to get a
job after (assuming) I complete the various bits of it.

So either hairdressing or proctology then?

It's not actually :-)

That said, hair dressing, if you're any good at it, is one of those
things that pays absolute shed loads and is transportable anywhere
round the world - it's listed on Australia's "key job list" for
instance!

I can't stand cutting hair though so it's not something I'd really
consider doing.

It's the feelings of nostalgia that put you off, isn't it?

Yup. Back in the days when I had my bouffant.

I never wanted to be a hairdresser anyway!
I want to be a lumberjack !
Leaping from.... never mind.

this answers my question.

I'm not going to say what I'm looking to study but it would be fairly
involved (ie not a BA(Open)) so any comments from those who've
undertaken 60pt (or even better 2x 60pt) courses in a year would be
appreciated

My question is though, how realistic/possible is to do the courses
whilst still maintaining (hopefully) a full time day job and a
semblance of a social life?

err sort of.
I've done a load of courses and it starts to take over what you
thought was your life

Just ask SWMbO'd about geology or asrtofyzzhics

It's really down to the pressure of your job, your time management
skills and how much effort you want to put into getting a good degree.
Ginge started one but found with his working hours that he didn't have
time to watch the videos and do the course work IIRC.

The course I'm looking at is a 360point one, theoretically over 4 years
as they don't recommend doing 120pts a year as this is equivalent to
full time study (apparently) - however I'd like to do it 3 if possible.

It depends. I'm currently doing a single 60pt course, and the workload
breaks down like this:

3 hours of reading per block, 1 block per 10 pts.
8 hours of essay planning & writing per block.
half an hour of audio to listen to per block.
half an hour of video to watch per block.

What level is that course?

Level 1.

I'm going to repeat what made me slightly unpopular a few weeks ago -
having looked at some level 2 & 3 stuff, I don't think the workload
goes up with the levels, just the difficulty.

It's never going to take me less than three hours to read one of the
course texts, there's just so many words I can get through a minute. On
the other hand, it's only going to take me longer if I have to stop and
think about what I've read, or re-read it to understand.

It's the same with essay writing - my main difficulty is in leaving out
enough stuff to stick to the word limits. It takes me longer to strip
them down than it does to write them in the first place. Later levels

write a guide text first, and allocate word limits to each section.

It's *much* easier to write 20 x blocks of 100 words[1] than to write
a 2000 word essay.

Hmmmm...

intro - 100 words
explain market economy - 100 words
explain externals + example - 100 words
4 x environmental problem examples - 4 x 100 words
4 x proposed solutions analysis - 4 x 100 words
conclusion - 100 words.

Total - 1200 words.

Y'know, I think that'll work quite well, cheers.

once you've been doing it for a while, you'll wonder how you ever
managed otherwise.

Wish I'd known that when I was doing my dissertation. Ho hum.

I used to have the same problem as you when writing magazine articles
- I used to always write too much, and then have to edit stuff out.
Once I started writing guide texts and pre-allocating the amount of
words I was going to write in each section, I cut my time to write a
2000 word article down from about 6-7 hours to around 3. Once you've
been doing it for a while, you get stunningly accurate at being able
to write 50 or 100 word chunks.

[1] or 11 x blocks of 100 + 6 x blocks of 150 etc.

Thanks for that. I've been beating my head against a brick wall with
my final 2500 word field report for this year (1). I'm going to have
a go at your suggestion to see if it will help.

(1) A survey of birds using a newly established wetland area which is
part of a sustainable drainage system on a new housing development in
Northampton. It's a landmark development in sustainable housing and
uni is working with the developers to provide baseline and ongoing
ecological monitoring for the site. If we do a decent job with the
reports there's a possibility of an acknowledgement in a research
paper (2).

(2) Probably nothing new or exciting for some of you but it will be a
first for me :)

First class, with honours.

Thank you! It worked even with me feeling lousy due to a rotten cold.

NP - glad to be of assistance. To be honest though, the comments from

I'd got myself totally bogged down with this one and couldn't see the
wood for the trees (or the ponds for the Typha latifolia in this
case). I don't usually have a problem writing reports or essays, but
the end of my tether had been well and truly reached.

yourself, Simon and a few others leaves me wondering about the state
of higher education - they appear to offer learning, but have omitted
to teach you /how/ to learn.

But is it the place of the HE establishment to teach people how to
learn or should students (particularly those just out of sixth form)
be bringing a certain level of competence to learn with them? From
what I've seen of the work of some of the younger members of my
cohort, schools don't seem to be doing a particularly good job of
preparing students for HE.

I think it was always thus.

Uni is surely about learning how to learn, how to source information and
analyse it? Well, at least a bachelor's degree (and I suppose also
masters degrees these days.)

As the majority of school leavers seem to go to uni these day (instead
of a very select few when I was at school), one would imagine that
sixth forms should really be demanding much higher levels of
competence in both written and oral communications. They should also
be encouraging students to make use of a much wider variety of
sources, not just Wikipedia, and teaching them how to reference them
correctly.

At Northampton we have a Centre for Academic Practice that offers
advice and guidance on writing skills, IT, maths, you name it. We are
also fortunate that the lecturers in my department are always happy to
offer advice and support with assessed work and provide useful
comments and guidance notes on completed work; rarely are we left
wondering why we got a particular garde. However, whether a student
chooses to learn from the comments is a different matter. Sadly it
seems that many of my cohort don't and they continue to turn in poor
work with the same errors and omissions.

The opportunities to learn how to learn are there, you just have to
take them.

It's now printing out and will be handed in tomorrow.

Good luck.

Got a B for it which puts the final grade for that module at a B+, so
not entirely unhappy with it (I didn't really expect to be able to
repeat last year's straight A grades this year).

This is an art that most journos either are born with or acquire - the
ability to write to a set limit in one hit.

require more student input (less regurgitation of the course text) and
more in-depth analysis, which will be a blessed relief.

You have to remember tho, that I'm doing an airy-fairy-pretend-ology[1].

That's about one quarter of the time suggested in the course notes, and:
I listen to the audio while eating breakfast in the morning once a
month; I watch the video once a month instead of the news; I read three
hours less fiction a month. One weekend a month I spend 4 hours a day
writing notes and planning and writing an essay; I go to one tutorial
a month; I am generally haphazzard and disorganised about it, and
currently averaging 83%.

Assuming you're at least as bright as I am, and you're interested in the
subject, you'll have to quadruple that lot for 2 x 120 courses, and be
properly organized.

Okay - but I'm really not sure I'm as bright as you - judging by some
of your posts, not even close!

Heh - don't be fooled by the physicsy stuff, I have a knack for, and a
degree in it. On the other hand I'm consitently getting the highest
marks in my tutor group, to which I can only say "in your face, arty
types!"

I am now curious as to what is so embarrasing you don't want to tell us
what it is - really worse than Sociology?

[1] Athough next year it's "Economics and Economic Change", and either
"Governing Europe" or "Power, Dissent, and Equality: understanding
contemporary politics" which are a little more meaty.

I'm going to do 2 60pt courses next year, as I'll be... busy with other
things... but if I weren't, I'd have no problems doing 240pts in a year.

They are quite handy at first, especially if you've been out of
education for a few years.

So it looks like it's going to be rather hard work - for quite a long
time - is this the case?

Level 1 is easy
level 2 you have to start thinking
level 3 furk - my brain hurted a lot.

Most likely yes, but if you really want to do it you will. Best of
luck with it.

Don't go there - try a 60 pointer 1st and see how you get on.
Some courses I've done were taking me up to ~20 hours a week.
But then I'm fick.

The course has dates ( sorry Steve A not that kind ) so you got to
complete the TMA ( Tutor marked assesment) , CMA ( Computer marked) ,
or indeed the ECA ( which is an electonic marked - well I'm sure
you're there now) by a given date and some tutors - especially at
level 3 are not happy if you request an extension.

I'm on the second year of a 360 point (hons) degree. With full time work
(in IT as well) and around 2.5 hours a day commute, the best I can
manage is 60 points per year.

You need to be very aware of the level of course that you are
undertaking. The level 1's (easy) are OK and can be managed fairly
easily. Level 2's & 3's are a different story and require a high level
of time management, self motivation and selfishness around home life
IMHO.

Don't knock the people interaction. I find the tutorials a great
motivator. Mind you, I've had some excellent tutors - may just be lucky.

As Elly said there are tutorials but you don't need to attend.
There's loads of support available on the OU First Class conferencing
system - indeed a lot of courses you need/better have webthingummy
access for.

If you do it, do it because you really want too, otherwise, you'll come
a cropper.

twue twue barney magrrew cuthbert wotshis name thingummy dibble and
grub.

go for it
.
I can't be ar*ed to list the courses I've done but I been at it
(fnnarr fnnar for 8 years now ) - it's a hobby for me

I have a view which enconpasses both sides of the fence.

Don't take on a 120 pointer unless you are sure you have room in your
life for it. In you first year, if you are able, take two 60's and be
prepared to drop one if the going gets hard. Worth noting though that
the effort involved for a 60 is not half that of a 120 it is more like
two thirds.