Open University study?

[fin racer]

GuyWMD said:

I know that the opening module (TU100) was meant to be an opening introduction to higher education, but frankly it's nearly put me off going any further.

Not to mention even though I should be paying the transitional fees the farse over letting us register our interest later than other students, and still hiking the fees isn't on. Doubling the price just to examine and verify a certification I already hold takes the biscuit.

The I.T/digital life content felt like a sideline, instead painstakingly covering over and over again basic GCSE level skills, how to reference, and all about plagiarism. Seriously the content learned could have been anything. Very disappointed tbh.

I'll carry it on as I'd really like a degree out of this. I'm hoping that as I go up I'm actually technically challenged a little more. Most of the other modules look fairly decent.

Edited by GuyWMD on Thursday 23 August 16:50

Was a bit miffed myself, I knew it was broad area to cover but lately I have found myself skipping activities as I just know it would be a waste of 30-45 minutes.
I suppose as an introduction/familiarisation to degree-level study, its probably the norm.
Bear in mind I have not attempted any kind of academia in 15+ years!

[acd80]

I ended up doing T175 and M150 to complete my BSc(Hons) (I had 60 points going spare) and I picked these courses as I could justify them being paid for by my workplace's training budget. I did these courses in my fifth and final year of study with the Open Uni and they were easily the worst modules and I just skipped massive chunks of the coursework through sheer frustration. Stick with the Open Uni-they're very very good at what they do and it appears that you've unfortunately picked a very dull module.

[GuyWMD]

fin racer said:

Was a bit miffed myself, I knew it was broad area to cover but lately I have found myself skipping activities as I just know it would be a waste of 30-45 minutes.
I suppose as an introduction/familiarisation to degree-level study, its probably the norm.
Bear in mind I have not attempted any kind of academia in 15+ years!

Glad I'm not the only one.
It got to the point where I was not just skipping activities but missing chunks of the material out. All ICMAs done, over the threshold for TMAs, so just got to focus on doing the EMA, then hopefully I can move on, and start to enjoy it.
Certainly not £800 worth of study, but hey you live and learn.

[fin racer]

GuyWMD said:

Glad I'm not the only one.
It got to the point where I was not just skipping activities but missing chunks of the material out. All ICMAs done, over the threshold for TMAs, so just got to focus on doing the EMA, then hopefully I can move on, and start to enjoy it.
Certainly not £800 worth of study, but hey you live and learn.

I'd agree there, thankfully I did not pay the full amount, I would have been peeved to say the least

[Xaero]

I went to a lecture for one of my modules on Saturday. I skipped the last 3 due to being abroad but attended the first one which had 20 people attend. On Saturday there was only 4 students who turned up, including me.

My initial impressions of the tutor being a bit dull and the tutorial not being particularly useful were one thing, but putting off 80% of the class over 3 tutorials seemed like a failure to me.

Should be finishing soon and am glad as I'm not enjoying it much anymore. Will probably skip going for a masters especially at the current prices.

[trixical]

Xaero said:

I went to a lecture for one of my modules on Saturday. I skipped the last 3 due to being abroad but attended the first one which had 20 people attend. On Saturday there was only 4 students who turned up, including me.

My initial impressions of the tutor being a bit dull and the tutorial not being particularly useful were one thing, but putting off 80% of the class over 3 tutorials seemed like a failure to me.

Should be finishing soon and am glad as I'm not enjoying it much anymore. Will probably skip going for a masters especially at the current prices.

4 students is good! I was the only student at one tutorial for one of my courses & the tutor even said he wasn't sure he was going to bother to turn up to that particular one, he certainly didn't want to hang around.

FYI The masters course fees are not going up like the undergrad courses as they have never been subsidized.

I decided to scratch my degree earlier this year (was approx 2/3rds of the way through) as the quality of materials & courses have massively stalled in my area of study (engineering) & the revisions of the degree course was also causing me massive amounts of stress & potential cost.

[Xaero]

trixical said:

4 students is good! I was the only student at one tutorial for one of my courses & the tutor even said he wasn't sure he was going to bother to turn up to that particular one, he certainly didn't want to hang around.

FYI The masters course fees are not going up like the undergrad courses as they have never been subsidized.

I decided to scratch my degree earlier this year (was approx 2/3rds of the way through) as the quality of materials & courses have massively stalled in my area of study (engineering) & the revisions of the degree course was also causing me massive amounts of stress & potential cost.

Thanks for that! I had another lecture recently for a different module) it was the second of 2 and I missed the first one, and the class was virtually full, so clearly this tutor was much more useful, it was 6 hours long too, as opposed to my dull lecturer who did 2 hour long ones.

I didn't realise masters courses were the same price, that makes it more attractive in some way I guess.

I did electronic engineering 6/7 years ago (foundation degree) but didn't think I'd cope with topping that up this time as I've been out of that industry for 3 years now so my open degree is 120 points at level 3 of what looked like the easiest courses (I'm getting the degree for visa reasons rather than education or career). For that reason I don't overly regret doing them, but it's still not quite what I expected. Very happy I started it last year on the older fee's though. I paid around £1800 to do the third year, if I started it this September it would be £7500 (or £9000 with a conventional uni).

Edited by Xaero on Tuesday 28th August 09:53

[fin racer]

Time for another quick update to this thread.
Just before Xmas I got a little good news in the form of confirmation that I passed my first module, TU100.
I was not confident of doing so, so it was with a joyous hurrah that I binned all the text books and notes for this course.I have also managed full marks on my first assignment for the current module ( TM128 - Microsoft server technologies). So contrary to what I think, I guess a little of the theory has stuck with me
By the way, if anyone wants a Senseboard ( intro to programming fundamentals based on the Scratch programming language) I will gladly send it with all ancilliaries, as I am quite happy to see the back of it

[aclivity]

Another bit of an update

I passed my degree! Found out this morning, I have a 2:2 on an Open degree. I've got to arrange a degree ceremony at some point, but I will get my certificate and I am as pleased as punch to have passed!