TMA01 - Gone but not forgotton

I've sent TMA01 off a bit early. It didn't need to be submitted until noon on Monday 4th November, but I've done the best I can and if I keep it any longer I'll just keep tinkering with it and probably end up losing as many marks as I gain. The entire assignment is only worth 7% of the total course mark, so I'm not sure it's worth worrying too much about. 

I had another skills tutorial yesterday, but this time on how to write, especially 'reflection'. It attracted a grand total of 9 students and it really wasn't one of the better ones that I've attended if I'm entirely honest. The first few minutes were bordering on dire in places and involved us writing on an electronic whiteboards in pretty colours. I managed to endure it for about 30 minutes before just leaving it and having a bit of a moan to my wife. The tutor was a very experienced hardened OU stalwart and although the tutorial may have been useful for some people, it really wasn't for me. I might take a look at the recording at some point, but I'm in no rush.

A couple of days ago I was sent another list of upcoming skills tutorials but it appeared to be a bit of a rushed effort. Lots of formatting errors, duplication, missing information, dates in the past etc. I added them to the list I already had but not sure how useful they will be, or if they will actually take place at all. The organisation of these tutorials is a bit questionable to say the least.

The collaborative weather station data activity appears to be well and truly finished now with the two bickerers producing a time consuming detailed 'final report' that wasn't actually asked for or as far as I could tell, going to attract any marks. A few students from the other practical groups appeared to have dropped out and have not shown up to do it at all. A couple have shown up too late to be able to collaborate with others. It's all very odd.

Write-up week

I had another skills tutorial yesterday on maths for SM123. It was really just a review of rounding numbers, significant figures and standard notation etc, but it was very good for what it was. The tutor had a lovely Irish accent and was really easy on the ear. The only thing about it that was disappointing was the number of participants. It varied between three and five throughout the hour long tutorial, which out of 670 or so potential students, really is dire. I don't know if it is due to poor advertising or just student apathy, but it's not a great use of the Open University's limited resources.

However, the main news since the last post is the progress of the 'group of four' collaborative weather station data activity. One hasn't shown up, one of them is me, and the other two appear to be bickering. The main problem being that they overcomplicate everything. If you are looking at hours of sunshine for example then you don't need to look at rainfall and temperature, but some people think otherwise. It's really frustrating. This 'activity' should have finished on Friday, but it's still rumbling on and that eats into write-up time. Luckily I've been writing up TMA01 as I've been progressing, so no great panic, but it would be nice if I could just finish it off and get it out of the way.

Other groups are just as bad, if not worse, and have turned 'over egging the pudding' into a whole new ball game. They have brought in statistical analysis from other modules, rolling averages, multi-coloured trendlines, and more graphs and variables than you can wave a stick at.

Group practical work

Yes, I know it isn't popular but collaboration is one of those skills that employers look for, and although I'm unlikely to work in science again I can fully understand why it's in a level 1 science course and I intend to give it my best shot.

8 (out of nominally 20) of us have thrown their hat into the ring and told our group tutor that we are up for it and ready to go. We work in groups of 4 and there is, unfortunately, very little activity in either of the two groups at the moment. I hope things liven up soon.

Typing of which, I attended (remotely of course) the third of the 4 skills tutorials that were hastily put on for us. The second one on Microsoft Excel didn't happen because the tutor didn't turn up. No explanation given for that, which I think is a bit of a poor show really. This one however was very good. It was on Microsoft Word, which didn't sound too exciting but it was all stuff relevant to submitting TMAs and how tutors like them set out. Can't fault either the content or the delivery and I told the tutor at the time that the presentation was excellent, which it definitely was. It was a shame that only 9 students attended out of about 670 or so.

My first tutorial

There are several tutorials on this course and most of them are module wide. There is a minority which are tutor group wide and I had one of those yesterday evening. Out of a potential 20 students, only six attended and that dropped to five about half way through.

Despite that, there were some useful tips about the components of TMA01 and I will modify my partly completed assignment as a result of this information.

Being an OU student

There was an optional 'skills tutorial' this morning and to be honest it didn't sound promising. With the title 'Being an OU student' I really thought it would be dreadful but in fact it was very good. It was more of a combination of how 'Adobe Connect' works together with a bit of pastoral stuff, which is really what the tutor group tutor should be doing. This tutor did it very well, and in my opinion is a real asset to the OU. It was a shame that there were only 9 students (out of potentially 670) attending, although it was recorded so others can see it at a later date. The tutorial wasn't particularly well advertised and I got the impression that it was a last minute rushed afterthought.

Having looked back on it, 'being an OU student' is the title of an Openlearn course, which the tutor was alluding to, and in a way was semi-advertising. I thought it sounded familiar and having looked at my study records it turns out that I did it a while ago, even though I forgot all about it until I made a point of looking it up.

The day before the day

My tutor 'marked' TMA00 today and returned it to me. The feedback was useful, but of course no marks were gained because the weighting of this assignment is zero. It is formative only.

Tomorrow is the first day of the course officially and is the start of 'Preparation week', which I have already completed but it's nice to get a few day (or weeks) ahead. Tomorrow is also the first of the 'skills tutorials'. I'm not sure 'being an OU student is going to be that useful but I will drop in and have a look to get a feel of the thing.

Tutors and Tutorials

The 'welcome briefing' from the SM123 course chair went well last night. There was not much in the way of entirely new information, but I did get an appreciation of the size and capacity of the course. There are around 670 students on the course in 34 tutor groups. Each group therefore comprises of around 20 students. The groups are arranged in 'clusters', and for some reason I am in the North Cluster. The other two are East and West.

The tutorial booking thingy was open for business and I booked mine this morning.

There is quite a bit of choice and in most cases, it will be a tutor from another cohort delivering the session. Some tutorials are recorded for later viewing and others are not. There are also 'skills' based tutorials on subjects such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and how to tackle the 'reflection' parts of the assignments. There are four planned for October but I suspect there will be more as the course progresses. My first 'skills' tutorial will be on Saturday 5th October and is entitled 'Being an OU student'.

In addition to this, my tutor contacted me by email to introduce themselves and asked me to reply to show that I am a live student and not a passive withdrawal or non-starter. I did this and got a reply back which is good news. I also submitted TMA00 to get it out of the way really and that will be 'marked' and returned to me to show how the electronic submission system works.