The S283 Planetary Science and the Search for Life website opens about 3 weeks before the start date, in common with a lot of OU modules. It's useful to familiarise yourself with the forums, TMA questions, important dates and course information before it actually begins. It also allows booking of the tutorials and will give tutor details. Getting a new tutor is always a bit of a lottery.
The exam period is usually between end of May to the start of June for October presentations so this is really not particularly useful information due to the big time frame but at least it is a reminder that the module has an exam at the end of it.
The most exciting part of the information on the student homepage is the despatch date for the two textbooks that S283 has associated with it. Sure enough they turned up on Thursday, delivered by Yodel. The OU still had my old address for materials dispatch so I had to tell Yodel to deliver to my new place, which they did without any fuss.