S283 Revision and exam tutorials

As you can see I've finished the module now, so its just revision until the judgment day on June 8th, with no more new material to engage with. The first of the S283 revision tutorials was somewhat generic and covered the practicalities of taking the remote exam. There wasn't a whole lot specific to the academic content of the module itself, but it was however facilitated by a very good OU staff member whom I have encountered before. What they said was very reassuring as well as informative, so it had some genuine purpose.

The second tutorial was a bit more relevant as it dealt with some of the academic content of the module, but revision techniques are very subjective and while some of it was useful, a lot of it was contrary to my own specific way of approaching things, so it was a bit frustrating in places. I might be being a bit harsh here, but I was left with the impression that the overall message was 'we are trying to support you, but in reality you are on your own now'. It wasn't helped by having a mismatched double act facilitating it with a degree of unpreparedness combined with a few technical issues, 

Having said that, it was well worth attending, but if I had missed it, I don't think it would have made a lot of difference to my revision strategy. Only 10 attendees could be bothered to give up a good part of their Saturday morning for this two and a quarter hour swansong to the module, but I'm sure many more will watch the recording. There are no other scheduled tutorials for S283, revision or otherwise, unless my own tutor springs into life and offers one or more just for my particular tutor group, which I don't think they will somehow. 

On the subject of tutorials, there were a number for MST124 that came up for booking, but most of them clashed with previously booked ones. It's always nice to have a choice but these type of clashes do seem a bit careless. Some of these events are with tutors that I have never had before, so it will be interesting to see how they compare with more familiar names. I also took the opportunity to cancel a tutorial held by a tutor that I didn't think much of the last two occasions I had to endure them. With so many tutorials and tutors to choose from, and some really good ones out there, I haven't lost much.

I had a tutorial on differential calculus which rather oddly was both good and bad at the same time. It was described as a gentle introduction to optimisation problems which in a way it was I suppose, but I didn't find it particularly gentle towards the end. The tutor was very good, and explained things really well, although it was obvious they were using a slide deck not written by themselves, which is always a red flag. I could also have done without the domestic noises happening in the background which were seriously off-putting at times, but I stayed with it due to the quality of the tutor. If it had been a lesser mortal, I would probably have abandoned it. Despite its issues, it was actually very useful and well worth attending.

Two TMAs submitted in the same week

On Saturday I had the last 'module material' tutorial of S283 which was on SETI, the search for extra-terrestrial intelligent life. The tutor, who I hadn't had before was a bit of a character, bordering on eccentric, but relatively easy to listen to. The subject matter didn't help things though, it was bordering on 'bonkers' territory in places. There are only two more tutorials on this module to go, and they are both connected with revision and the exam. I also submitted the last assignment TMA04 on Sunday which had a cut-off date of Thursday 7th. I'm really glad to get that one out of the way because it's worth zero marks and was taking up a disproportionate amount of time. I'm on the home straight to the exam now and I've started revision, mostly consisting of finding out the Learning Outcomes for each chapter and linking them to the chapter summaries in the text books.

On Tuesday I had a 'film screening' on the mathematician Sophie Germain run by the Maths and Statistics department. This was part recreational and part informative, and not connected with the module at all, just a bit of light relief. It was quite short and in French with subtitles. The maths tutorials continue of course and some are better than others, but calculus is not a easy subject to teach. The most useful of these was the first of the 'how to tackle TMA02' tutorials which I wanted to attend before sending it off. A tutor I have never had before was very good, possibly the best on the module so far. The other TMA02 preparation session was dire and the tutor gave up about a third of the way through, possibly because only two students attended. These two tutorials, even though they were on the same subject, were really as different as chalk and cheese. I sent this TMA02 off yesterday as I didn't want to fiddle with it anymore and I need to concentrate on S283 revision without the uncompleted assignments being a distraction.

Two TMAs ready to go and the last knockings of S283

I've got S283-TMA04 (cut-off date Thursday 7th May) and MST124-TMA02 (cut-off date Wednesday 13th May) completed on my laptop ready to go. Both could do with a final read through and a bit of last minute fiddling to get them nearer to the impossible state of perfection, but if I had to send them off as they are I could probably do so without worrying about not having done my best. Meanwhile, I plod on with the rest of the Introduction to Astrobiology textbook. Chapter 8 is on exoplanet migration, which I never quite completed on the first read through. I tackled the remaining chapters out of sequence and I've just finished Chapter 9 on SETI and finding intelligent life on other planets, which was so far fetched it was almost embarrassing in places. There was however a tutorial on how to complete TMA04 by one of the better tutors. It clashed with another tutorial but there was no harm done because these are mostly recorded. It was useful to an extent, but only covered two out of the four assignment questions due to the time constraints.

The only other semi-interesting thing was four pre-recorded videos released by the School of Physical Sciences about how to sit a remote exam. This is the first time I'm aware of that these events have not been live, and to be honest, I think they worked better without the punters interrupting or the typing of inane distractions in the chat box.

Countdown to the S283 exam

I had a 'Maxima' tutorial on Wednesday but there were only 7 attendees, even though people specifically asked for these tutorials. Not much else happened, it was another quiet week, just plodding along with the astrobiology, which I'm finding slightly more interesting than the planetary science. I did however receive a confirmation of my iCMA42 mark. These iCMA computer quizzes, that MST124 is fond of, only make a small contribution towards the overall module score (in this case 1.4%), so I've now added another 1.246%.

Although I've made good progress, and I think I've cracked the radial velocity calculation, I haven't quite finished TMA04 of S283 yet. It could still do with a grammar check and proofreading. I've had a look on my Study Calendar and realised that there are 44 days left until the S283 exam. It's worth keeping in mind because it gives me something to aim for and focus on.

I have also registered to study S284 Astronomy next year, and while the start of the module is a long way off (first week in October), the TMA cut-off dates have been just been published. There are six of them worth 8% each and a non-scoring TMA00 with a firm cut-off date, which is very odd as the first TMA is usually formative and optional. The two module exams take the form of timed Moodle quizzes. The first in January of one hour duration (12%), and a more important one at the end in June which I believe is a more traditional three hours (40%).

iCMA43 arrives and departs

The third (out of four) interactive computer marked assignments (iCMA43) opened for business on Wednesday, so I accessed the online 'Moodle quiz' and printed the questions out. I worked on these straightaway as I wanted some light relief from S283. The cut-off date for this iCMA is 16th June, so there was absolutely no rush to get it done, but I did it anyway. As far as I could tell, I scored 100%, but it has to be confirmed by a human before the mark contributes towards the final module result, which is 1.6% of the total module mark. I also had a couple of routine tutorials on coordinate geometry and vectors, which was the last I will have on this topic before the start of calculus. Differentiation isn't too bad but I think I'll struggle with integration methods.

I had a tutorial on chapters 7 and 8 of S283 An Introduction to Astrobiology yesterday. These are the chapters on exoplanets and the likelihood of finding life on them. This was the last tutorial by this particular tutor and I can't say I'm too upset by that. Like a lot of tutorials, there's a tendency for the tutor to teach what they are personally interested in (or comfortable with) rather than what is actually in the module. On this occasion, the tutor did not attempt to hide the fact that they knew very little about the particular subject area and they were definitely struggling towards the end of the hour. I think some of the attendees were as well. I'm now seriously working towards the final TMA04 for planetary science. There's quite a lot on Europa, which seems to be the module team's favorite moon.

Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society

Apart from having a couple of tutorials on vectors & coordinate geometry, and getting the TMA02 for MST124 to 'release candidate' stage, there's really nothing much of interest to report. I completed iCMA42 a few weeks ago, which means I can put the maths to one side for a while and concentrate on the planetary science module. I have no more formal maths submissions until after the S283 exam, which is only 8 weeks away. iCMA43 opens on Tuesday so I can print out the questions and work on them informally as I plough on through both modules over the next few weeks. Some of the maths is revision for me, so it shouldn't be as demanding as the 'integration methods' which will come up in TMA03 after the S283 exam. Doing two modules concurrently is a lot more logistical than just doing one.

I've been keeping this news in reserve for a week when nothing much has happened and I am pleased to announce that I've been elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. So I'm now John Hunt FRAS, amongst other things.

Latex and the Institute of Physics

There are some weeks when very little happens, and last week was one of those weeks. I had booked a Latex online workshop with the Institute of Physics for January which was postponed and rescheduled for last Monday, but then communications went very quiet. Sure enough, I logged on when I thought it was occurring and absolutely nothing happened. No excuse for just ignoring the punters really.

In other news I had another go at the TMA02 for MST124. I think I have most of it cracked now, just the vectors and coordinate geometry question to tackle, but I won't do that until I have had a couple of tutorials on it.

TMA03 returns, Student Consultations and 26J Registration

TMA03 has been marked and returned. I won't lie, it's not the mark I was hoping for, but I think it was due to a combination of factors. I struggled a bit with this assignment. It was difficult in places and I never quite got a good enough grasp of some of the key concepts of the material that it was based on. A couple of the questions of the assignment were badly written and subject to interpretation, which the tutor themselves semi-admitted. I suspect the mark scheme provided by the module team was not easy to interpret either and all of the tutors might have been struggling with it. Looking at the comments made on the returned script, I don't think it was marked particularly well either. I was told that there was part of an answer missing from Question 4 (there wasn't), and I hadn't given a graph a suitable title (I did). I'm part of a S283 WhatsApp group and looking at some of the comments made, it seems that I wasn't the only one with a lower than expected mark. In fact, out of the three students that posted, mine was the highest. All of the coursework marks on S283 are formative, so nothing seriously lost here, but it's just a bit annoying and potentially demotivating. 

In other news, I found out the date of the MST124 exam. It's Tuesday 15 September, which is quite a while away, but it gives me something to aim for.

I attended about 15 minutes of an hour long student consultation meeting on Monday. That was enough for me. I felt there was a hidden agenda to it. The future of face to face exams verses proctored exams verses open book remote exams I believe is something that the OU have already decided on, so the OU Students Union asking for views on the matter is all well and good but I didn't want to get involved with the bun fight. There was another one on Tuesday on AI and student assessments but Microsoft Teams was playing up so I couldn't contribute even though I could hear the audio and see the slides.

I've registered to study S284 Astronomy next year which is the module I need to combine with S283 Planetary Science and the Search for Life to obtain the S10 Certificate in Astronomy and Planetary Science.

Titan, Exoplanets and Maxima

I'm a little bit behind with S283 Planetary Science but I'm finding it relatively easy to catch up, since none of the topics in this part of the course appear to have any prerequisite chapters as such. I also spent more time than I should have done on TMA03, which I didn't find particularly easy to get my head around. I'm also finding this Astrobiology section a little more interesting than the Solar System section, which was mostly geology.

Only four days after the postponed Mars and Icy Moons tutorial, I had another one on Chapters 5 and 6 which covered Titan and Exoplanets. These are not topics that have that much in common, which the tutor fully admitted before they got going in earnest. Titan was skipped over really and the tutor turned the treatment of it as an excuse to do a bit of maths. They then went on to exoplanets, which is fairness does lend itself to a mathematical treatment, and then to round off the hour, did a bit of general astronomy based maths. Some of it was useful but I can't help thinking it was just a way of avoiding the course material and turning it into something of a personal interest. This tutor did their first and only other tutorial on mathematical topics as well, so a trend is immerging here.

As well as the normal tutorials I have on MST124, I had an hour long Maxima session which helped explain some of things this quirky piece of software can actually do, particularly with respect to the requirements of TMA02. It was really quite useful, and there's another one in a few weeks time that I'm looking forward to.

I also had the second of two 'Planets and Moons' Chats with Dave Rothery and his guest, an OU Astrobiologist. Both were very informative and were both good speakers. While not critical for S283, it complemented the module very well. It partially clashed with a Maths tutorial on functions which I managed to catch the first part of. That was excellent as well and I will happily catch up with the remaining part at some point in the near future.

TMA04 is the last TMA for S283

I submitted TMA03 on Monday, so it's time to look at the final TMA for S283 Planetary Science and the Search for Life. I must admit I found TMA03 quite difficult, possibly due to a bit of a common mid-module decline in motivation, possibly due to now doing two modules (MST124 & S283) at the same time, or a bit of both. Reaching TMA04 in the module means that the end is in sight though, and this assignment looks quite interesting. The uneven mark distribution between the questions is even more interesting.

Question 1 (26/75 marks)

This is about evaluating two scientific papers on Jupiter's moon Europa and the possibility of finding life there.

Question 2 (9/75 marks)

This question is about the Cassini−Huygens mission to Saturn's moon Titan.

Question 3 (31/75 marks)

One of two questions about exoplanets with a reference to SETI. This multipart question involves evaluating a published article and a bit of data handling.

Question 4 (9/75 marks)

The second shorter question on exoplanets is about the significance of oxygen on these bodies.

Ploughing on with TMA03

Not much happened this week. I had two tutorials on Functions, which is Unit 3 of MST124. The first one seemed a bit rushed, and it still managed to run out of time with much of the important stuff not covered. The second was much better, and was a more thorough treatment of the module material. On Friday I had the rescheduled Planetary Science tutorial on Chapters 3 and 4 of the Astrobiology textbook which was postponed from the same time last week. It was supposed to cover Mars and the icy moons, but I think the tutor lost interest and only covered Mars, their own PhD interests, and Europa, so was a bit lacking. There was little attempt to hide the fact that they would rather be doing something else. There's a TMA question on Europa though, so at least the tutorial was targeted. Sort of.  

I spent most of my time finishing off S283-TMA03, which is a rather unusual assignment that spans the two textbooks on Planetary Science and Astrobiology. The latter weeks of the Astrobiology part of the module seem under-examined at the coursework level. Maybe it is being saved for the final exam, which is a mere 93 days away.

I was invited to join a Board of Studies for STEM modules, which is essentially an internet forum where selected students are invited to give their opinions on matters such as tutorials, assessment strategies, curriculum design, qualification pathways etc. I'm not sure what will become of it, but I suspect it will just be a tick box exercise because there simply isn't enough money to make any significant changes for the better. The OU are as strapped for cash as every other university.

TMA01 and iCMA41 have both been assessed

I completed iCMA41 a while ago and submitted TMA01 on Saturday. Both have now been marked, and I'm pleased with the marks obtained. A quick calculation tells me that I have now accumulated 2.164% towards my final module mark. I'm up to date with MST124 now, so I can concentrate more on S283, which I must admit I have neglected a bit. Being unwell with a bad cold for the last few days hasn't helped either. 

I had a S283 tutorial on Monday on how to tackle TMA03. It was the best tutorial so far and a lot different to the previous ones on how to prepare for TMA01 and TMA02, which barely touched the subject of how to complete a TMA. In fact, they were both quite dire in places. The quality of tutor, and therefore tutorial, is definitely variable, but that's true of all modules not just this one. On the subject of tutors, my personal tutor contacted me and said they had been signed off sick for a week, and semi-invited me to complain to Student Services if it was felt that tutorial support was lacking because of this, which to me at least, implies a hidden agenda. I don't think any of the cohort will notice or care as it goes, but I may well be wrong with that. On Thursday, I saw a message on the forum saying that Friday's tutorial had been cancelled. I had a feeling that it would be somehow, since it involves the same tutor.

I had a maths tutorial on Wednesday evening. It was a bit disorganised, had bits missing, it confused unit 3 with unit 2, and had all the hallmarks of a 'last minute lash-up' about it, but the tutor was such a good speaker that it didn't really matter. Only three students attended and it overran by about half an hour, but it was still a lot better than the average OU tutorial. This tutor has a lot of potential, and I'm looking forward to tutorials on more complicated topics with them as the module rolls on.

Tutor contact

A very strange thing happened on Saturday. My MST124 tutor sent me an email reminding me of the upcoming assessment cut-off dates. It's the first time in my OU history that a tutor had done that. I emailed them back and asked if they had read my TMA00 and told them that I had TMA01 on my laptop ready to go. I also said that I hadn't obtained my iCMA41 mark yet. They replied, but didn't really engage with my issues. We only exchanged gossip about the the comparative weather as we live in different parts of the UK. As you can see, the module webpage suggests that I'm 35% of the way through this module, but as my progress so far mostly includes pre-start and introductory malarky, it's a very misleading figure. I'm actually just starting week 4 of a 30 week course. On Sunday, I had a tutorial entitled 'Puzzles with other students'. To be honest, it was as bad as it sounds. I only saw a maximum of 8 other students at the event, and when breakout rooms were mentioned, I made my excuses and left. I lasted all of 10 minutes, but I used my time wisely and listened to a pre-recorded tutorial on functions and inequalities by a very good tutor.

Had the first of two tutorials specifically aimed at completing TMA01 on Tuesday. It was advertised as a drop-in session with a tutor that I hadn't had before. It was very poorly attended for a module-wide event concerning a TMA. The session lacked structure, or purpose really, and I got the impression, rightly or wrongly, that the tutor didn't particularly want to do it. It finished early. I did however learn that the iCMA scores are released a few days after the cut off date because they are checked manually to ensure that the computer generated questions are not ambiguous or insoluble.

On Wednesday the iCMA42 questions were released. They cover Units 2,3 and 4. I did exactly what I did with iCMA41 and printed the questions out so that I can work on them without being tied to a laptop screen. In the evening, I had another tutorial which was advertised as a double hander but one of them had double booked so I just had the more experienced one of the two. This session was on graphs & equations, which is a Unit 2 topic. I'm a bit undecided on these double handed tutorials. They certainly have their merits, but I can't help thinking they are a just a bit of a gimmick. I don't think I lost anything by only have one person doing it, and in some ways it may have helped.

One Friday, I had the second and last of two tutorials on what is required to complete TMA01 by a tutor that I haven't had before. This tutor was more 'old school' and the tutorial was more structured and more useful as a result. Since I now have all the information I need, I can submit TMA01, which I will probably do tomorrow.

MST124 - TMA01 Finished and ready to go

TMA01 only covered Unit 1 algebra, which is really just revision for me, so I managed to finish it quite quickly. I'll hang on to it for a while though, because I might pick up some hints and tips in the forthcoming tutorials which might gain me an extra mark or two. I've actually started on TMA02, but its very early days on that one.

I had two tutorials today (Saturday), both on Unit 1 algebra. The first, at the unearthly time of 8.30 in the morning, was one of the many 'cluster-wide' tutorials facilitated by a tutor who seemed very experienced at this sort of thing. It wasn't entirely without its issues, but it was good nonetheless. It attracted quite a good turnout. The second, at lunchtime, was a combination of 'Good Mathematical Communication' as well as a bit of Unit 1 algebra. It only had three punters attending, but this event was restricted to my particular tutor group, which only has a maximum of 20 students in it. Even so, it was a bit of a low turnout.

On Monday, I had two tutorials which overlapped by 30 minutes. The first was on GenAI by the joint course chairs and was the usual 'scaremongery' stuff about what will happen to you if you use ChatGPT to do your assignments for you. It was recorded, so I can listen to the second half later, but I will probably not bother. The second was a cluster-wide jobbie on Unit 1 algebra. It started late, finished early and had technical issues throughout. Having said that, it wasn't as bad as it sounded, even though the tutor was a little bit 'listen with mother' in places. The tutor had potential, and might be a lot better under different circumstances. They pop up again throughout the module at various stages, according to my timetable, so I will see.  

On Wednesday I had a Unit 1 tutorial which covered algebra yet again. It was slightly unusual in that it was taken by two people working as a duo. Like most double acts, there's the talented one and there's the other one, whose main purpose is to support the one who knows what they are doing but might not have the confidence to do it particularly well on their own. Think Little & Large, Morecombe & Wise, Cannon & Ball, Mike & Bernie etc. This occasion was no exception.

On Thursday I had another tutorial, entitled 'GMC refresher'. This is the second, or possibly the third, I've had on this subject. Good Mathematical Communication isn't the most riveting of topics, but MST124 seems to attach quite a lot of importance to it, particularly in the early units. The tutor taking this session was probably the best I've had so far this combined academic year (25J, 26B), and the bar had already been set quite high, in the maths department at least.

First week of MST124 over

Unit 1 (algebra) was just revision for me, and it was for a lot of other students it seemed, so I submitted iCMA41 relatively early and scored 100%, I think. The instant feedback that I received suggested that I did, although the mark hasn't been recorded on the system yet. One advantage of these computer marked assignments is the instant feedback that they give. No need for an overworked disillusioned Associate Lecturer to pay lip service to an incomprehensible mark scheme and give you a semi-random score depending on a combination of tiredness and mood swing status. Roll on the next one, iCMA42, which doesn't have to be submitted until 14th April.

I also had two tutorials last week. The first was an introduction from my tutor, the one who marks my work. It went OK. There was only 3 of us there (out of a potential 20 or so) which I thought was a poor showing but 1pm on a Saturday afternoon wasn't the best time to be honest. It was just a very quick look at Unit 1 algebra with a bit of audience participation, which unfortunately included myself.

The second was advertised as an introduction to Unit 1 algebra, but the first part was more of an introduction to the OU in general. It wasn't particularly useful to me personally, but I wasn't the intended audience really. The two tutors who took this session were both very good, and I would happily attend another tutorial delivered by either in the future. There were over 70 punters attending this introductory session, which is a lot more than I'm used to.

MST124 officially starts

Although the module website has been open for a while now, MST124 officially opens today which means I can submit the first of the computer marked assignments. Some of these can be quite tricky so I will take my time over them even though they are not worth many marks. Now that I have been allocated a tutor, I was able to submit TMA00 to reply to their initial contact and I used this to tell them a bit about myself. It's early days of course but they seem quite friendly and responsive.

The MST124-26B Tutorial Bookings webpage opened on Monday, and after a few glitches and a bit of a wait for the pages the load, I managed to book some tutorials. There were about 70 of them up for grabs in total, but I will probably have to miss some due to clashes and exhaustion. I strongly suspect that some will be better than others.

I also had a 'What's in the box' tutorial on Thursday. It's a strange title but it refers to the box of materials that the OU send out. Most OU modules are entirely online these days but the maths department still like to base their modules around physical books. There's still plenty of pdf files and Moodle based material for computer viewing, but at least with real books it gives you the option, and it makes you feel like a proper student into the bargain. The tutorial was standard fare for a welcome event, and probably more useful to students new to the OU than myself, but still worth attending. There were about 200 students present at one point, which I think is the most I have ever seen.

I was expecting S283-TMA02 to be marked and returned by the end of last week, and indeed it was. I scored 84%, which is a fair mark because I really struggled with the question on the formation of the Solar System. It is a significant landmark in my progress because it means that I have accumulated 43% towards the continuous assessment mark and this allows me to sit the final exam in June (the threshold is 40%). Also, the grade awarded on this module is not dependent on the coursework mark at all, so nothing much was lost here.

I also had my first Astrobiology tutorial from a new tutor (well new to me anyway) whom I believe is one of the team of academics putting together S287 Planetary Science, the replacement module for S283. They also have line management responsibility for some of the Associate Lecturers on this module. The tutor was very good, definitely one of the better ones I've had, and the session was only marred slightly by the audio problems at the start which was resolved after some of the attendees complained.

Starting Astrobiology

I had my last tutorial on the planetary science part of S283 about 12 days ago with a very good tutor who only facilitates tutorials on the planetary science part of the course. I will be sorry to see them go. It was on meteorites and their oxygen isotopes, which is a very difficult topic to understand and although the tutor was not up to their normally high standard, it was still very good. Today I start on the astrobiology part of S283 and I think it will be more to my liking as I have a biology/microbiology background, but it's too early to say at this stage. 

MST124 is still coming along nicely. I had the remainder of the Revise and Refresh tutorials a few days ago and they were all top quality stuff. 

I also had a 'Welcome to the Maths & Stats Department' event which was not module specific but just introduced students to the various teams and workings of OU maths. It was an event of two halves really. The first half was an introduction to studying maths and stats at level 1 with the OU and was quite informative. The course chair of MST124, who also has a responsibility for Maths modules in general, was very relatable. It was mentioned that tutor allocation should take place sometime this week or next week but I received a message from my tutor this afternoon introducing themselves. I, of course, replied more or less straightway.

The second half was concerned with study techniques and stress management, which wandered off into psychobabble nonsense and probably did more harm than good to any students who were still listening. I don't want to be unkind, but I think the speaker liked the sound of their own voice too much and overcooked it a tad.

I've made a good start on MST124-TMA01 and now I have a tutor I can apply the finishing touches and have it on my laptop ready to go. When the module fully opens on 31st January I can also submit iCMA41. This is a computer marked assignment with a multiple choice format. It's not worth many marks (only 0.4% of the total module mark) but it's designed to identify any issues so that both student and tutor target remedial activity.

TMA02 is finished so start on TMA03

I'm half way through this module now and I've just submitted TMA02 four days before the cut-off date. I really struggled with the question on the effect of temperature on the formation of the solar system and I spent a reasonable amount of time trying to get a grip on it without being obsessed. It's always important to know when to let a TMA go because there's always another one around the corner. In this case it's TMA03, which is the third TMA out of a total of four for this module and straddles the planetary science and astrobiology halves of the module.

Question 1 (8/75 marks)

This question is about meteorites.

Question 2 (30/75 marks)

This is a data handling question concerning meteorite isotopes.

Question 3 (7/75 marks)

This is the first TMA question so far on the astrobiology part of the module and asks about organic molecules and life.

Question 4 (21/75 marks)

This question is concerned about the conditions required for the habitability of other parts of the Universe. 

Question 5 (9/75 marks)

This asks about the origin of water on Earth.

MST124-26B Website opens

 

On Tuesday morning, the MST124 module website opened. I did my usual thing of downloading as many pdf files as I could so that I can work offline as much as possible. The module includes video clips as well so it was quite a task. Had a quick look at TMA01 and it seems very manageable, so I will make a start in a few days time. It's too early to book any tutorials of course. Tutor allocation is one of the last things to happen in the pre-start stage of a module but probably one of the most important. The forums are not really up and running yet, and won't be until the 31st January. Just exploring the website is fun enough at this stage though.

Continuing S283 and looking forward to starting MST124

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but a tutor group forum that is totally empty is not a good look. Even if the students aren't posting questions and comments, I would at least expect the tutor to kick things off, but this looks like it's just been ignored.

On a happier note, my MST124 materials arrived during the break. They were a day later than Yodel first promised, but at least they came. The website is expected to open in 3 days from now on Tuesday 6th. It's always exciting when that happens. One of the things I did in preparation for this maths module was the installation of Maxima on my laptop. It's used quite a bit in this module apparently, but it's not the best software I've ever had the pleasure of using. I have it on good authority that it's better than Mathcad though because my wife did MST121 a few years ago and she wasn't a massive fan of it. It didn't work the first time I tried to use it because it defaulted to the wrong variant of LISP but after looking on the forums, I got the help I needed to get it going. 

Towards the end of the break, I also got an email from the OU inviting me to the MST124 Revise and Refresh series of tutorials. There's 6 of them and they are all 2 hours long. Not news to me though, because I've had them in my diary of a while now.

External examiners' reports and the GenAI issue

I was grazing through one of the many mathematics forums a few days ago and I stumbled on a post that suggested that the external examiners’ reports for the last academic year (24-25) have now been released, so I had a look for myself. Sure enough, they were there for most curriculum areas, so I delved into the mathematics and physical science ones, since these are applicable to my course of study. The common theme in all the reports that I saw appears to be that GenAI is a massive problem for examinations taken remotely, and the recommendation being that there should be a return to face-to-face invigilated exams as soon as possible to avoid OU degrees being regarded as sub-standard. It was also apparent that the OU senior management were very reluctant to do this, almost certainly due to cost and logistical reasons. I honestly think they don't have enough staff to make the arrangements, as the exams used to be organised on a regional basis and the regions were dissolved a few years ago. I don't think any of the remaining centralised staff have the capacity to do it.

Of course, it's relatively straightforward to check a wordy essay for plagiarism or AI assistance by running it through the appropriate software, such as Turnitin, but science and mathematics-based content is much trickier to scrutinise since the answers tend to be either correct or incorrect, with very limited ways of reaching the same result or conclusion. I'm alarmed therefore at the number of students who have been subjected to an academic conduct review on the grounds that their submitted work has been plagiarised. From looking on social media, it looks like the OU have been somewhat overzealous on occasions in an attempt to maintain academic standards and shore up assessment integrity. According to some Reddit and Discord punters, the 'evidence' that the OU have used to make the allegation of cheating is flimsy to say the least, and tends to be something along the lines of 'we ran your answer through our magic software that detects plagiarism and you used a phrase that wasn't in the textbook'. No hard evidence is presented to the student, and the accusation vague enough to allow various interpretations about the specific wrongdoing.

It reminds me a bit like the old days when disinformation was disseminated that 'TV detector vans are operating in your area' and could tell if you were watching the telly without a licence. The truth was that the GPO (later outsourced to Crapita) had a list of all the postal addresses in Britain and another list of all the addresses that had a TV licence. They subtracted one from the other and banged on a few of these non-licenced doors hoping to catch the occupants with Coronation Street on in the background. The vans claiming to contain the 'sophisticated electronic equipment' that could detect you watching Mavis getting a touch of the vapours in the Rovers Return, were actually just a few empty metal boxes with analogue dials and flashing lights which looked plausible in the material used for propaganda purposes.

I suspect that many of the so-called academic conduct reviews are similar fishing expeditions, hoping that a few students will be intimidated into 'fessing up' in exchange for getting off with a semi-formal warning but still being allowed to continue with their qualification. The alternative would be to deny the allegation, which would put the release of the module result ‘on hold’ while a thorough investigation takes place. That could take months to complete, and nobody would want something like that hanging over them. There is, therefore, a big incentive to admit to something that may or may not have happened just to get the matter over and done with, even though the validity of the evidence is questionable. I'm not sure I like the sound of that.

Last tutorials before the Yuletide festivities & New Year break

This was the last week teaching week before the Mogmas and New Year break. I'm reaching the end of the Planetary Science part of the module now and will be moving on to the Astrobiology part towards the end of January, which is in three academic weeks time.

Meanwhile, I had three tutorials this week. The first was Part 2 of the MST124 revise and refresh bridging material. It was just as good, slightly better in fact, than the first one.

The second was a TMA02 skills tutorial. Like the other tutorials that this particular tutor facilitated, it was a bit self indulgent in places and it was taken in the direction of their own personal interests, but it did contain some useful hints and tips, so not a complete waste of an hour. This was the last tutorial from this particular tutor, so that was another good thing about it.

On Friday there was the final tutorial for 2025 with a tutor that I regard as very good. It was the one that had been postponed twice before. It concerned Chapter 7 & 8 of the Introduction the Solar System textbook. The formation of the Solar System is a difficult subject and the tutor covered all the highlights and important points very well. This tutor is the best I've had so far and  I've still got one more tutorial to go from them in the early part of next year.

On a totally separate note, The OU seem to think that my MST124 module materials will be arriving on Monday, but then again it is Yodel, so they might just throw the package into a hedge and run away. It's just as well that the module also has teaching materials in pdf form.

TMA01 feedback, a re-rescheduled tutorial, a NASA talk, Moon Night, and revision for MST124

TMA01 was marked and returned to me a day before the 10 working day soft deadline. 88% isn't a bad mark, but I would have liked it to have been in the mid-90s. Looking at the tutor's comments I can see it was marked fairly so I have no complaints. According to the assessment criteria, I only have to get an average of 24% in the 3 remaining assignments, or 72% in a single one of them, to be eligible to sit the final exam in June.

I got full marks for question 1, with a compliment about setting the planetary radii calculations out clearly. I seriously muffed question 2, with only 8 marks gained out of 16 available. The issue here was the lack of detail in my descriptive answer on early planetary formation. I got full marks for question 3 which involved plotting a spidergram, with comments about my explanation being very clear, and I only dropped 1 mark out of 19 for question 4 due to quoting the incorrect numbers of significant figures for the crater calculator result and not describing a particular type of crater well enough.

The tutorial on Chapter 7 and 8 of the Introduction to the Solar System book, which was supposed to take place on Monday 15th of next week was rescheduled for Friday 12th, and a few hours later rescheduled again for Friday 19th. This was done by one of the better tutors, so you can imagine what the others are like.

Every so often there is a talk arranged for the wider OU science community, not just those enrolled on the S283 module, and on Monday there was such an event. A NASA scientist gave an inspirational talk which was very good, even though it was really aimed at younger people starting off on a career in the physical sciences. Rather sadly, the scientist had just been made redundant.

There was another good tutorial by a science tutor who teaches on a range of modules, but in this case was taking a 'Revise and Refresh' tutorial which is designed to bridge the gap between the maths covered in S111 Questions in Science, a level 1 general science course, and MST124 Essential Mathematics 1, which I hope to be starting in February of next year. Most of it was revision for me, because I did A level Pure Mathematics back in 1980, but it was well worth attending because it was so well presented and there were a few things that I had forgotten. This tutor also teaches on MU123 Discovering Mathematics, MST124 Essential Mathematics 1, S111 Questions in Science, MST224 Mathematical Methods, MST210 Mathematical methods, models and modelling, S227 Core Physics, SM380 Quantum Physics and SM381 Electromagnetism so I'm hoping that our paths will cross again in future modules. Part 2 of this helpful bridging resource will take place in a few days time, which I suspect will be as good as Part 1.

At the same time as the Revise and Refresh session was happening, there was supposed to be a livestream of a ticketed 'in person' Moons Night event at the OU campus in Milton Keynes. Details were supposed to be posted a few hours before the actual event, but nothing appeared on the forums as far as I could see. There was also a rumour that it was being recorded for viewing in the future, but no details have appeared about that either. The nearest we got was a three and a half minute interview with ballet performer and former S283 student Erica Horwood by the module chair Prof David Rothery, which appeared on YouTube.

Rather interestingly,  I got an email from my tutor saying that the OU shuts down over the Christmas and New Year period, but as they taking some annual leave a week earlier, will therefore be incommunicado for the next three weeks or so. Without wishing to sound sarcastic, I don't think too many people will notice.

Waiting for feedback on TMA01

At the time of typing, my TMA has not been marked, but tutors are given 14 days from cut-off date to return marked work, so this would be 11 December for TMA01.

I had a tutorial last week which was supposed to be on Chapters 5 & 6 of the Introduction to the Solar System, but was in fact on a very limited aspect of atmospheric physics, probably because the tutor had a personal interest in it. Like the last tutorial by this particular tutor, there was some evidence of lack of preparation and it wasn't well delivered. I also felt that they didn't have a particularly good knowledge of the module materials. 

I received an email on Monday concerning my request for more tutorials. I had a nice email back saying that unfortunately due to logistical issues its not possible to convert a cluster-wide tutorial booking system into module-wide one. Although its technically possible to share the tutorial recordings between clusters, there are GDPR issues that prevent this. Apparently, another student has also asked to have more tutorials, so its not just me that thinks there isn't enough of them. That's fair enough, at least they took my request seriously and looked into it.

TMA02 has come around very quickly

With TMA01 out of the way, it's time to look at TMA02. This assignment doesn't have to be submitted until Thursday 15th January, but I like to look at the questions as I proceed through the module and make a few notes. S283 isn't a particularly mathematically heavy module, but the few assessable calculations that come up in the content appear to be saved for the TMA questions. I've finished Question 1 and I'm well into Question 2 already.

Question 1 (17/75 marks)

This question requires the calculation of the temperature of a fictious planet given its dimensions and the total radiated power it gets from its nearest star and asks about the limitations of spectroscopy as a remote sensing technique. There is also a sub-question on the calculation of escape velocity.

Question 2 (20/75 marks)

This question requires the calculation of the pressure at the centre of the gas giants and the composition of their atmospheres.

Question 3 (19/75 marks)

This question requires calculations concerning the orbits of asteroids and their classification.

Question 4 (19/75 marks)

This question relates to the formation of the early Solar System.

TMA01 has gone

The cut-off date for the submission of TMA01 is next Thursday but I really didn't want to leave it that late, so I submitted it a few days early. The first TMA of a module is always a tricky one to get right because it's difficult to know exactly what the tutor is looking for, and some have a few peculiar, and often inconsistent, quirks. As you can see from the progress bar, I'm about a third of the way through the module now.

Tutorial woes (again)

I had a rearranged tutorial on Sunday that was originally postponed due to a clash. That should have been foreseen so there was no excuse really. It wasn't one of the best tutorials I have ever had, and it was undoubtedly the worst so far on this module. The tutor appeared to have a very poor grasp of the actual module materials and just rambled on about what they felt like saying about a variety of different things just loosely connected with a small part of the topic. There was evidence of unpreparedness about the whole session, and some of the students attending appeared to know a lot more than the tutor, who was often challenged on various points.

The second tutorial of the week was an attempt to go over the skills required to complete TMA01. It was a bit too generic for my liking and I didn't find it particularly useful. It should be remembered that there are a range of students with varying abilities enrolled on S283 and this was mostly 'lowest common denominator' stuff. I think using somebody else's slide deck and not having a particularly good grasp of the module didn't exactly endear me to the session, as I regard it as a bit of a red flag. No harm done though.

On Tuesday I wrote an email to the module team asking if it were possible to organise the tutorials on a module-wide basis rather than a cluster-wide one. I wasn't expecting a quick positive reply but I received one that was both. On Wednesday, a senior-ish member of the module team said that they would look into making recordings available to all students but booking live events might be a bit trickier. This is more than I could have hoped for, and I'm positive that something good will come of this.

In other news, it was announced that the end of module exam will be on Monday 8th June. This is 205 days away from today. It's late in the May/June exams period, and is in week 33 of a 31 week module. The revision period begins on 16 May, which is quite generous.

Planets and Moons chat with the module Chair

On Thursday, there was a Planets and Moons Chat with the S283 module chair, Professor David Rothery and one of the module team, Professor Mahesh Anand. There are usually two of these held during the duration of the module and rather unusually the recordings are made available on YouTube sometime after the live event for anybody to view, not just S283 students. A tutorial covering chapters 3 and 4 of the Introduction to the Solar System book was timetabled to take place at the same time, so the tutor cancelled it the day before and rescheduled it for next Sunday. The email sent to students telling them about this change had the wrong date on it, so another one was sent shortly afterwards. Oh dear.

MST124 Essential Mathematics 1

I'm seriously considering studying MST124 Essential Mathematics 1, which starts in February of next year. It will overlap with S283, which is a good thing, because everybody knows that studying two 30 credit modules simultaneously is more demanding than a single 60 credit module. With S283 running between October 2025 & June 2026, and MST124 running between February 2026 & September 2026, the short period of overlap makes the whole thing manageable. MST124 is a prerequisite for MST224, which is essential (not to mention compulsory) for higher level study, including the Diploma of Higher Education in Physics. I'm hoping there are more tutorials in MST124, because I feel a bit deprived of them at the moment. S283 doesn't seem to have very many.

I've also been working on the completion of TMA01, especially the question on craters as I have just finished the chapter on this topic in the Solar System textbook. The crater calculator is a very useful interactive tool on the module website, and is used for Question 4 on this assignment. By the end of last week I reached a stage with TMA01 where I consider it to be more or less a 'release candidate' for submission. The cut-off date is Thursday 27th November. There is a tutorial connected with TMA01 timetabled for Friday 14th November, so I won't even think about submitting it until I've had this.

First real tutorial

I had a tutorial on Monday night that covered Chapters 1 and 2 of the Solar System part of the module. The tutor, although an associate lecturer with a full time job, did it really well and gave me every impression that they enjoyed teaching and actually wanted to be there. I can honestly say it was the first 'real' tutorial of the module so far. There was quite a good turn out as well, with about 30 students on average, reaching a peak of 35.

Working towards TMA01

As I had no tutorials this week there's not that much to say, but it's always good to look ahead at the next assignment, (TMA01) which has a cut-off date of 27th November. S283 has four TMAs with an overall nominal pass mark of 40%, but unusually the actual continuous assessment mark does not contribute to the overall grade of the module. TMA01 assesses understanding of the first four chapters of the book An Introduction to the Solar System. I've covered the material for the first three questions of the assignment, so I'm well on the way to completing it.

Question 1 – (15/75 marks)

This question involves calculating the density of unknown planets, from data such as mass and radius, and then suggesting which would be the most likely abundant elements present in them.

Question 2 – (16/75 marks)

This two part question asks for a description of the processes associated with the formation of the embryonic Earth and also asks for observations on the magnetic field of the planet Mercury.

Question 3 – (25/75 marks)

This question asks for the construction and interpretation of geochemical ‘spidergrams’ given a table of elements using a spreadsheet.

Question 4 – (19/75 marks)

This question involves the analysis of impact craters on Mercury using photographs and use of the ‘creator calculator’ interactive tool.

The tutorials have started

My tutor wrote to all of the tutor group late on Sunday night. It was part introduction, part apology for not writing sooner, and part reminder of an upcoming tutorial. I can't say too much about the personal content as it might identify them, but it seemed very sincere. It would have been nice to receive an acknowledgment of my introductory letter though. The TMA00 that I sent quite a while ago seems to have been ignored.

The very first tutorial of the module, which was a 2-hour jobbie, could best be described as clinical and impersonal. The tutor didn't introduce themselves, launched straight in the content, and finished by insincerely thanking all of us for coming, then ended the session quite abruptly. The area covered was mostly elementary mathematics such as rounding numbers to appropriate significant figures, ratios & fractions, simple geometry, logarithmic graphs & half-lives. At the end there was a bit on the Periodic table & normalisation. It may have been of some benefit to some of the cohort, but I felt it was an opportunity wasted, and it really didn't set the tone of the module particularly well. There were 19 students attending at the start of the tutorial, but this had dropped to 13 by the end of the 2-hour (with a 15 minute break) marathon stint. Due to the decline in attendees during the session, I suspect the other students appeared to be of the same mind as myself.

On Wednesday I received a very strange email from the 'Director of Teaching for Physical Sciences' no less, saying that a post-exam verification process was going to be put in place at the end of all level 2 and level 3 modules that have an online exam. This involves carrying out a 15 minute recorded interview a few days after the exam to verify the identity of approximately 15% of the candidates and 'asking a few questions' but it was all a bit vague. I suspect it's another half-cocked OU box ticking initiative which hasn't been fully worked out yet just to pacify the quality people.

I had a 'Meet the STEM Associate Deans' Microsoft Teams meeting on Thursday evening. Like all Teams meetings it had technical issues, mostly due to insufficient bandwidth, but it struggled on regardless. Not that much was particularly relevant to the Physical Sciences, but it was encouraging that some students raised the issue of the newly launched Biomedical Science degree not being accredited by the IBMS. The staff representatives handled, i.e. sidestepped, that one very nicely. It was great to see corporate diplomacy in action.

Quite late on Friday evening I had a tutorial from the tutor who marks my assignments. It was both similar in some respects but different in others to the first S283 tutorial a few days earlier. This tutor was far more personable and friendly, which is a very good sign, and they introduced themselves to the cohort quite nicely. There were about 8 attendees which is about normal for a 20 or so tutor group. The session contained the normal stuff about submission formatting, word length of answers, plagiarism, the use of AI, the end of module exam etc. It was progressing quite nicely until about 20 minutes towards the end when the tutor appeared to run out of things to say and started eating something. The tutorial then just petered out, which was a bit surreal to be honest. Although this was the best tutorial I've had so far connected with this module, the bar had been set very low.

Week 1 - We are on the move now

Today is the first day of the module proper, although I have been familiarising myself with it for a while now. Last Monday, my tutor emailed me about a tutorial they were hosting on Friday 10th October. I explored the module website a little further and I could see that all of the S283 tutorials were now ready for booking. There were 18 in total and only 7 different tutors, including my own. I'm not sure if this is a cluster-wide or module-wide ratio of staff to students. The first nine tutorials are listed here as an example of what lies ahead.

The forums are not exactly buzzing with tutorial news so I'm not what's going on here. I put all the tutorial dates in my diary and gave a copy to my wife. She needs to know these things.

My tutor group forum opened on Thursday 2nd but at the time of typing, there is no discernible activity at all on it. It doesn't help that there are too many fora to negotiate. There's a general discussion forum, a tutor group forum, a café Forum, an introduction to the Solar System forum, an introduction to astrobiology forum and a revision and exam preparation forum. 

Week 0 - Tutor news

On Wednesday afternoon I received my tutor details. This was about a week earlier in the study calendar than details were released for the module I did last year, SM123. Having looked up the tutor on LinkedIn, I must admit they're not quite what I was hoping for, but I can't complain. I'm not prejudging and they might turn out to be really good. The fact that they are active on the module forums is a positive sign. I used the dummy TMA00 as a vehicle to send them an introductory letter, so I've made contact but yet to receive a reply.

TMA00 awaits my tutor

This is week minus 1 of the module according to the Study Calendar. I did two more 'preparing for' sessions last week. Level 2 on Monday, and Level 3 on Wednesday. The level 2 variant was the session I was specifically invited to. I found 'Preparing for Level 1' a bit of a box ticker, concentrating mostly on student services, employability and careers advice. The 'how to navigate the website' component was more useful for students new to the OU than myself, but as I was gate-crashing an event aimed at level 1 punters, I can't complain too much. The level 2 event on Monday was slightly better. Not quite so much of the employability stuff and a bit more on student support. I did learn that some students on other modules have been allocated their tutors though, and that a particularly good quality member of the full-time OU staff is also a personal tutor on S283.

Also, in addition to the above, I made a tentative start to question 1 of TMA01. It was based on the first two chapters of the textbook An Introduction to the Solar System. The first part involved calculating planet densities and the second part was about the abundance of elements found in those planets. I particularly enjoyed the graph plotting used to visualise the main planet types.

At the time of typing, I still haven't received any tutor details but I have an introductory letter to this mystery person written and all ready to go. I will probably include it as part of TMA00, the dummy TMA that tests the eTMA submission system.

S283 Module website opens

This is the module homepage that became 'live' at midnight on Tuesday. I did the usual thing and downloaded as much as I could so that I can work offline. Rather unusually, the TMAs are all online as webpages, not as formatted pdf files. I made my own so that I can print them out and have paper copies. The assignments all seem very interesting, and I'm looking forward to tackling them.

It will be a few more days until information on tutors and tutorials are made available, and the next thing for me to do will be to book them and put the dates and times in my calendar.

Level 2 information event

A few days ago. I got an email inviting me to attend an 'informative but relaxed' online event on Monday 15th September with representatives from the three science schools. It said it will be an opportunity to 'explore the resources available on the Science Subject site and other school sites as well as discussing other helpful ways to prepare for the module'. There are three of these events being held, one for each of the three undergraduate levels and I was invited to attend the level 2 variant, although there is nothing to stop me attending the others I suppose. The Student Support Team and the Careers and Employability Service will also be involved, so it is probably the OU doing a tick box exercise.

This is week -3 (minus 3) and the S283 module website opens in a few days time on Tuesday 9th, which is the most important news of the week. I was a bit disappointed that the course chair Prof. David Rothery hasn't done his Introduction to S283 video this year, but I think he has his hands full with the BepiColombo mission, as well as working on the replacement for S283 provisionally titled S287 Planetary Science. Another thing of note is that Prof. Andrew Norton, the Undergraduate Qualification Lead retired over the summer. He has done so much for the School of Physical Sciences over the years that I can't help thinking that the astrophysics and associated courses offered by the OU will never quite be the same as they used to be.

S283 Module news

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.

The SM123 blog has moved

I've archived my SM123 blog and it can now be found here. This blog will be used to document the next stage of my OU journey, which is S283 Planetary science and the search for life, starting in October 2025.