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.