SM123 Physics and Space, like a lot of the newer Open University modules, was delivered entirely online. There were no books provided, but it was possible to download the pdf files and print them off. The module used quite a lot of interactive resources, so books were not really a serious option. Although some of the interactive components were just unnecessary gimmicks, others were essential, and were needed to answer some of the TMA and exam questions.
I found SM123 to be very much a ‘doing’ skills-based course rather than a ‘book bashing and knowledge acquiring’ memory test type of module. As such, it will suit some students a lot better than others. The early to mid part of the module borrows heavily from S112 Science: concepts and practice, which is an introductory science module for those not particularly interested in the physical sciences. It was obvious that the educationalists and pedagogists had been let loose on it, and this inevitably trickled down to SM123. There was a considerable amount of ‘reflecting on this and reflecting on that’, self-auditing of your skills & progress at every opportunity, and contemplating your navel. There was also a lot of peer-reviewed malarky and some group work, which a few students didn’t bother with. It was worth engaging with it though, along with the frequent skills audits, because these were easy marks up for grabs for not much effort, if taken at least nominally seriously.
Some of the practical work was of the ‘kitchen sink’ variety, which is fully understandable for a level 1 distance learning science course. Examples include, writing a risk assessment and protocol on making a cup of tea, watching a baked bean tin nearly slide down a chopping board, stretching an elastic band by suspending a plastic bottle of water from it, reading computer generated analogue dials from a remote weather station, and holding a coin up to the moon to estimate its distance from the earth.
One of the best – and worst – parts of the module were the four discrete Python weeks, which really divided the students. Looking at the forums, it appeared that those with previous knowledge of coding loved it, but those who encountered it for the first time loathed it. This was the first year since the module began that Python 3 rather than Python 2 was taught, and it would have been a good opportunity to properly review and revamp the coding component of SM123. Although the programming environment and the Python version changed, the effectiveness of the teaching unfortunately did not. It ramped up in difficulty far too quickly, and the recommended preparatory material was somewhere between woefully inadequate and unnecessarily confusing. It’s good that Python is introduced at level 1, because it comes up again in other higher-level modules such as SXPS288 Remote experiments in physics and space, but it really needs to be seriously looked at for future incarnations of this module.
The academic low points of the module were some parts of ‘Material worlds’ which was really chemistry used as padding material, and some parts of ‘Energy in society’ which had 1970s Nuffield physics written all over the domestic energy section of it. Watching poor quality videos of cloud chamber tracks and preparing a scripted PowerPoint slide deck on what was observed during that less than riveting activity was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Watching and listening to a video of a Geiger counter measuring radioactive decay for 15 minutes came a close second.
The academic high points of the module - and there were many - included the astronomy, planetary science and cosmology topics towards the end of the module. The material for these related topics was produced to a very high standard indeed and whetted the appetite for level 2 and 3 study. The 'modern physics' part of the module, which included quantum and particle physics was equally as good, as was the more tradiola 'A level' energy and mechanics early topics. The pace of the module was good, and the workload was about right for a 30-credit module. The published estimate of 8 to 10 hours per week on average was accurate, for me at least.
It’s common knowledge that when you sign up for an OU module you get a complementary ticket for the tutor lottery. Some are excellent, and are a genuine credit to the teaching profession in general, and the Open University in particular. However, some of the Associate Lecturers are not quite as fantabulosa, and appear to have only taken on the role alongside their full time job because they have overstretched themselves on their mortgage. These tutors had a tendency to not fully engage with the students, and when they found they really had to, only did so begrudgingly.
The tutorials were therefore a mixed bag, but it didn’t help that they were not very well organised, with poor advertising, cancellations, no-shows, clashes, and sometimes hastily rescheduled. To be fair, most tutorials were poorly attended anyway. For some no doubt pedagogic reason, the tutorials for each topic came in three flavours, 'intro', 'relaxed' and 'deep dive'. The 'intro' type to give a light overview for those who found the topic intellectually demanding and could just about understand the basics; the 'deep dive' type for those who wanted a more advanced explanation, perhaps going slightly beyond the course materials; and the 'relaxed' type for those who either wanted to only participate passively or didn't want their contributions recorded. The idea seems a good one, but it never really worked out like that. Most tutors just took whatever approach suited their personal style, and in practice there was no significant difference in the three types.
There was an average of 12 or so students attending each tutorial, so most of the module-wide cohort (670 in total at the start) wouldn’t have noticed or cared about them. In addition to the tutorials associated with the academic topics of the module, the module team semi-arranged some 'skills tutorials'. Some were better than others, and a few never took place at all. One tutor let slip that this initiative had started life under the name of 'taking it further' tutorials but inexplicably morphed into 'skills' tutorials which didn't really have a purpose. It was a solution looking for a problem and the tutor, an experienced OU staff member, was just as bewildered as everybody else. Three online tutorial rooms were the entry points to the tutorials and these used the resource heavy Adobe Connect software to access. There was an online tutor group room, which was used twice, an online module-wide room, which was used for all of the other tutorials, and a never used online tutorial room.
Communication was a big thing with the module and the number of forums provided was bewildering. There was a Pre-module start forum, a Tutor group forum, a Module-wide tutorial forum, a General queries forum, three module topics forums, a Python programming forum, a Python programming private forum, a Maths & revision support forum, and a Remote exam help forum. Many students rarely used any of these and preferred third-party WhatsApp groups, Facebook groups, Discord servers and the like. This meant they were unlikely to see any essential module news and announcements, in addition to contribution to the forum-based 'group work' that was part of one of the practical activities.
The four TMAs spread evenly throughout the teaching weeks were ‘bitty’ and assessed all aspects of the module with a corresponding test of a wide variety of skills without going into significant depth in any one area, which is typical of a level 1 module. They were mostly enjoyable to tackle due to the variety of the questions - either 5 or 6 - in each assignment. Helpfully, the timetable allocated sufficient time to complete these while the delivery of new academic material was suspended. As these TMAs contributed 39% to the overall module mark, they were worth spending time and effort doing as well as possible.
This module used 'OpenStudio' to record the results of the various practical activities and exercises which took place at various points over the weeks. The problem being that having uploaded the various files and data to OpenStudio, it was then necessary to download them again to cut and paste into the assignments. It was much easier to just store them on the computing device used to create the assignments, perhaps using cloud storage or a USB drive for backup. Since 1Tb of OneDrive was provided free for each student, it seemed a bit unnecessary and less useful. The only time OpenStudio came into its own was during the 'peer review' activities when one student uploaded something for another student to download.
Rather strangely, each topic of the module - and there were nine of them - had some unassessed mathematics exercises associated with them. Called 'practise and revise' by the module authors, they were loosely linked to MST124 Essential Mathematics 1, which is the level 1 module that almost all students on a physical science qualification would have taken, or be expected to take, at some point in their academic journey. It seemed like a good idea at first glance, but the maths topics chosen didn't appear to have that much in common with the associated science topic, and in some cases were just not relevant at all. I don't think that many people bothered with them really. Having some additional mathematics practice is a good idea but trying to map it to the MST124 syllabus just didn't work at all.
The end of module exam took the form of a timed Moodle quiz, using previously seen materials as a guide to where to focus the revision. This took the pressure off a bit, but it was still not an easy activity. It was a real test of the understanding of the module materials. With a mixture of different types of questions on all parts of the module with no choice allowed, it looked like it was easy to pass but difficult to get a particularly good mark in.
Despite my criticism of some aspects of the module, I really enjoyed studying SM123. It was good, perhaps very good in places, but stopped just short of being great. It was a very good introduction to physics and astronomy, and I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in these areas of science. The Python was a bonus for those with an aptitude for, and an interest in, computer programming. I saw it very much as a unique selling point for the module, as there is no coding in any other level 1 science modules, as far as I’m aware.