Open University, any good?

[kea]

quick question to people with OU experience - i registered online for the course at the start of last week and it said the next step was for them to send me out a registration form and payment form and i had to post them back by the 9th - i haven't received them yet and i'm getting a bit worried as time is ticking on. does anyone know if i can sort out the payment and whatever else they need over the phone, if i call them? and if not, does anyone know if the web registration is binding enough for them to give me a bit of leeway in getting the postal forms back to them? i'm getting a bit anxious that it's all going to fall down round my ears and i'm not going to be able to do the course

i have emailed their helpline thingy (on the same day i registered) to try and find out, but nobody has got back to me i guess they must be swamped at this time of year ...


edit: well it didn't appear in today's post so i've phoned them and a very nice lady was helpful and took my payment and said i'm now registered; my online application didn't appear on her system so presumably there was some kind of glitch
anyway, i'm on the course, wahey!

 

[fractionMan]

I'm considering doing 2 60-point courses, one in a subject I know nothing about (soc sci) and one in German which I speak pretty well so I'm especially interested in how many actual hours study people have done to pass their modules. Changes at work since I signed up for this mean that I'm working longer hours and my surplus leisure time has shrunk significantly from about 2 hours daily to 2 half-hours daily which doesn't seem long enough to get any work done. I'm even considering working one shift less per week.

ARe you thinking of doidn 2 60 pointers in one year? That's a lot of work. I managed it one year, but I was only working part time. There's no way you can do 120 points and a full time job. I'd say 120 points is a good three days a week + assignments. In general, I'd say
30 points = one day or two evenings work including assignments
60 points = two days work including assignments

 

[Soul On Ice]

ARe you thinking of doidn 2 60 pointers in one year? That's a lot of work. I managed it one year, but I was only working part time. There's no way you can do 120 points and a full time job. I'd say 120 points is a good three days a week + assignments. In general, I'd say
30 points = one day or two evenings work including assignments
60 points = two days work including assignments

I would thoroughly recommend the OU. About 12 years ago I completed an OU degree in engineering whilst working full time. My degree was recognised by the appropriate engineering institution and the Engineering Council which enabled me to become a member of a professional engineering institution and also become a Chartered Engineer - this is THE recognised qualification for engineers. As a result of my OU degree I jobs that I would not have otherwise have got. If you are doing the degree for vocational reasons contact your relevant professional institution for details of what course profile you should follow otherwise you could end up having to do extra course to meet the entry requirements for your professional body - this is what I did.

By now, most if not all employers recognise OU degree so don't worry about this.

As to doing 120 points in one year and doing a full time job I would disagree with FractionMan as it is possible. I did 120 points a year for 4 years and did a full time job and I got a first (smug git that I am). BUT I would say that it is very very difficult to do this - I worked bloody hard for 4 years staying up to 1 in the morning 4 nights a week and also spending at 5 - 8 hours at the weekend. I would not recommend doing 120 points a year and a full time job unless you are totally committed. There is no way I could do that again and on reflection I must have been bordering on the obsessive to have done 120 points a year, a full time job and got a first.

. One of the major spin offs from doing the OU was that I became extremely good at prioritising what was important and what was not.

As to the comment that the OU "overmark" there may be some truth in that in as much that most universities tend to mark out of 70 instead of 100, i.e. most unis give a maximum mark of around 70% for a piece of work (especially in the social sciences) that is considered to be of the standard of a first. The OU mark out of 100 so if you've done a piece of work of work that is considered to be a first you could get 100 or thereabouts. In the end it all evens itself out with regard to the award of the final grade of your degree. There's no way I can see that the comment that the OU "overmark" should be read as OU degrees being less valid otherwise I would not have been accepted as a Chartered Engineer - the Engineering Council would not let engineers become chartered if their degrees were crap cos you'd have buildings falling down, electrical equipment going bang etc.

 

[fractionMan]

I did 120 points a year for 4 years and did a full time job and I got a first

Wow. You must have been insane. Congrats of the first.

As to the comment that the OU "overmark" there may be some truth in that in as much that most universities tend to mark out of 70 instead of 100, i.e. most unis give a maximum mark of around 70% for a piece of work (especially in the social sciences) that is considered to be of the standard of a first. The OU mark out of 100 so if you've done a piece of work of work that is considered to be a first you could get 100 or thereabouts. In the end it all evens itself out with regard to the award of the final grade of your degree. There's no way I can see that the comment that the OU "overmark" should be read as OU degrees being less valid otherwise I would not have been accepted as a Chartered Engineer - the Engineering Council would not let engineers become chartered if their degrees were crap cos you'd have buildings falling down, electrical equipment going bang etc.

You're completely right here. In most of the courses I did, you needed around 85-90% in the course work and exam for a first. Not as easy as you'd think.

 

[Prince Rhyus]

Signed up for an OU course this afternoon because of the large amount of quiet periods there seem to be in my job. Basically it will be an opportunity to get on with something useful while there is little to do rather than doing what feels like not a lot. The subject area - environment: technology for a sustainable future, is something that I hope will be relevant in future years and hope that this will be sort of a reintroduction to the scientific world that seems to have bypassed me in recent years!

 

[electric.avenue]

well i've just signed up for a foundation year in science at the OU

If S103 is as good as its predecessor S102 (which I did), then I'm sure you'll really enjoy it. We had a tutorial every week, run by two tutors who were really great. One was a headmaster, the other was a biochemist. They both made it really good fun for us newbies. There were sessions in the pub after, and we were also joined at these by the previous year's students who could fill us in on various aspects of the course such as what to expect from the summer school and the exam, how to get the best out of the course materials, etc.

Did the summer school at Heriot-Watt Uni nr Edinburgh, I drove up there with one of the other ppl from my tutorial grp, who was doing the same week (you get a choice of weeks). Summer sch was great experience - really good tutors, interesting experiments, and social events organised in the evening. It was everyone's first experience of the OU and summer sch, so ppl had a lot to talk about. Made some good friends.

We had a home experiment kit - it was fun doing expts at home, and you got some really cool stuff, such as models of fossils, real rock and mineral specimens, a world ocean floor map!

Good Luck!

 

[fractionMan]

bump

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

A lecturer at our uni was an examiner with the OU. He said that students at the OU are actually at an adavantage because they arent expected to 'read widely' the materials are targetted, high quality and tailored to the needs of the course/student demographic.

He felt as a result students knew what was expected, produced work which was easier to fit to the marking scheme and there was less likelihood of "Dont like what youve written so Ill give you a shite mark because I think youre chosen line is wrong" or "Nice, you are following the line Ive given you in lectures, glad you agree- have a good mark"
which he felt was a valid criticism of university lecturers/universities. Given that he worked in both I think he was quite well placed to make that assessment.

He actually advised several people to study further with the OU rather than fund a course in a traditional uni