OpenMusings

Unexpectedly good:

Using my own method for converting learning outcomes into a percentage gave me a respectable 88%. I can live with that, all things considered..

Just need S151 to finish off my Certificate in Contemporary Science, but I’m putting that on the backburner for a while – want to get my nightmare courses of M359 and M253 out of the way before taking on anything else that’s not degree-related. Maybe next year…

S186 done & dusted, with the ECA submitted with about, oh, 5 minutes to spare. I think that’s a record for me in the “cutting it close” department. Enjoyed the course up to a point – the subject and course material I found fascinating, I was just hampered by a severe lack of time. Shouldn’t have any problems with passing it, but it’s not going to be as good a result as I could have got if I’d been able to give it my full attention.

With that done, attention switches back to M359. By my reckoning I’m about 3 weeks behind on the final stretch, so time to knuckle down and start working…

…except that the keyboard on my MacBook Pro has given up under the pressure of heavy-duty bashing. Or at least the ‘G’ key has – its keycap went flying across the room last week and hasn’t been seen since, so the laptop itself is winging its way back to Apple for a keyboard replacement. That’s anything between 2-5 working days until I have access to it again. One word: ARRRGH!

One last piece of news for this meandering post:

Considering that exam was done with pretty much no revision, I can’t complain about that result. Onwards! Sadly, the next unit will be the dreaded M253…

With about 3 weeks to go until the cut-off for S186 (this is my deferral date, so no further extensions), I’m just starting Chapter 5. This isn’t exactly where I wanted to be with this course, but domestic issues plus the dreaded M359 have meant it’s been on the backburner for a while. I’m now looking to “cheat” a little to get the ECA done & away on time (31st July) without neglecting M359, as I’m already behind on that.

That’s not “cheat” in the sense of doing anything the OU wouldn’t like, though – just in the sense of making sure I only cover the minimum of material needed to get the pass. Thankfully, the ECA is fairly clear about which questions relate to which chapters, so at this point I’m looking to just read the essentials (chapters 7, 8 & 11 for the questions I still have to do) and ignore the rest of the course for the moment – I can read the rest of TYVET at my leisure when I have more time to spare. With the course being a simple pass / fail one, there’s no real incentive to bust a gut looking for extra marks.

As for M359 – it’s still a huge timesink, but bar a disappointing TMA01 I’ve been doing okay with it. I can see myself having to abandon a large chunk of Block 4 for the time being (assessed by TMA03, which is already done & marked) in an effort to get back up-to-date ahead of TMA04. I’m doing the course in about 4 hours per week at the moment, which really isn’t enough – oh for another 8 hours a week of free time. Amazingly, a distinction still isn’t entirely out of the question – but with that needing a score of 92% on the final TMA to get my OCAS up to the required 85%, it’s unlikely. My confidence about the exam isn’t exactly high, either. Bah.

Edit: Aha. I forgot that substitution applies to M359 – which means that, assuming I can scrape 85% in the exam, I only need 85% on TMA04 and substitution will take care of the rest. Still unlikely, just not as unlikely.

S186 – Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis – is my latest foray into the Science Short Course collection. The course author is David Rothery – he was also responsible for S196 Planets: An Introduction, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I have high hopes for this one. The subject’s a little off what I’d normally be interested in, but the OU are dangling the Certificate in Contemporary Science over my head. What can I say – I’m a sucker.

The main component of this one is another of Rothery’s books, Teach Yourself Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis (Get it here…), which is 296 pages of everything you need to know about volcanic & tectonic activity. Obviously, I haven’t read it yet, so the verdict on how good it is remains open – I’ll let you know in a month or two – but at first glance it looks good.

There’s also a hefty course book with additional materials and activities, and a DVD-ROM with a selection of video clips to back up the other materials. There actually seems to be quite a bit to the course – if you took the time to watch all the videos, you’d be doing terrible things to the time required to complete the course, I reckon – but the OU seems to have worked hard to give you everything needed to get the points taught by the course across.

So first impressions are good. The ECA result will be the true test of that, though…