Happy enough with that, of course – although a dig into the performance profile revealed a few “just achieved” marks that I’m not so happy with. Far be it for me to query the OU’s infallible marking, mind you.

This was the first course I’ve done where I’ve received the Learning Outcome comments instead of a percentage score – I’ve grumbled about these before, and getting this result has just borne out the comments I made then about percentages being a motivational thing – getting this result just didn’t feel the same or mean the same to me. I did use my rough-and-ready formula to calculate a mark for myself, but I still know that’s not a “real” mark. Suddenly my motivation to do more SSCs has taken a dip.

One things that’s struck me about the Science Short Courses is that, while they’re certainly enjoyable enough & I’m usually able to rack up a decent score (ah, scores – I remember them fondly), I can’t help but wonder how much I’m actually learning from them. Simple reason: the open-book nature of the assessment makes it easy to get a high score by simply working through the materials with the ECA alongside, completing the relevant sections as you complete the corresponding part of the course book. If I remember correctly, S197 actually encouraged this way of working, and I’ll admit it’s the method I use myself – but if you do it that way, you’re not giving the information you’ve read a chance to sink into your head.

It would be an interesting little experiment to come back to one of the SSCs a few months after it had ended, and see just how much of the ECA could be completed from memory. I’m guessing it wouldn’t be a lot – which leaves the value of the Certificate in Contemporary Science a little suspect.

Not that I’ll let that stop me from claiming it, of course, and to be fair the SSCs are sold by the OU more as teasers for the “real” 30+ pointers and for people with an interest in the subjects covered than as a serious academic unit. But the experience, and the “fun” I had trying to prepare for M255′s exam a few weeks back, does highlight the value that examinations, and the need to actually know your subject to have a chance in them, brings to courses.

I love my gadgets, so the first thing that caught my attention was the Stellarium software (which is open-source, so you can download it yourself and give it a whirl if you want) – this is a virtual planetarium, which lets you choose your location on the Earth an see what should be visible in the skies above – if light pollution, bad eyesight and stiff necks weren’t problems. Since light is a particular problem where I live, this is a great idea to start with, and a good way of wasting hours as it’s one of those applications you can’t help playing with. If you do have a good view of the real sky, the supplied planisphere helps you find where various stars and constellations are. Full marks for the supplementary materials, then.

A quick flick through the course book shows it to be an easy read, full of useful & well-explained diagrams and photographs – fairly typical for a Science Short Course, which from past experience (S196 & S197) are always well-written. The supplied CD-ROM has the usual archive of images, which if you’ve got an interest in astronomy are all works of natural art & provide another way of wasting a few hours, just flicking through them.

So much for opening the box, then. Next stage, to get into the materials and hopefully get the ECA done in time for the first submission deadline (31st July). I’ll post more impressions as I work through it.