Friday 28 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : TMA Submission Dates Revised

Great news announced on the course forum this evening. The TMA submission dates have been revised as a result of various emails and comments regarding the odd timing of these dates within the TMA Week.

This really shows that the OU are listening to what their students are saying and that they are prepared to revise the course program for the benefit of those studying.

The new cut-off dates are......
  • TMA 01 Thursday 1st November 2012
  • TMA 02 Thursday 6th December 2012
  • TMA 03 Thursday 17th January 2013
  • TMA 04 Thursday 21 February 2013
  • TMA 05 Thursday 28 March 2013
  • TMA 06 Thursday 9 May 2012

Thursday 27 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Tutorial Dates announced online

I don't really want to complain about the course timetable two posts in a row, but considering that the course officially starts on the 6th October it seems somewhat odd that the first tutorial is on the 6th October.

This is the same throughout the course, the tutorials at the at start of each section, when I think it would be better towards the end of each section when there would be the opportunity to discuss that section and what is required for the TMA.

Oh well, may as well just get on with it and stop complaining, and get some reading done before the 6th Oct, this week has slipped past very quickly with not much having be done......

Wednesday 26 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Beware the TMA Week

The importance of keeping ahead of the timetable is no better illustrated than through the oddly timetabled TMA cut-off dates.

  • Week 4 starts on SATURDAY the 27th October.
  • TMA01's cut off date is Monday 29th October
  • This doesn't make any sense at all.

Why not make the cut off date Friday 2nd November or over better slight overlap with Week 5 and make it Monday 5th November.

I'm sure this will catch me out at some point even though I think I am well aware of it.

............. and they say common sense is the least common sense of all :-)

Monday 24 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Week 1

The courses first week of study is supposed to start on the 6th Oct, however there is nothing quite like the feeling of being slightly ahead of the course timetable and knowing that you have a bit of a 'study buffer' should things happen to put your study back a bit.

So, Week 1's timetabled study is,

Saturday 22 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Get set to study...


I now have the books at home. The website is open. The new PPE study support webpage is open and I even have a tutor assigned..... so with 2 weeks to go until the timetabled start of the course I'll try and get a bit of a head start on the reading and get some chapters read over the weekend.

I have 'Googled' my tutor and I am pretty impressed by their credentials, which doesn't necessarily follow that they will be a good tutor, but I doubt their main motivator in being part of the Open University is a financial one, so I am very hopeful that they will be good. Also, they are based not too far away, certainly no further than the tutor on the last course, so that should hopefully mean that the tutorials are fairly close.

Thursday 20 September 2012

DD203 - Power, Dissent, Equality : Website Open and new PPE Page

The course website has opened on time and it is quite a bit different from the last two course websites I have experienced.

I'm sure it has been well thought out and will be an improvement, but I just need some time to navigate round it and see where everything is.

There has also appeared a brand new PPE study / course page, and again it is early days but this may be useful although I can see a lot of potential overlap with this PPE Forum and the Facebook page.

On the plus side, having gone home from work two nights in a  row and forgotten the course books they are now in the car.... just got to remember to get them from the car to the house and study can commence.

Still no tutor assigned, maybe I'm difficult to place ......

Tuesday 18 September 2012

DD203 - Power, dissent, equality: understanding contemporary politics : Books have arrived.......

I guess it has been about six weeks since my last post, and it has been a welcome break from study.

I have arrived back from a very enjoyable holiday to find that my course books have arrived. The holiday was so relaxing that although I took a book away on Political Philosophy I think it was opened briefly on the plane on the way out and then not at all through the holiday, so I really need to change gear and get back into study mode.

The 5 books that arrived do not seem overly thick, so I wonder if there is lots of external texts that need to be found and read to augment this teaching material. There are also no audio CDs included, so unless these are online this will also be another change in teaching style.

The website says it will open on the 20th September, so not long to go now, and I see that I have still not been assigned a tutor, but I guess that is not an issue at present.I just hope they are not too far away. Last year my wife was assigned tutorials two and a half hours away, and I'm not sure a total of five hours driving is worth the bother going on past experience, so fingers crossed for a local tutor.

May try and start Book 1 tonight.......