Scuba studies the fishes (Science At The Open University)

Member Name: scuba_angel

Product:	Science At The Open University
Date:	24/12/07 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: can be done in your own time and around your life

Disadvantages: you really do need to be motivated

Since I finally gave up on my full time University career in favour of job seeking and generally dossing about (strangely enough I would describe my lifestyle as that of a student minus the study part) I have from time to time regretted my decisions which led to me leaving uni, but at the same time I recognise that at the time I had only two options let my debts and personal problems drag me in to a poor degree or leave and plan on returning to education at a later date.
That later date has always been and will remain a slightly vague response when people ask about my plans since quite simply for the forseeable future I am unable to afford full time study and part time study is not avaliable for the course I want to do (In fact my nearest Unis dont offer the course I want to do making it even harder) but being as I am unwilling to let my brains stagnate I started to investigate the options courses with the Open University and other distance learning providers offer. In the end I choose to attempt one of the OU's short science courses. The course title my be of little surprise to many who know of my obsession with the underwater world or that my original studies were Marine Biology so the S180 Life in the Oceans; Exploring our Blue Planet short course seemed perfect for easing me back in to the world of study.

The course costs £130 and for that money you get the course book, a set of DVD's around which the course is structured, a CDrom containing software incase your pc doesnt have the relevant software already installed as well as two choices of End of Course Assesment questions, one ECA is for those who choose to work though the course quickly in a little under 12 weeks, the second set are for those who have less time to devote to the studing and are for submission after 24 weeks of study. The course is avaliable anywhere in the world but international students will have to pay more (though BFPO addresses pay the UK rates).
This particular course is entirely homebased, other longer courses require Residential Schools and for you to attend Tutorial sessions. In this case there are tutors avaliable to contact via the interactive section of the website, and any queries I have sent to them have been answered within 24 hours, also there is a great message board system where you can interact with others studying the course, either suggesting websites/sources with further reading relevant to the study or helping to clarify confusions, these boards are monitored by the tutors so anyone giving away the answers on the board will find the messages deleted and a warning sent as the OU like all further education institutions are very concerned about the risks of plagarism.

The course itself isnt overly technical with the science content and to my mind would be suitable for anyone who has done either science to A/S level or had a good GCSE grade, for anyone who struggled with science at school it would probably be wise to choose a more general science course to begin with, though again you could put the proviso that anyone who has any interest in the aquatic world could be surprised by the amount of scientific knowledge they have but didnt realise it. As the course is based around the Blue Planet series and uses clips from the shows as the basis for the course structure clearly at times the editing of the DVD's feels a little off kilter, and it is fairly easy to sit back and let the images and sounds simply relax you rather than watching it and following the tasks suggested to enhance your study time. But once you manage to concentrate the inclusion of certain sequences makes sense even if it doesnt follow the order they were used in the TV broadcasts, and if watched as suggested in the text book the sequences do add alot of value to the concepts.
The course text book is a well put together guide, the concepts are clearly explained and the diagrams are both simple and well explained enough to make sense of even some complicated concepts, one of my work collegues even read some of it and found it easy to understand despite not having studied science since leaving school almost 20 years ago, obviously it gets far more complicated the more you read of it, but the opening chapters give you a good enough basic knowledge to then grasp the harder stuff as you continue.

The OU sends all students the university magazine Sesame on a regular basis, as well as the new upto date prospectus when it is released, though website I find alot easier to navigate to find courses worth looking at. But the hard copies which they send out do make you feel far more in touch with the OU as an organisation than you other wise might.
For me at least the main downfall is that there is noone reminding me to actually do the study, I started the course in November, and covered almost half the course material in a couple of weeks, then started putting off doing anymore of it until the last few days, in which time Ive sat and worked through about half the remaining material and begun to work on the ECA (aiming to complete the course in time for the January submission). If I had a more physical presence reminding me to get on with it such as a lecturer as at a 'normal' higher education provider maybe I would have taken the course in a more structured manner than I have (though past experience suggests this wouldnt actually help at all, lol), but I think this is quite well balanced out by the interactive boards and that the tutors are so good at responding to queries. Of course any studying requires a measure of self motivation but homebased courses require more than most.

One thing which is also worth mentioning is that if you want to do other courses and study towards a certification you can do, and once registered on a course there is a helpful section which shows you qualification options, how many points the course you have registered on is worth, and what else you would need to do to reach the required points totals, for example should I want to study a full degree, I could obtain a Bsc in Natural Sciences for which you would need 360 points, and there is a full break down of how many points you would need to study at each level (short courses like this are usually level 1) levels 2 and 3 are obviously much longer and require far more commitment. But should you not want to study so far there are other options like a Certificate in Contemporary Science which requires 60 points, or 6 short science courses.
The main barrier to study is always going to be the cost and time required, and when a short course worth only 10 points is costing £130 this can be very off putting, as obviously longer courses can cost much more, at this point I have to applaud Tesco's clubcard deals as they now feature OU vouchers, so you can swop your clubcard vouchers for money towards studying, and as with all clubcard deals using the coupons for deals gives them a significantly greater value meaning a £2.50 voucher becomes worth £10 in OU credit (meaning my short course would only cost £32.50 if paid for in this way).

As far as the time goes well thats up to you, if you have a few spare hours a week you can comfortably work towards one of the OU's courses, and if like me you have quite alot of time on your hands at home or even at work (gotta love weekend shifts at my current job) then it might be worth looking in to what the OU can offer. Obviously this type of study isnt suitable to everyone and it isnt easy to motivate yourself at times (for some reason watching soaps has appealed more than ever when Ive considered using the time to do some work), but if you want to do something practical with your time then chances are OU has a course you might enjoy.

Summary: Worth a look if you want to try something new