The Social Sciences (Social Sciences At The Open University)

Member Name: Tingram2012

Product:	Social Sciences At The Open University
Date:	16/07/09 (154 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: distance learning, variation

Disadvantages: some things may not be of interest

I have just recently finished the DD100 Introduction to Social Science which was a recommended course for my degree path. I havent received my results yet but 3 weeks tomorrow i'll have all fingers and toes crossed.

The course started last October and ran for 8 months which seemed a long time at the beginning but it actually flew by and i can believe it is now over and i'm already looking forward to my next course in October.

DD100 is a really diverse course, the idea behind it is to give you lots of information on a variety of different topics. Some i have to say i did not like at all and some i absolutely loved. Whats funny is (not haha funny) i got higher marks on the topics i didnt like or found hard. Maybe i tried that little bit harder on those ones.

In the July before the course started i received my prep work which was just a small book that when through reading and note taking. I only skimmed through it really as i was more excited about the next set of materials that were due to arrive. The materials were sent out in different stages so i wasnt overwhelmed at all.

On my student home page there was a list of tutorials, who my tutor was and where i needed to go for these. I went to the University of Lincoln which is only about a 20 minute drive. We have roughly 1 tutorial a fortnight which was plenty on the run up to eash assignment.

The first to arrive was Block 07 and Block 01.

Block 07 is the introductory chapter which is all about the fears and fascination: the crime problem in the contemporary UK. This was the shortest block and the TMA (tutor marked assignment) was only weighted at 4% of the overall course mark. The book is 41 pages and discusses What crime is, Tales of fear and fascination, Statistics of crime, explaining crime and other things such as moral panic. The course materials are not particularly up to date as they were first published in 2000 & the second edition was 2004. The book itself is quite interesting and it covers crime in the 1730 through to 1970s and more recently. It also comes with a workbook that you use along side the course book. There are lots of activities in there to get your brain thinking. I enjoyed this subject as i'm interested in the crime aspect but i found the assignment question quite difficult. I did actually get a good mark though so i cant complain.

Block 01 was Questioning Identity: Gender, class and ethnicity. The coursebook went on to describe what is identity and how they are formed. It covered gender identities formed from childhood through to adulthood and to distinguish between masculine and feminine behaviour. It also discussed gender differences for example that by the 1990s girls were outclassing boys in education. The chapter on class covers Work incomes, what its like to be poor & inequality which includes a lot of statistics. The assignment was in 2 parts and i found the questions relatively easy but somehow this is where i scored my worse mark.

Block 02 and 03 had already arrived by then.

Block 02 was on the natural and the social: uncertainty, risk, change. The course book consisted of, Human nature, Sex, Brain size and a section on Can chimpanzees learn language? It also included the natural environment, the market economy and living with risk. The is one of the blocks that i really wasnt keen on. I'm studying psychology so this block didnt hold much interest for me. The assignment again was quite difficult but once again i scored better than i thought i would. The assignment was in 2 parts, 1 part was on a table on recycling the other about landfills. Not my cup of tea.

Block 03 was my favourite, it was on ordering lives: Family, work and welfare. The course book cover Patriarchy within the family, How power operates, Welfare and security. I really enjoyed this block and got to know everything about feminists, conservatism and Patriarchy, there was also some good theorists quoted for Michal Foucault to Max Weber. This assignment at the end of this course was done in the form of an exam. We got to choose out of 2 questions, study and write the exam within an hour at the University. For people who could not make it for whatever circumstance could sit it at home.

Block 04 was on a globalizing world: culture, economics and politics. For the assignment we had to choose one of the above and write about it drawing on the different concepts in gloablization. I chose to go with culture as i understood it much better. I have to say i tried to read the other two but they went straight over my head and i decided just to stick with culture. once again this was another block a really didnt like but to my surprise i got my highest mark which i was astounded by.

Block 05 was on Knowledge and the social sciences: theory, method and practice. Again there was 2 questions but fortunately we only had to pick one. The 3 chapters covered medicine, religion & politics and we had to choose one and link it with one or more of the theories in the course book, these were knowledge society, risk society & consumer society. I chose medicine but thats only because i struggled to find a link with any of the other subjects.

The final block 06 was a choice of 2 questions and we had to pick one and draw on 3 of the previous blocks. The first question was on social divisions and the second was on knowledge. I'd already written about knowledge in the last tma so i opted for social divisions. And thats the assignment i have recently submitted and am waiting for the results on.

Each block comes with a course book and workbook so theres plenty to help you on your way. I didnt really have alot of time to look at the workbook as i work full time and found it hard to fit everything in. The course was all over the place and some i found interesting and some not so much. Overall i enjoyed the course but i am really glad that its now over and i can move onto a course specific to Psychology.

For anyone else interested in studying at the Open University, have a look at there website www.open.ac.uk. Its definitely well worth it.
The D100 has now been discontinued but has been replaced with a more up to date version which is DD101

Summary: I'm glad i did it