(no subject)
I said I'd post a bit about my trip to Bath for the Open University. I am going to start by saying a bit about the course and the project itself, as I know I haven't talked about it here.
This 9-month course is my final Economics course I'll need for my degree (which is a combination of Business and Economics - so I'm not quite done yet!) This does mean that it's the highest level course, and with many of these level three courses, the Open University requires students to attend a residential school. Exceptions are made for those who are completely unable to attend, but this route sounds like a tedious one (explanation forthcoming), and since room and board are covered in the tuition we've already paid, most students attend the residential school. In fact, geeks like myself appreciate the option, as we only have tutorials in-person once a month or so, and being able to meet and discuss coursework with other students is very helpful for me.
The main purpose of the residential school for this course is to give students guidance on the big project which is a large part of the total course grade. We are meant to come up with a subject on our own, then write about it, using evidence obtained from one of three different sources: numerical data, published literature, or fieldwork we've conducted ourselves.
The tutor for our local group, K, told us at the beginning of the course how we should make the decision as to which method to use. Doing the data analysis would result in a good grade, as it's not a popular option, but don't do it if you aren't mathematically inclined (obviously I wasn't going to touch this one!) The literature review option, she said, sounds easy enough at first, but is also by far the most taken option, due to the fact that the students who can't attend the residential course must use this method, as they are unable to attend the appropriate courses which teach the other two methods. It also has the highest word count of all the papers (not so much of a problem) and generally is very similar to the way most of our assignments are completed (do research, write a report.) The third option, fieldwork, sounded like the most interesting option, as it centered around surveying people on your subject, and writing about your own results.
There were three residential school dates given to us, and our group made an attempt to all schedule for the same course. In the end, we were split into two groups, due to schedules and holidays, and that probably worked out for the best. A guy in the class, M, offered to give me a lift, so that made things rather easy for me.
At the course, we would be grouped by our research methods, and spend the next few days just attending related tutorials. M and I were both in fieldwork, which worked out great because we got along really well and it was nice to have a familiar face around. Fieldwork turned out to be the more difficult option of the three in terms of this particular school: we were faced with many hours of learning how to create a proper questionnaire, how to interview people, mock interviews, etc, whereas the people in the other two groups could pretty much just get down to the business of working on their subject. Assuming they had one! (some didn't!) Literature analysis people were simply bundled off to the library with their tutors for the duration, and data analysis people were given data and pretty much doing the same thing.
Anyway, that's the background for our reason for being there for three days. I'll write soon about how it all went, socially. Because I know you're all curious. ;)
This 9-month course is my final Economics course I'll need for my degree (which is a combination of Business and Economics - so I'm not quite done yet!) This does mean that it's the highest level course, and with many of these level three courses, the Open University requires students to attend a residential school. Exceptions are made for those who are completely unable to attend, but this route sounds like a tedious one (explanation forthcoming), and since room and board are covered in the tuition we've already paid, most students attend the residential school. In fact, geeks like myself appreciate the option, as we only have tutorials in-person once a month or so, and being able to meet and discuss coursework with other students is very helpful for me.
The main purpose of the residential school for this course is to give students guidance on the big project which is a large part of the total course grade. We are meant to come up with a subject on our own, then write about it, using evidence obtained from one of three different sources: numerical data, published literature, or fieldwork we've conducted ourselves.
The tutor for our local group, K, told us at the beginning of the course how we should make the decision as to which method to use. Doing the data analysis would result in a good grade, as it's not a popular option, but don't do it if you aren't mathematically inclined (obviously I wasn't going to touch this one!) The literature review option, she said, sounds easy enough at first, but is also by far the most taken option, due to the fact that the students who can't attend the residential course must use this method, as they are unable to attend the appropriate courses which teach the other two methods. It also has the highest word count of all the papers (not so much of a problem) and generally is very similar to the way most of our assignments are completed (do research, write a report.) The third option, fieldwork, sounded like the most interesting option, as it centered around surveying people on your subject, and writing about your own results.
There were three residential school dates given to us, and our group made an attempt to all schedule for the same course. In the end, we were split into two groups, due to schedules and holidays, and that probably worked out for the best. A guy in the class, M, offered to give me a lift, so that made things rather easy for me.
At the course, we would be grouped by our research methods, and spend the next few days just attending related tutorials. M and I were both in fieldwork, which worked out great because we got along really well and it was nice to have a familiar face around. Fieldwork turned out to be the more difficult option of the three in terms of this particular school: we were faced with many hours of learning how to create a proper questionnaire, how to interview people, mock interviews, etc, whereas the people in the other two groups could pretty much just get down to the business of working on their subject. Assuming they had one! (some didn't!) Literature analysis people were simply bundled off to the library with their tutors for the duration, and data analysis people were given data and pretty much doing the same thing.
Anyway, that's the background for our reason for being there for three days. I'll write soon about how it all went, socially. Because I know you're all curious. ;)