Personal Blogs

Well it's been a couple of months since my last blog post, not that I'm sure if anybody reads this but it provides me with some snapshots of my own progress if nothing else.

When I last updated, on November 27th, I was in quite a good mood. I'd just received a distinction in T211 and felt pretty good about things. That didn't last unfortunately.  Shortly after writing that post I left for work. I got 50 yards from my front door when some moron in a delivery van ran me off the road. £400 worth of damage to the suspension of my car and the arsehole didn't even stop!

I got to work late, on my motorbike which, because the roads were filthy, got covered in crud. If things weren't going badly enough at this stage I capped it all off by having an accident in work right at the end of my shift. A faulty piece of access equipment slipped and dropped me from an aircraft engine. I was left dangling and damaged the rotator cuff in my left shoulder as well as minor injuries to my hip and head (caused by the "safety" glasses I was wearing.  As a consequence I haven't worked since, although I'm on full pay, and will only be able to return on limited duties in another couple of weeks.

Next time things are going well I think I'll keep my mouth shut.

Many thanks to Queen for the Title.

And, after todays exam, T211 does indeed bite the dust. it's gone from my life and gone from the OU. Another module sacfrificed to "streamlining" and evidence to the OUs panicked quest to compete with brick universities who are now competing for the distance learning market.

Is the OU vulnerable?

Well, YES.

Why is the OU vulnerable?

It's not really simple but, basically, it's because the OU always considered itself a non profit organisation and, with no competition, could provide a valuable and comprehensive educational service to its students. Now the brick uni's have to look elsewhere for income (Thank you very much Messers Cameron and Osborne who, incidentally, took full advantage of free university places despite being from wealthy families) and they are biting into the OUs student and, therefore, customer base in order to survive.

Sure, T211 is being replaced but with a module that's cheaper to run so the students get more "efficiency" of learning. Personally I think it's a shame. T211 did need updating and modernising but to ditch it completely is a really unnecessary and wasteful. So, thanks to the government for screwing up the OU, removing the best educational courses and modules and for doing your level best to return higher education to the domain of those with money rather than ability.

That, I'm sure will be the best policy for ensuring the future prosperity of the nation and, indeed, the entire world. 

Rich idiots running things. Anybody studying history want to elaborate?

Never having enough time seems to be a symptom of being an OU student. That's why I never seem to have enough time to add to my blog.

I did get some answers from the OUs advisors although it seemed like jolly hard work to get there, for me and for the two hard-working ladies who went seeking information on my behalf.  It appears that, if you seek information about the OUs plans you must embark on a perilous quest involving monsters, riddles and portals into dark, unknown worlds in order to get a straight answer.

But, thanks to the persitance of Jo and Rosemary, I did get an answer.  It wasn't ideal but I will be able to finish my degree with something resembling a relevant module, albeit being forced to take at least 6 months longer over it, assuming the OU don't decide to alter the start date from the planned October 2014.  I wouldn't put it past them.

The planned course is T319-Environmental Management.  Not ideal, as I said, but it does include advanced management studies like systems thinking, which I was planning to do dedicated modules on.

But did I get this information in a timely fashion to make a decision about T211? No!

And entirely down to people at the OU being cagey about their future plans and by an amazing lack (or apparent lack) of anybody actually being able or willing to give out any solid information.  It seems to me that many people at Milton Keynes don't give a monkeys about students getting to study the modules they want to study or are relevant to their goals so long as they study something and keep paying for modules. So I've commited to another module costing £775 as it was too late to get my money back if I wasn't able to complete my degree.

Do I trust this information?

Enough to get it in writing, save it, back it up and print off a hard copy.

Legal action may only be postponed!