Personal Blogs

It's been quite a while since I added anything to this blog, in fact I can't believe it was July when I posted last.  A lot's happened since then of course.  Best of all is that, after been out of work due to illness for an extended period, I've got a new job with British Airways starting in the new year.

On the studying front, I finished both B121 and U101 with time to spare and now I'm waiting for the final results.  I must say that I hate this bit.  I finished both courses at the start of October so it's been two months now.  Of course I've been here before, waiting on completed marking, but what's making it more aggravating this time is that these two results will get me a  Certificate of Higher Education (Open) and a Certificate in Business Studies, my first actual "on-paper" qualifications from the OU. So right now I'm on tenterhooks and checking my Email every 5 minutes, itching to be able to update my CV with some new and up to date qualifications.

I do have one or two things to keep my mind off it though. Not least of which is that, despite my vow to take a few months off studying, I signed up for B322-investigating entrepreneurial opportunities, which, through some kind of perverse OU logic, counts towards a degree in Design and Innovation.  The process of choosing this course came from what I learned on U101-design thinking.  I did a problem solving exercise based around what course to take and this came up as the best option. I wouldn't have considered it otherwise.  Who says you wont apply what you learn

Well, I sat the exam for T173 and I'm pretty sure I've done well.  It wasn't a breeze, in fact it was so cold in the exam hall that it was more of a FREEZE, but I shivered my way through it and was quite happy with the result. I just wish that, in the advice booklet about what to take to the exam, it had said "wear a coat and thermals". It would have been a lot more useful than "bring a HB pencil" I can tell you - I didn't use the damn pencil once!

Of course, finishing the exam is all very nice because it marks an end to the course and you can move on to other things with a few points in the bag towards your degree, but no-one talks about how you extract yourself from a course.  Much effort is made by the OU to help ease students into courses with lots of advice and reassurances, even the courses themselves seem to be designed to start off gently, for the most part, before building up to more complex matters, to get everyone used to the workload.  But what about when a course ends? Obviously I can't speak for others, but I find it a huge anti-climax.  The studying which has become a big part of my life has now stopped.  I don't automatically reach for the engineering course books when I have a bit of spare time.  These sacred items now have to be stored away to make room for the next (or current) course and, to be honest, it's a bit of a wrench.

I went through the same thing with B120 last year. Something which has been a big part of your life for months (eight months for T173) is no longer there.  It's like losing a pet. Yet there's no support to help you. Even the course site dies a death and disappears along with all the ticked boxes and TMA marks that you work so hard for. 

So this ending has caused a bit of a hiatus in my other course work for a couple of weeks as, without T173 in my study plan, I'm having to adapt to not having a comforting engineering course to fall back on when the others (particularly B121) start to "do my head in".  At the moment, I've caught up with B121 and , in fact, got a little way ahead after four solid days of headaches and swearing at it. Now I have to put some effort into LOLA (U101) and catch up from two weeks behind.  All these problems are caused by "end of course withdrawal".

So how about it OU.  Let's have a clinic for those of us who are "course addicts" to get us unhooked cleanly and safely!

Eight solid hours of U101. I'm a week ahead now so I can give myself a bit of time with B121 tomorrow. So much for enjoying the sunshine.