Edited by Chris Miles, Thursday, 25 Sep 2014, 17:03
I want to avoid the situation I had with writing one of these about TU100, so will do this now, before I get deep into other things and forgot stuff.
TM129 Technologies in Practice is the next step in the BSc Comp/IT after TU100 (along with a 30 credit maths option) and is an interesting but flawed course, from my perspective.
It is similar to TU100 in terms of broad but shallow, although less broad and a bit deeper, in that there are 3 x 8 week blocks in the course - Linux, Networking and Robotics.
Linux - I enjoyed the Linux element of the course, but it was definitely the easiest of the three. Because I spent a lot of time here working to get ahead on my other course, I completed the TMA for the Linux block without having studied past week 5 to any great degree. Linux seems daunting to newbies (of which I was one), but this is a gentle introduction. In fact, possibly too gentle - I don't feel like I can pretend to have any kind of Linux experience. In the parlance of the ever enthusiastic interviewee, I might say that I've had 'exposure' to Linux.
Networking - Slightly odd - this was the element of the course that I most enjoyed and felt I got the most out of, but that may be only because I have an interest in the area (I occasionally do patching in cabinets for work and also make up new Cat5 cables, so it was nice to read up on the topic). However, you are pretty much left to it in this block - you are provided with the Microsoft Networking Essentials book and told to read it. Then you're presented with a TMA where the majority of the marks are gained through research type questions, rather than checking what knowledge you have picked up through the books. That said, I understand why; the first question does test knowledge, but they also need to put in some stuff for the guys who are less network-inclined than others and need to pick up marks.
Robotics - Sadly, I found this element of the course quite dry and wasn't keen on the RobotLab programming environment - which was half drag and drop, half write, but you have to click on the block you wish to edit, then click into the edit are in the corner of the screen, before you can type in any variable assignments etc. It felt a bit tacked on to me and quite forced - i.e. they wanted to get programming in again, since that's one of the specialisms, so they forced it in through the robotics paradigm. Conversely, I rather enjoyed the TMA, since we were once again set free for research.
EMA - The dreaded EMA, make or break time. The Linux question was interesting but tentatively connected to the course (to say the least), the networking question was alright, but the word limits were quite tight and the task to work out subnetting an IP had a little trick in the question that confused me for a bit. You only had to do two out of three, so I left the Robotics question out.
Then you move on to your eportfolio - throughout the course you do various activities and write up a portfolio entry for it. There were a lot of complaints about this in the course forum, since some of the tasks were so easy that it was difficult to come up with some narrative about what you had learned. I understand their frustrations, but I did see that it is a useful tool to take with you to higher levels - I'm even thinking about trying to apply it to my work to some extent, for performance appraisal purposes (yuk...) Ultimately, this should be a fairly easy question, just polish your chosen eportfolio activities in line with any tutor comments on it.
Moving swiftly on to the last question. I can't defend this one. I'm always careful to be balanced about the OU - I see an awful lot of moaning around the place and, to be frank, its wearing really thin - but this was the single worst question I have had the misfortune to come across. It was based around employability from the course and plans for the future. For at least one of the questions, I see no way that they can award anyone anything other than full marks, since the content is so personal that it can't be marked down - remember, nobody can tell you that you don't feel something.
Concluding thoughts
TM129 is by no means a terrible course. I enjoyed it the majority of the time, but a few bits weren't quite right.
TM129 Thoughts
I want to avoid the situation I had with writing one of these about TU100, so will do this now, before I get deep into other things and forgot stuff.
TM129 Technologies in Practice is the next step in the BSc Comp/IT after TU100 (along with a 30 credit maths option) and is an interesting but flawed course, from my perspective.
It is similar to TU100 in terms of broad but shallow, although less broad and a bit deeper, in that there are 3 x 8 week blocks in the course - Linux, Networking and Robotics.
Linux - I enjoyed the Linux element of the course, but it was definitely the easiest of the three. Because I spent a lot of time here working to get ahead on my other course, I completed the TMA for the Linux block without having studied past week 5 to any great degree. Linux seems daunting to newbies (of which I was one), but this is a gentle introduction. In fact, possibly too gentle - I don't feel like I can pretend to have any kind of Linux experience. In the parlance of the ever enthusiastic interviewee, I might say that I've had 'exposure' to Linux.
Networking - Slightly odd - this was the element of the course that I most enjoyed and felt I got the most out of, but that may be only because I have an interest in the area (I occasionally do patching in cabinets for work and also make up new Cat5 cables, so it was nice to read up on the topic). However, you are pretty much left to it in this block - you are provided with the Microsoft Networking Essentials book and told to read it. Then you're presented with a TMA where the majority of the marks are gained through research type questions, rather than checking what knowledge you have picked up through the books. That said, I understand why; the first question does test knowledge, but they also need to put in some stuff for the guys who are less network-inclined than others and need to pick up marks.
Robotics - Sadly, I found this element of the course quite dry and wasn't keen on the RobotLab programming environment - which was half drag and drop, half write, but you have to click on the block you wish to edit, then click into the edit are in the corner of the screen, before you can type in any variable assignments etc. It felt a bit tacked on to me and quite forced - i.e. they wanted to get programming in again, since that's one of the specialisms, so they forced it in through the robotics paradigm. Conversely, I rather enjoyed the TMA, since we were once again set free for research.
EMA - The dreaded EMA, make or break time. The Linux question was interesting but tentatively connected to the course (to say the least), the networking question was alright, but the word limits were quite tight and the task to work out subnetting an IP had a little trick in the question that confused me for a bit. You only had to do two out of three, so I left the Robotics question out.
Then you move on to your eportfolio - throughout the course you do various activities and write up a portfolio entry for it. There were a lot of complaints about this in the course forum, since some of the tasks were so easy that it was difficult to come up with some narrative about what you had learned. I understand their frustrations, but I did see that it is a useful tool to take with you to higher levels - I'm even thinking about trying to apply it to my work to some extent, for performance appraisal purposes (yuk...) Ultimately, this should be a fairly easy question, just polish your chosen eportfolio activities in line with any tutor comments on it.
Moving swiftly on to the last question. I can't defend this one. I'm always careful to be balanced about the OU - I see an awful lot of moaning around the place and, to be frank, its wearing really thin - but this was the single worst question I have had the misfortune to come across. It was based around employability from the course and plans for the future. For at least one of the questions, I see no way that they can award anyone anything other than full marks, since the content is so personal that it can't be marked down - remember, nobody can tell you that you don't feel something.
Concluding thoughts
TM129 is by no means a terrible course. I enjoyed it the majority of the time, but a few bits weren't quite right.