The end of the tunnel

Yesterday the OU has finally published the pricing for the next academic year modules.

TM470 will cost me £795.00, making a total of £6435.00 with each penny paid from my pocket and a huge amount of hours studying plus a very long list of trade-offs in pro of a dream (that I honestly prefer not to list here) some of them having consequences for me at work and in my personal life.

Once I finish - on Dec 2014 - I will have done:
53 TMAs
3 TMA00s including real TMA exercises
5 EMAs
4 CMAs
6 iCMAs
8 Exams

...And 5 years of my life will have almost passed in front of University units but the hardest bit of all this is not reflected in any of the amounts expressed above. All of the above is fine for me and I'm happy I took the decision of studying for my degrees back in 2009.

2009 was a very good year, everything was going as planned and things seemed very possible then. For me, the hardest part in all this process has happened after the OU informed us in November 2010 that they were going to introduce a new flexible degree  that would get rid of the current BSc Computing I was studying. They introduced a limit for us to claim our degrees (Dec 2014) and it was initially decided that only one degree could be under transitional arrangements (and also some other limitations). That destroyed my initial plans of studying for B44 and B29 and obliged me to choose to study for B29 hoping that I would be able to adapt to the replacement for B44 afterwards and end both degrees as I initially planned (first replan).

At the beginning of my second year I had to renounce(/decide not) to study some B44 modules to focus on B29 only as it was decided that the modules selected should be related to the degree we would be going for (and replanned again), after my second year I had to renounce also to the idea of claiming the equivalent to B44 after I was informed in a forum by another student that to claim two degrees one should have 120 credits at level 3 not counted for any other degree qualification, I double checked with the OU and the student was 100% right and so I accepted that I couldn't change my reality...and replanned accordingly.

The reason is that the new flexible degree introduced has only 90 credits available at level 3 without counting the project, due to the introduction of U101 at first level the replacement for B44 only offers 90credits at that level without any option of taking a 3 level module as free credits. So, I could not claim B44 (due to it expiring in 2014 while I was studying for B29) nor take  the new replacement afterwards due to the above limit and the fact that The OU do not allow to repeat any modules. As the project would be the same module I already took for B29 I wanted to double check if that rule was applicable to it as well; I asked specifically for this situation and I was told that the rule also holds for TM470, even when the project would be different. So B44 and its replacement were out of my league forever.

As if my life would be a big joke, in June last year The OU gave an opportunity to people that would like to have a second degree under transitional arrangements to apply for it, unfortunately it was already too late for me as I would have never been able to claim B44 nor its equivalent anyway.

Also, during this time The OU had published end dates for the modules that were part of the old degrees (now in transitional arrangements). I planned accordingly to the published dates and studied those modules at certain years, trying to avoid being forced to adapt to the new flexible degree, all this planning and replanning just to see how they extended the final date for those modules afterwards.

Am I happy to have decided to study with The OU? Overall yes but the process wasn't as I expected. I also feel frustration due to everything that has happened and all the adjustment and renouncing I have had to do due to it.

Would I define my experience with The OU as a good one? 60% Yes, The OU has given me the opportunity to acquire the equivalent to the Certificates and Diplomas I have from my Spanish studies and I would value that as very positive as now I have English official recognitions and that make it easier to explain what I have under my belt in job interviews, etc. If everything goes as expected I will also end up with a BSc (Hons) Computing in 2014, and with a Diploma in IT next June that will allow me to do a top-up year in another UK online University and claim a second degree once I finish it. So around a 60% of my initial dream is still there, I will not be able to study a Computing and Design degree as I initially tried to, not even do a top-up year into that studies branch but the Diploma in IT will allow me to go into a degree in another area I'm also interested into, so... I think 60% is a good grading that reflects my experience until today.

Would I have selected The OU to do my BSc (Hons) Computing if I would have known in 2009 that all the changes that have happened were going to happen? No, I would have preferred to study in other University that wouldn't have changed their study plans during my studies, just for the sake of avoiding so much replanning and unnecessary hassle. I have ended up sick of being notified of the change of the change after the change that changed something that was previously said it was X but now is Y and have to replan accordingly.

Would I study something else in a future with The OU? Yes, I probably would but with a completely different frame of mind; maybe something that if it ends up as I planned it's fine but that if it doesn't it's fine as well. Honestly, the quality level they offer (teachers, materials, etc.) is excelent and just that would already be a perfect reason to study with them at any time but I definitively would not do it under the same situation nor with the same perspective I faced my studies this time.

M263 TMA03 almost baked :-)

This will be one of the most "near the cut-off date" TMAs I have ever uploaded into my Student Home since 2009. I will yet need to do a spell-check and final presentational amendments to the TMA before that but I have finally considered it "almost baked" today.

Normally I upload my TMAs much sooner - sometimes even months before the cut-off date - but this time I'm not in that situation at all, and this is not due to the materials difficulty or something similar else due to my commitment to my new job as there have been a lot of weeks were I have worked between 45 and 53 hours in a week (those total hours do not include the lunch breaks) in the last months.

During this module the teachers had commented several times that part 3 and part 4 of the module are very hard but fortunately for me I consider this part the easiest by difference.

I have been working with Boolean logic almost during all my University life in Spain (during my IT and Telecommunications studies containing both Maths, Algebra, etc.). Part 3 of the M263 materials is a mix of Boolean logic, Databases and Testing!! :-).

Whatever my final grade on this TMA is I'm thankful to God for having the relieve of facing what I thought was an easy TMA at this busy time in my life.

Unfortunately even with that behind me I have now a bigger fish to fry as I need to do yet the TMA01 for M362 and my timing plan for having two months to prepare my M263 exam has already been totally smashed due to all the hours I have put at work.

Conclusion:
Shortly I will see myself trying to find time to prepare the M263 exam at the same time I do the TMA02 for M362...but at this time that is the far future, now I still need to deal with M362 TMA01 ...and days are substracting themselves from the calendar very fastly this year.

Oh, my! :-)