Today I received my results from TMA01 and all the hard work has finally given its fruits: 92%
It's not a bad start at all, having read and highlighted the entire book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide" by Christian W. Dawson has helped but it also helps to read carefully what is expected to be present on the TMA.
So far I think this is the module that demands more time, effort and dedication in the entire BSc. Maybe it's because my idea is an original idea and I need to do a lot of work just to have it up and running but maybe not and all of us are exactly in the same situation. I cannot see why my case would be different from others, so I assume all of us are under pressure ;-).
As an advice for all those ones taking this module in a future: It's not easy to fit all the tasks in the allocated time, remember: "it implies hard work", a lot of it.
For some reason this year the forum moderator tended to show as "acceptable" mostly original ideas and not extensions or versions of something already existing. Some of the comments have been quite devastating and I have to recognise I felt relief when my second idea was well received. I would have expected that approach on original ideas to be present in the research module of a PhD but not exactly for a BSc.
After that I relaxed until the beginning of the project on 1st February as a way to avoid engaging into the preparation forum just for ending being told my idea wasn't good enough or similar...and haven't relaxed since the module started ;-).
My tutor is very kind and encouraging, I hope the allocated time it's enough for me to finish the project and learn a lot of new things. It looks that I lost my 8% because I did not reflect on my process at the level I could have done.
I had this same issue in BU130 where I passed from a 69% (OCAS) to a 44% (OES), that have been my lowest grade with The OU (by difference) and believe it or not it happened because I'm a very reflective person (maybe too much) and when I need to talk about something in a module that expects you to make a new reflective process for it, as I do it as normal and it's not new for me at all I cannot find what is the thing that is so different to what I do every day for me to add it to the TMA. On the other hand if I add all the things that I reflect on it would be a book instead of a TMA.
I will need to find the equilibrium on this.
It's being engaging and also interesting, on the other side of things I do not have free time at all, my weekends are "project weekends" and my life can be summarised as "house work - project work - job work".
Only 6 months and it will be over, hopefully with a BSc (Hons) Computing under my belt a few months later.
I contacted the Uni in Sweden and they have just told me that I cannot apply this year because my BSc results are released in December and the Masters degree starts in August, so it will be a 2015 start for me if they accept me next year.
