Initial contact with TM470 and how things are

I have found that in TM470 there are no PDFs to download yet and as I don't like to read everything on the screen in a certain way I'm a bit "behind" my normal schedule as even when the module hasn't officially started yet under other circumstances I would have already read part of the materials, etc.

I published my idea in the forum the first day and I'm trying to progress on that following the advice of the forum moderator. I'm trying to do something that would push me to learn new things because how can I report on my learning if I would do something that I would already know by heart? Anyway, all this "tell me about your idea and I will tell you how wrong you are" is putting me a bit down really because somehow I feel I cannot get it right but I'm not surrendering.

Good news are that this will be the last module for this degree and that I still can enjoy the experience if finally my idea is accepted by my teacher.

On other OU related things, I'm still waiting for my M362 results that now are said to be published around 6th Dec the sooner, the OU sent yesterday an email that indicates that there could even be further delays. M362 is the module I want to base my project on so I need to wait until I have the results (hopefully a Distinction) to be able to fill the form that will help me to have a teacher assigned.

OU printed materials available on demand

The OU has reached an agreement in October this year to start with 10 modules to pilot the process so those ones needing the books or preferring them can still have them for a small charge.

More info here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/82/245
and here: http://news.kmi.open.ac.uk/rostra/news.php?r=82&t=2&id=231

Unfortunately for me B201 does not appear in this initial list but during next year I will contact them before I register on it, hopefully I will have a printed copy available then (or at least a PDF copy).

Only 3 weeks to the official results date and currently reading about the Master during what it is my first holidays without a TMA around.

I'm finishing now with the highlighting (and my second reading) of the book "Projects in Computing and Information Systems. A Student's Guide", Christian W. Dawson.I find it very enlightening regarding the project process.

I'm trying to have all my highlighting done before the project module opens this 19th Nov. (The OU delayed the starting date from 10th Sept to 19th Nov.).

Crazy as hell

I have been thinking about giving the step forwards professionally and about preparing myself for a Project Manager or a Team Leader role.

It's not that I do not like the Senior Web Developer role I have been into since several years now, in fact I like it but this is about personal and professional development, finding new challenges and learning new interesting things.

Yesterday a colleague told me that some people can go 'stir crazy' for being doing the same thing again and again at work as that will make them feel demotivated. I feel that the best way to avoid it is to put oneself in situations that will bring new learning to your table and keep your enthusiasm alive.

I contacted The OU on 12th Oct. regarding their Foundation Degree in Leadership and Management (G08), mainly asking if I would be considered a continuing student after finishing my degree in 2014, being so able to use my Business modules to do the foundation degree without adapting to the new structure, provided I finish my foundation degree before 2017.

After some confusion - where they thought I was asking for an extension of my transitional arrangements when that wasn't the case at all - everything is clear now and even when I was only asking to be able to decide accordingly in a future they took action and yesterday I received an email indicating they have already linked all my correspondent completed business modules now to the foundation degree (all the first level modules are done now, they even selected the free module for it without asking which would be the module I would like to use but curiously they selected the one I would have selected). It will be more than £2,500 per module as only two 60 credits modules left for me to claim it and I really need to think about it before deciding anyway.

At the same time, and in part because The OU took so much time to reply, I have been looking around for optional studies that could fit better to my professional aspirations and I have found a Masters degree that looks even better than the Foundation degree the OU offers because is IT specific.

I'm now crazy trying to see if I can fit all my studies and make them all :-), if it would be convenient for me not to go for some of them or what. I also have pending the top up degree and I'm still searching for online IT top up degrees with good modules.

What a cooking pot life is, I have all the time 1000 things going around and I'm always saying that I want my life back and have a rest but always engaging in new learning challenges. I have started to accept that this (studying all the time) is really my life and that what have happened before was really the unusual bit.

I have also enrolled in an online Maryland University course that will start on 6th Jan and will help me with my project idea's programming needs. There is also another course from Vancouver University in March that seems to top up the Maryland one so I need to think about it as well.

So many things one can do but we just have one life to do them.

Will all the trade-offs we do during life count as a coin in the other side to buy a ticket to come back and do the things that we left aside? :-)

I have broken the loop for good!!

Today I have received my M362 TMA03 result and I have achieved a 90%!!.

M362 This year:       TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%, TMA03: 90%
M363 Last year was TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%, TMA03: 80%

I have broken the Déjà vu!!

Three months of hard work just for 3% more than the previous one that was done in 12 days. Explaining theory is not my best skill and I have sweated blood with this TMA, reviewing it over and over again up to the point I knew it by heart. I did 16 different versions of this TMA before I was sure enough I couldn't improve anything else.

I can now tell that once I sit my exam on 7th October I would have sat all my BSc (Hons) Computing exams with the option to have a Distinction in place. Unfortunately the materialisation of that option hasn't been easy at level 3 for me, having sat two exams seriously ill (M359 and M364) and achieving an 81% last year in my M363 exam but... let's see how it goes this time :-).

It's a big true that 88% on OCAS is not the best average I have ever had, it's not even the best average I have had at level 3 either but it's over 85% and that is the only thing that really matters.

For a Distinction I need yet to make it real at the exam hall on 7th October and that is the hard bit of all this.

August it's being a very busy month (as it is every year for me, for some reason) but I'm already studying for the exam.

Sweet and sour bittersweet

Sour:
Yesterday the University I have been chasing during two years to top up my degree changed the degree name to exactly the same name The OU uses for its flexible degree. I was trying to escape from that name since 2010 but that name follows me.

I feel I'm jinxed on this, cannot I just have the degrees with the names I want for God sake?

I contacted them trying to see if I can claim the old degree instead of the new one. It's not possible, I have stopped my application process yesterday and I'm back to point zero in my research on finding a University that would offer this degree online (with good modules if possible).

Only one Uni found at the moment and it was the one I discarded in favour of "the mutator one" :-).

This is very sad for me, the Uni had no exams, had a very good approach to the materials, fantastic modules, it's one of the UK Universities with the highest percentage of people going into work straight away after they finish...and it's even cheaper than The OU.

Sweet:
My M263 results have been published. I got a 88% OES, with a 91% OCAS. Providing that I finish all my modules on time I have now mathematically a 2:1 degree. Just having a 40% in the two modules I have ahead that will be the minimum grade I will be having.

Now I have 10% of probability to have a First, 90% to have a 2:1.

The new unofficial table is as follows:

Repeating myself

M363 Last year was TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%, TMA03: 80%
M362 This year:       TMA01:88%, TMA02:87%

In both modules the same tutor was assigned to me as well (I'm very pleased that's the case as my tutor feedback when marking is high level quality).

Can you see the pattern? LOL.

87%, Not bad for exactly 12 days of work - for the Units and TMA all inclusive - but a bit annoyed that I always make the same mistakes (repeating myself again).

My weakest point is not the programming bit, that part is always graded as excellent, it is to explain things in assessments, it's not that I do not know them well, it's that I always assume some parts are so evident that do not really need an explanation and other times I just do not explain part of something because other thing or perspective was asked but as my tutor perfectly explained in his feedback if I mention something I should give enough reasons for backing it up.

Everytime this happens to me I see myself crashing against a wall in TM470 next year ;-).

Let's be positive and see if I break the loop for good with my TMA03 and achieve higher than the 80% I did in M363 TMA03 last year, I'm not renouncing to have an 80%, at the contrary I wish I will have at least an 80% in my TMA03 this year as that will be the minimum to keep the Distinction opportunity for the exam (as it also was last year of course, even with different percentages in the grading distribution, I ended up having the same situation this year again with exactly the same TMA percentages). Déjà Vu to the maximum expression :-).

All in all, considering that only 27 days of study were dedicated for the first two TMAs I cannot be happier with the results, I'm just a bit frustrated for not having more time to dedicate to this module I think. I'm really enjoying it.

If everything goes according to plan I would be uploading the TMA circa 3 months in advance this time. It was a month and 20 days advance for TMA02 but I would like to have those 3 months to dedicate seriously to review everything and prepare the exam very well. I do not want to make a bad TMA though, so I will upload it only when I'm happy with my work on it, even if I need to wait until the cut-off date...priorities are clear, let's hope everything goes fine and I have a good result.

Currently I'm already highlighting the Units for my TMA03, first unit already done, second unit in process. 3 days working on TMA03 for now.

Let's go!

Uncertainty but with some good points and a lot of hope

The University I'm going to do the top-up of my Dip HE Comp & IT is now doing changes to their planned modules. The contents will be unveiled near September. I now do not know if they will change the module contents as well or not.

I liked the old modules and their practical approach, they were the reason for me to decide to study with them, now everything is a bit uncertain until they will publish the new structure.

For now I know they are going to increase the number of credits per module from 15 to 20 and thus will be reducing the number of modules in the top-up year from 8 to 6. I also know that they are now asking for an English qualification for foreign students.

Another good point with this degree is that from the 8 modules they had they only had 1 exam (that was equivalent to the 40% of the module grade only!). That was another reason for me to select them as even when I do not fear exams at all I was searching for a practical approach that would allow me to use the knowledge in my day-by-day work at the same time I was learning it.


Good points: I will have less modules meaning I probably will reduce a year of studies.

Hope: I just hope they accept that if I have finished an undergraduate degree already with a good grade that demonstrates I can study another undergraduate level in English and would accept my application without any academic English qualification exam to be sit. Should that's not the case I will probably search for another University that be more open minded on this point as I just do not want to have to waste 6 months - or a year - of my life going to an academy course just to pass a stupid exam I do not need at all.

I also hope the modules I liked the most still remain in the new structure.

I'm happy these changes are happening before I'm going into the degree instead of while I'm inside. I do not want to live the situation of starting a degree that is being created on the fly so I will probably wait to finish my BSc with The OU before starting it, leaving them another year to define their modules and have them all in place.