Surviving the OU: Open University Study Guide

By David Wells

Are you studying with the Open University? Need help tightening up your TMAs, essay tips or grade-boosting methods?

Then this guide is for you!

Find out how I transformed myself from clueless student to old hand by following a blueprint that I created for myself and I am now sharing with YOU. This is a tight and concise study aid with tips and hints drawn from real-life experiences in a range of disciplines. It explains how to approach study materials and get the most out of the resources provided. It goes in detail through innovative ways to tackle assignments and TMAs.

Including anecdotes and examples from real-life situations. Discover unexpected but common problems you may face and how to overcome them. Basic mistakes that people make when tackling assignments and how they can be avoided. Actual case studies on important course issues that I encountered and how they were dealt with.
While the traditional study guides offer solid advice they never move beyond the basics. This survival guide moves into new territory, offering practical solutions and specific methods for dealing with exams, essays and general study.
This guide provides a fresh new approach on how to get the most out of tutorials and online activities. Using up to date methods to communicate with fellow students. Editing and proofreading techniques that work. Be fully prepared for unexpected problems that may arise. Identify and eliminate them.
Improve your results with information taken from my six years of studying with the OU.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Wells
• Release date: May 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781370805969

David Wells

Helping Open University students get through their exams.

Book preview

Surviving

The OU

Study Guide

By David Wells

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2015 David Wells

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

Surviving

The OU

Study Guide

By David Wells

Smashwords Edition

Table Of Contents

Introduction

Preface

So, what is this OU thing you speak of?

Is it expensive?

Oh…..so it’s like all academic and stuff?

What the student gets

Section 1: Part 1

Starting Out

Facebook and Forums

Official Forums

Meeting up and study groups

Library access and other books on the subject

Section 1: Part 2

Giving the tutor what they want

Recording calls and tutorials

Feedback importance and tutor comments

Powerpoint Presentations

Section 2: Part 1

Constructing an essay

Assignment Booklet

Word Count

Connecting Words

Other Points of Note

Putting it all together - Working through a TMA essay

1) The TMA question and dissecting guidance notes

2) Working through the tutorial notes

3) The Complete Essay

Second essay work through

1) Question and Notes

2) Essay Body

3) PT3 Feedback Form

Third essay work through

Introduction

Essay Body

Conclusion

Bibliography:

Advice to students

TUTOR ADVICE:

GROUP COURSE FORUM:

FROM ABOUT.COM:

MY POINT:

Comments on this third essay

Harvard Referencing

Essay Basics

Gathering External Sources

Editing and Proofreading

Essay swaps

Essays beware!

Section 3: Part 1

Other Tools of the trade

OU Good Study Guide

YouTube Videos and Examples

Audio and Visual Files

Section 3: Part 2

Exams

Hand Trouble

Past Exam Papers

End of Module Assessments (EMA)

My path to BA glory

In Conclusion

My Unorthodox Study Methods

Can’t beat the OU

Gripes and Groans

My Own Story

Thank You and Goodbye…..

Disclaimer

Introduction

Hi everybody! A humble and wholehearted welcome to you and first of all thanks so much for picking up this study guide. I’m sure you will have as much fun reading through it as I did preparing and writing it. More importantly I hope you take on board everything that you find useful and applicable and I hope your confidence and grades both shoot through the roof as a result.

When I first started I had no real prior knowledge of the OU or its workings and one quick glance through the hefty prospectus was fairly daunting. Just to qualify a few things here, that this is NOT an official guide and I am not affiliated to the organisation in any capacity. I am simply detailing my experiences and collating all of the hints, tips and tricks that I have picked up during my six years so that hopefully your studying experience will be more fruitful, enjoyable, pleasurable and other words of that nature. This book is written by a student with fellow students in mind (for further clarification please see disclaimer at the end of the guide).

It is an accompanying guide intended to be read, digested and used to help make things easier but it is only my interpretation on many matters and should not be used as a substitute for any official course materials, study notes or guidance. The information and guidance provided by the university should always be implemented first and adhered to when it comes to preparing for an assignment.

Preface

Whenever I was going through the editing process and gathering proof readers I got asked more than once the question of why I was writing this guide. After numerous discussions and conversations on social media and forums I decided to package up all of the bits and pieces I’d learned and compile them into this guide so that you can hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls and mistakes that I encountered. My aims were to produce a tight and concise study aid with tips and hints drawn from real-life experiences in a range of disciplines. It explains how to approach study materials and get the most out of the resources provided and goes in detail through innovative ways to tackle assignments and TMAs. While the traditional study guides offer solid advice they never move beyond the basics and here we will go through strategies and methods that you may not have encountered before, but are effective and that work. These are the things I used to transform myself from clueless student into an achiever by following a blueprint that can be put into action through each course. This survival guide moves into new territory, offering practical solutions and specific methods for dealing with exams, essays and general study.

Enhance your essays, develop your skills, maximise your learning, improve your results.

So, what is this OU thing you speak of?

There were a variety of factors that appealed to me when I chose the OU route. One was that you didn’t need any formal qualifications for the courses that I wanted to study. Having fallen by the wayside after leaving school I had managed to scramble together an A level in History but attending night courses did not suit my shift pattern one bit, while the OU’s distance learning approach seemed like the right fit. One of the only requisites appeared to be that a) I could afford to pay the fees and b) I was over 18 years of age. Luckily these were two boxes that I was able to tick. Like many OU applicants I was looking to study part-time as I was working in full-time employment and looking after a family (as best I could anyway) so was unable to commit to full-time education.

According to the official website the organisation boasts a hearty number of undergraduate students (150,000), a healthy stockpile of postgraduate students (30,000) and caters extremely well for disabled students (10,000 on record). The whole ‘Open Learning’ package was also appealing as I had taken some courses of this nature when working previously at a good old fashioned unit. And if these pointers don’t whet your appetite then what about this from the official site:

Most OU courses are available throughout Europe. Some of them are available in many other parts of the world. More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK. The Open University is open to people, places, methods and ideas. It promotes educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realize their ambitions and fulfil their potential.

Yes, that was me and it could also be you!

Is it expensive?

In a nutshell, yes it can be fairly expensive but then again you are seeking academic qualifications you aren’t exactly going to be expecting a Poundland bargain on humanities courses. As if things weren’t expensive enough then recent prices rises have hiked the costs up even more but still, in relation to other universities, the OU represents good value.

The media portrayed the OU fee of £5,000 per full-time equivalent study year for new students in England from 2012, as low-cost and ‘competitive’, compared with the majority of universities which are reported to have set their fees between £8,000 and £9,000 a year. (www.Open.ac.uk/Platform)

Such rises, while fairly inevitable in their introduction, will obviously price some potential students out of the market, possibly choosing alternative educational routes. According to recent reports the OU will lose at least £90 million of government funding overall, possibly considerably more, which is certainly not good news. One possible way of making the fees more manageable is by using the Open University Student Budget Accounts (OUSBA) service. This allows fees to be paid by monthly instalments or by registering on the course and nailing down your place, then paying the fee in full or part at a later date.

If you are on a lower income or lower combined household income with your spouse then there is also the option of applying for a grant to help cover all or part of the cost of a course. This process may have changed recently but earlier on in my journey I was able to take advantage of this. There was even