UKC

I've been considering one on and off for a while, not for job reasons, but just to keep my mind active in an academic capacity. I've been looking at International Studies.

With my work, it is often the way that I am super busy for a week or so and then quiet for a week and so on. I also intend on being out of the country at various points, but with internet access.

I know there's quite a few on here involved, past and present. Does this sound compatible with OU or does it need more regularity towards study patterns?

In reply to jezb1:

I've just finished my degree and worked it round an irregular shift pattern, and decided last summer that I wasn't going to open a single book during the heat wave, and in winter 2013 I put it all on hold when it snowed, and I managed it. So long as you get assignments in, then how you manage the studying between them is up to you, the OU's timetable is just a recommendation. Most tutors are also reasonably flexible with extensions on the ongoing assessment assignments (end of module deadlines, are fixed).

In reply to SAF:

Cheers SAF, sounds good.

How long did it take you?

In reply to jezb1:

My degree's from a polytechnic but I have also since studied with the OU. You really need to know if your course is 30 or 60 points....60 pointer courses equate to about 12-15 hrs study a week...for an assignment consider booking out the whole weekend. I only managed 2 years of study...life got in the way...you have to be quite disciplined with your study routine. I think it's possible for you to do your study in your quiet week if that works for you.

The OU have excellent study material and I have looked again recently at the international studies postgrad....the cost put me off though.

Good luck.

In reply to jezb1:

You don't have to commit to a degree yet, so I would just pick a 30 point level 1 course from the International Studies that you like the look of, and see how you get on.
SAF is spot on, there's a lot of flexibility. You will know your assessment dates from when the course starts, so you can either get them done early during your quieter times or ask your tutor for an extension. I think up to 3 weeks is allowed normally, apart from the final assessment.

I started doing the most basic OU Maths course for similar reasons, I wanted to challenge my brain. 6 years later and I'm most of the way through a Maths degree.

The quality of material and support has been generally excellent, just had a 5.5 hr revision day. More than I ever got at university first time!

Good luck!

In reply to jezb1:

I have just finished an OU degree (Humanities with Classical Studies). It took me ten years and I changed degree twice during that time (History->History of Sci and Tech->Hum with Class Stud). The only advice I can add to previous posters is to keep on top of the reading. There is a shitload of reading on most non-sci OU courses and that will dictate when you can do your assignments. If your course is essay assessed then you will get the assessment booklet with all the essay questions along with your course texts. Use these questions to prioritise your reading, many have a couple of options to choose from. I escaped reading Wide Sargasso Sea by choosing a different essay question well in advance. I did read it later on when I had a bit of a lull and realised I had made a rare good decision, it is deadly dull.

In reply to jezb1:

It's worth noting (although I don't know what they're like) that a lot of other universities have embraced distance learning in the last few years, so the OU no longer has a monopoly on distance learning degrees. May be worth checking out?

In reply to climbwhenready:

It's also worth noting that nowadays there are dozens of MOOCs available on the web, with the big advantage that they are free, whereas registering with the OU means a sizeable chunk of money.

The big disadvantage of MOOCs compared to the OU is that you'd get less individual support, so if your "study skills" and motivation are low, and you need the personal attention to push you along, then they're not so good (and MOOCs have high drop-out rates for that reason). However, if you do have self-motivation and self-discipline (and good internet connections) then MOOCs can be a very good option.

In reply to jezb1:

I did a neurobiology and psychology BSc(Hons)degree some years ago. It was "fast track" ie 6 years rather than 8. All of the courses I did also had week long summer schools (which were fantastic). I found that whilst I did my degree I did not have much of a life. And I had a very settled and stable work pattern. You might struggle if work has irregular peaks and troughs.

In reply to Coel Hellier

Well, teachers are a bit more than motivators I hope. I found good teaching invaluable for insight and time saving in my learning and I was an excellent student and knew how to teach myself. The OU works well as an integrated system, wheras MOOCs can be little more than textbooks with a few bells and whistles. If people could teach themselves from books, we wouldn't have needed University lecturer input and there would be much fewer of us and all fully focussed on research.

In reply to jezb1:

Provided you can be fairly strict with yourself in making time for it when you're not super busy it's do-able. I handed in two assignments while I was travelling New Zealand staying in hostel accommodation. The start of each unit you're given a proposed schedule of work and the assignment details and deadlines. At times I've realised I needed to get assignments in a couple of weeks ahead of schedule and it took a bit of discipline to get through the required reading before hand. I quite often get my head down and do two weeks worth of reading and exercises in a week to make assignment deadlines. Thankfully the courses mostly finish in June because if it's getting out on my bike weather there's no way I'd sit in during the evening diligently reading ...

What worked well for me was getting the PDFs of the study books downloaded and putting them in multiple places, on the kindle for flight reading, on dropbox for internet cafe reading and on the laptop for when I had battery life left. The books are great at home because I have overcome my fear of writing on them, and the electronic versions feel a bit like a compromise but definitely more portable.

Discipline and planning - if you can do that then I reckon you'll be fine!

In reply to Offwidth:

MOOCs, Youtube and the like really make you wonder what you are for though, don't they?

The students have access to a multitude of top quality stuff from around the world, and many will use it, so anything you the lecturer provides has also to mix in that company in their minds, and not just because it will be the basis of their assessment.

I use the MOOCs too, mostly to inspire and up the game of the more head-in-sand lecturers in my team, but think that getting students still to come to us, in our dingy sixty year old building, to find value in that and stay with us to the end is largely about being inspiring. So, while it is part of my job description to know stuff and to have done stuff, I suppose that the only way to compete with a world of Moocs from MIT and its ilk is to make the students find that it is exciting to be in the same room as someone who wants to learn and appears to want nothing more than that they do too, so that we can all help to make the world a better place.

In reply to Offwidth:


You're right, but they also cost, and someone with good study skills may prefer the DIY approach, given how much is now available on-line. I do think that being a motivator is the main task of the university lecturer these days, the fact that some humans expect you to attend lectures, submit course work, make progress, etc, is different from it being entirely up to you how much you study and what progress you make. Individualised feedback is also important I guess.

In reply to jezb1:

Ok, I'm no doubt being thick but whats MOOCs?

In reply to OwenM:

Massive Open Online Courses. Essentially lecture courses on the web, open to everyone.

In reply to jezb1:

Thanks for all the input folks

In reply to Coel Hellier:

I'd still say motivation still sits behind old fashioned teaching. We also occasionally get students transfer to us who say their old place didn't give a shit about either.

MOOCs (although improving) are presently a bit of a fad that are more useful for the academically minded and experienced than a typical undergrad, even if they are better than books and maybe even a bit better than some lazy research obsessed UK Russell Group departments.

In reply to Coel Hellier:


Oh I see. As for OU courses I did a BSc in Geosciences between 2000 and 2006 a brilliant course I really enjoyed it. Go for it.

In reply to AlisonSmiles:

There's an app for that too OU Anywhere, so you can access digital copies of course books online.

I don't know if all courses are the same, but I can download PDF versions of all course texts and assessment resources, and if I load audio CDs onto my phone I can pretty much study anywhere, with or without internet access.

One of the best things I've found about the OU is the online forums (actually the whole student website is great), both for my course and subject. The moderators (also tutors) are very quick to respond if I can't get hold of my tutor, and other students are also very helpful generally.

In reply to jezb1:

It does depend on the course as to how much reading etc there is I did mine in IT and Comp over 8 years.

At the same time I was running a small IT department and developing an IT system for a small police force. Oh and doing up a house and having kids, some stuff had to slip as you'd expect but I managed.

Mostly I would right off a weekend and do the study and assignment in one go starting Friday night and often finishing in the early hours of Monday morning.

The hardest module I did was a 'soft' one something like "human computer interfaces" or some such, lots of social science in it, my estimation of folk doing social science degrees went up considerably, way harder than programming and system design.

It helped that I chose subjects that I already had a head start in although Relational Database Theory has nothing to do with day to day admin of databases!