S204 starting

I signed up for S204, and my materials duly came through.

Wow - its a bit of a jump from the S103 course. There are only 6 books for this course, but they are all in the several hundred page range. I opened book 1 "Introduction to diversity", at only 138 pages it is by far the smallest of the books (book 3 is so big its in two volumes!).

I thought I'd read the first chapter - expecting it to be of the "Welcome to the course and here are some general things you should know" type of thing. But no, page 1 and the facts are already coming thick and fast. I wonder what I've let myself in for!

The mailing includes

• A pack of two DVDs containing course material, some programs, some videos etc.
• Book 1 and 2 of the course
• Assignments 1 & 2 - tutor marked assignments (TMAs)
• A calendar of study - showing what you should be studying when
• A computer guide
• An introductory note
• The investigative week 1 instructions (where you do an experiment)
• Study notes for book 1 & 2
• The TMA cover sheets for submitting by mail.
• Some standard OU computer software for online bulletin boards and stuff
• A ring binder for your notes.

It doesn't look too bad -however glancing at the first TMA, shows a 1000 word essay is required. I have to grit my teeth at this point - I don't really care for essays. Its not that I can't do them, I suppose, but I do struggle with them. Its also very difficult to know what to include to get the marks. Obviously they are looking for certain points, but its not always obvious what. If you happen to go off at a tangent to the main theme, then marks are thin on the ground.

Oh well, I have about a month before it needs to be in, and I have got the materials about 2 weeks early, so I'm a little bit ahead. As long as I can keep it up there is a chance.

Next S204