What to do next?

With genetics done, and a bit more confidence in my abilities, the course material, and starting to work out how everything came together at the OU, I looked around to see what else I might tackle.

There are quite a number of science short courses that are of a similar length to the SK195 one.
I had a look at what was on offer.

Quite a number - but I needed one that started in May. Also after considering the speed I did the SK195, I probably ought to be able to manage two at the same time.
So - after a bit of deliberation, I picked the S196 Planets: An Introduction course, and the S193 Fossils and the History of Life courses.

Also at this time - I looked at the various degree options and what these courses could count for - if anything! It was soon obvious that to get any science named degree it required the basic science foundation course S103 Discovering Science and the associated residential school SXR103 Practising Science.
The main course didn't start until September, but it said you could take the residential course without it. So that's what I decided to do. After all - there are only 3-4 residential weeks in a year, so you have to measure those carefully if you want a degree in a short time.

So - a new plan for the rest of 2006.
Planets and Fossils short courses, then the residential school, then see what the options are. Probably S103.

SK195 Human Genetics and Health Issues

I had to phone up the OU to get onto this course, as I was about 2 days past the deadline, and whilst they allowed you to register late for this course if you thought you would be ok with that, you couldn't do it online.
I was a bit nervous about the step. I hadn't studied or taken tests in years. Would I still be able to study at university level? Just how hard would it be? Would my free time be enough to cope with the course?

Anyway, I was committed now, and a few days later a box arrived with all the details. It had:

• A book,
• a DVD
• a set of exam papers (known as the ECA - End of Course Assessment)to be completed at the end of the course,
• some study notes.

With the enthusiasm of a new toy I set out on the course. With a fair bit of relief I found the course was reasonably easy with my existing knowledge of genetics. There were one or two words that I wasn't so familiar with - karyotype for instance. I know I'd heard it before but its just not something I had come across in some years.

I finished reading the book and watching the videas about a week and a half later. I started on the ECA. The ECA took a further week on and off, going back to the answers and tweaking them a bit. I also logged onto the OU firstclass electronic conference and took part in one or two discussions, but it wasn't a very lively lot doing the course at that time.

Studying with the open university

It was early in 2006 I decided to do some studying. I can't remember exactly the reasons why, but I decided it might be interesting to study in a real sense some of the things I was interested in.

I picked the open university, as I had vague plans of a degree at some point. The Open University is an accredited body that can issue degrees and is all correspondence based, so I could keep my job too.

So I signed up for a course, 2 days after the start date. It was either that or wait 3 months for the next one. It was a short course, which you can do over 10 weeks or 3 months or so. You either submit the first or the second ECA (End of Course Assessment).

So I picked SK195 as I was interested in genetics, and that's where it all started.

Life studying for a 2nd time

This blog contains an account of my studying for a second degree.
What's different the second time around, what its like, what's changed, what's new. That sort of stuff.