Opinions on open university?

This_Year

maman wrote: »

If you are in a relationship, it's essential that you have a supportive partner. There's nothing like OU for finding cracks in a relationship and magnifying them. First, some partners feel ignored because you're giving up time to work and sulk. Others feel inferior and defensive so they are very critical and belittle your efforts.

I speak from experience.:D

This. My ex actually hid the books when they first arrived and would invite friends over for drinks or have to use the computer all night. If I went upstairs to study he would keep interrupting me to tell me things like "I can't find a tea-towel" or "have a break, you've done enough now" while trying to close my books and remove my pen from my hand!

No wonder he's my ex, eh!

neverdespairgirl

This_Year wrote: »

This. My ex actually hid the books when they first arrived and would invite friends over for drinks or have to use the computer all night. If I went upstairs to study he would keep interrupting me to tell me things like "I can't find a tea-towel" or "have a break, you've done enough now" while trying to close my books and remove my pen from my hand!

No wonder he's my ex, eh!

No wonder indeed. What a pillock!

Good thing my OH isn't like that - and good thing I'm not, either. In both our jobs, we often have unexpected work-late-into-the-night stints (me more than him, in my area of law) and when one of us has to do it, the other cooks, baths and sorts out DS' bedtime, etc.

bexiboo92

picklekin wrote: »

Not to put you off, it might help give you the edge over other applicants, but I was a learning support assistant and no qualifications were required at all for the job.

I aware of this
My mum's already a LSA.

I'd just like something behind me, more for confidence reasons than anything. I've been in retail for 2 years and it's very different to a school environment.

susancs

Op, I did my last BAHons degree with the OU and found the resources and tutor support was really good. I did the degree whilst working and have two children. My tips would be to start reading the course materials as soon as you get them, to get ahead, rather than wait for the start date. You have assignment questions that need to submitted for marking to your tutor each month usually, so if you are doing an education based course then I would read the assignment and use a highlighter marker to highlight text quotes that amy be useful in an assignment. Although your tutor cannot sugguest what you should put in an assignment, you should view them as a rsource and email a rough draft of an assignment plan to see if you are on the right track. OU discussion forums are very useful, but you cannot discuss assignments (risk of plagerism if you put on chunks of your work or just misleading people as to what the assignment entails), but a lot of OU students on particular courses set up facebook course groups to discuss things outside of the offical forums. I did not attend monthly tutorials, but a lot of students on my courses did find them useful. The tutor usually emails tutorial notes to students or posts them on the course tutor group forum. I did a bit of my tutor marked assignments on the computer each night, so it was not a huge task and then just tweaked it a bit. The best advice I was given by a tutor was to plan to do 15 minutes at an assignment and this might turn into 30 minutes...

maman

skylight wrote: »

And I can totally second that!
(Although I think you meant give up time to study, not sulk!)

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:What I meant was I was studying, he was sulking!

TopQuark

Hello OP,

I'm currently doing an MBA with the OU and I'm halfway through. I have a BSc and PhD in chemistry from regular universities, so the change to distance learning took me a little time to get used to. However, I really enjoy it now. I'd echo the points that others have raised about time discipline though - if you're not organised, you will fall behind and possibly fail.

One massive advantage I found with the OU was that I could continue with my studies when I moved abroad (from the UK, now in Switzerland). This would have been impossible at a regular university. I also find that there are students on my course from all over the world and in fact I'd say there are more international students than UK-based ones (although MBAs do tend to be pretty international courses).

I'd say go for it, but if you start, make sure you finish!
Best of luck, TQ

rockie4

I did my degree with the OU many years ago!! Graduated with a BSc in 2000.

I loved it ...most of the time I was married when I started it but my (now ex) partner was not supportive :mad: so did most of my studies as a single mum working full-time with 2 kids!

Time management is vital, I used to get up before the kids and do an hour or so before work/school run and then a bit more when they had gone to bed.

It was hard at times but definitely worth it! It did wonders for my self confidence and I got the job I'd always wanted at the end of it
I'm going to retire at the end of the year and am seriously considering going back to study some more.

nattiecake

I'm in the middle of doing BSc Health Science with the OU. I'm a SAHM to two toddlers, and started the course just after the second was born. And I am blimming loving it! DH is brilliant, leaves me up in the study for hours on end while he looks after the kids (he's a shift worker, so is either home loads or not at all!) in fact the only problem he had was that he was jealous that I was learning again, and so now his OU course starts in the autumn, lol.

I'm also a breastfeeding peer supporter and do volunteer admin for a PND charity, so my long term plans are for a career in that kind of area. Not midwifery or nursing though, as I shall explain below...

Originally I wanted to read medicine after having children, but have also been diagnosed with a disabling medical problem that is very likely to get worse rather than better, and would mean I would struggle with the physical aspects of a "hands on" course such as medicine/midwifery/nursing.

Hezzawithkids

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

No wonder indeed. What a pillock!

Good thing my OH isn't like that - and good thing I'm not, either. In both our jobs, we often have unexpected work-late-into-the-night stints (me more than him, in my area of law) and when one of us has to do it, the other cooks, baths and sorts out DS' bedtime, etc.

Have to say that my OH has been 100% behind me on this and has never, ever tried to sabotage my progress (he would feel the spiky end of my stilettos if he tried ). He is immensely proud of me and so are my kids - now that they are old enough to understand why I need to lock myself away sometimes to get the work done. They are all really excited at the thought of Mum's Graduation next year! I feel for those who have had the opposite experience because having the time and head-space to cope with the workload is an imperative.

Dunroamin

picklekin wrote: »

Not to put you off, it might help give you the edge over other applicants, but I was a learning support assistant and no qualifications were required at all for the job.

Very few people these days would get a TA/LSA job without any qualifications; this has been the case for some time.