Last night I submitted my first TMA (Tutor Marked Assignment) for this year's course, TM421 The M301 Project. The cryptic course title hides the fact that the aim is to specify, design and implement an application in Java. I figure about the hardest part of this sort of task is to decide what to do in the first place, but I have actually managed to get past that stage: I will be writing a system to manage backups (an online mirror) of files across a network, which has some relevance to what I do at work. This first assignment covered writing up a proposal, drafting a schedule for work, doing some background research and, something which is a major feature of OU project courses, reflecting on the process so far.
The course runs for longer than is usual for OU courses, with the final submission in December, which means it will be February or March before I hear the result. By that time I should be getting in to my final course to complete the degree. It seems like such a long time since I started (January 2001), but at last the finishing line is almost in sight.
What sort of fool decides to study for a degree part time through correspondance courses, anyway?
5 comments:
This sort of fool!
It took me seven years to get a degree and for quite a lot of that time time I was running a project in Sweden and attempting to live in Ireland!
Still it does eventually come to an end and, believe it or not, you actually miss it for the first year afterwards!
I don't doubt that I will miss it -- but I suspect <3 would kill me if I started up on another course straight away. I'm planning to go to evening classes and learn a language instead. :o)
Rob,
I am doing the same project this year and just in the middle of my 2nd TMA. I am just beat on getting time to complete it. Is there any chance you could send me a few bits a pieces to get coding ideas from.
Thanks,
Don
Hi Don,
I couldn't help you much with coding: I ended up writing very little code, but still got a decent mark, basically because the marks are given for the report and not anything else. So the only advice I can give you is to make notes about what you do throughout the course and why; start writing your report now, if you haven't done already; don't be afraid to drop everything when you reach, say, October, and just concentrate on the report from there on (you don't get marks for pretty software, or even working software!); don't forget to be critical of what you have done and how it all turned out; and to reiterate, CONCENTRATE ON THE REPORT!
Good luck,
Rob
Thanks Rob for your comments, very much appreciated. I will take on board what you have said and just keep slogging on. Its not a bit wonder in the real world that it takes about 100 meetings to get half a day of work done when courses like this are about. Thanks again!!, Don
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