Open University A BSc for me!

TM470 TMA02

2012-05-06T10:00:00.005+01:00

The project has been progressing well, I have been spending quite a bit of time working through JPA and other technologies as well as time drawing models and diagrams of my system. I have had TMA02 returned and scored 78%, particular strengths points out were my ability to reflect on my learning style and progress so far. There were also a few concerns raised by my tutor, despite having rescoped my project to reduce it in size they still feel it may be too much to accomplish in the time available. I'm still progressing well so I feel it is achievable but I will make a point of keeping an eye on progress to ensure milestones aren't slipping any further.

I am enjoying the course, it extends hugely on the independence that an OU learner is already familiar with, so you have to be disciplined with your time and how you use it. The TMA's also take a fair amount of time to write, not so much due to complexity but I've found I go through a process of write, re-read and refine repeatedly until I am happy with the work. I'd suggest to any future students studying this module that they make sure they stay on top of the practical work and give themselves plenty of time to write the TMA's.

My main tips so far would be the following:

- Plan in contingency from the outset, include slippage weeks because things rarely go to plan.

- Don't be afraid of reducing the projects scope, as long as you can justify your decision and it is a sensible one you will not be penalised.

- Start your TMA's early, I've found myself spending many days getting them up together, everyone is different but I have found this course taking longer than any other due to it's report style over the question and answer approach usually seen in the computing syllabus.

TM470 TMA02 Submitted

2012-04-18T22:30:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I submitted TMA02 for TM470, this assignment was focussed upon progress so far with the practical aspects of my project as well as offering plenty of opportunity for review and reflection upon how everything was going so far. Personally, I found that I have spent a large amount of time on the practical activity and getting to grips with JPA and other technologies I had chosen to use to implement my project. This has meant that my original project plan was probably a little ambitious, trying to squeeze in a lot of dev work across a database, web service, user interface and enrichment mechanism. I therefore took this opportunity to reevaluate the scope of the project and adjust the time on my project plan accordingly. I was also keen to incorporate a lot of the feedback my tutor provided on my initial TMA, particularly articulating how my solution will solve the problem that I outlined which wasn't necessarily clear on the first draft. In general I am enjoying the course, it is a lot of work and completely self driven but the challenge of working to a tight project schedule and teaching myself knew technologies along the way is actually enjoyable. (Even if it is getting difficult to stay motivated after a day in the office in front of a computer!)

TM470 TMA01 Result

2012-03-22T21:58:00.000Z

Results came in yesterday, I scored 80% on the nose. Not a bad start although there still a lot of room for improvement! The general feedback was positive with many section achieving a 1 score although I needed to be more specific around what I was actually building. I captured the problem statement well but I did not do a very good job of saying how I was gong to solve it. My tutor also commented on my frequent reference to a REST interface that I wanted to build and couldn't really understand why, this was partly the result of an unclear description of my intended solution but also simple "why?". It's made me wonder if I actually need one. I was originally forward planning, through an interface it would be straight forward to integrate applications with the service but I could simply be over engineering the solution. Either way I probably want to spend a bit more time defining my solution. The other point that my tutor raised was that it may be slightly ambitious to try and create a fully prototyped, mocked up and polished web ui within the timeframe of the project so scale back, simple is good enough. I'll continue to progress taking the tutors comments on board. I think the realisation that I'm shooting for a fully developed piece of software and actually all the course needs is something that is progressing my learning from my previous studies is darting to sink in. It's all about being academic and reflective in how you approach your project, this is where the marks seem to be, whether the actual devolution is successful or not is somewhat irrelevant.

Balsamiq Mock ups - UI Design

2012-03-12T18:35:00.000Z

First of all, thanks to fellow OU student William for bringing this to my attention. Balsamiq is a web app that allows you to mock up wireframe user interfaces through a web application or desktop application.

The application can be used for free through the web interface but it will prompt you every 5 minutes to say thank you for using it, otherwise you can get a one month free trial of the web tool followed by a $12 (£8) per month subscription or $79(£50) one off fee for the desktop application. To be honest the free web access with prompts will be more than good enough for my needs, I'd highly recommend it to anyone!

Visit the url here and try it out http://www.balsamiq.com/

TM470 TMA01 Submitted

2012-03-05T22:02:00.001Z

I've just submitted TMA01 for the TM470 project and it was surprisingly wordier than I was expecting, coming in at approx 3,900 words although this was including code examples in the appendix so in reality it was probably nearer the 2,750 mark. It took me about 10 hours to complete and was a nice way to bring together the preparatory and exploratory work that I have carried out around my project.

The one thing I did find that took a little while was the literature review, which involved citing lots of books and websites that I had been reading. The OU specify the Harvard system as their chosen method of referencing however they don't force you to use it, as long as you are consistent with the referencing you method you adopt you are free to use any (recognised) referencing method.

This was very useful as I came across a fantastic referencing system called http://www.easybib.com/. This tool allows you to automatically Cite references by typing in a URL or an ISBN number. Just select the tab from across the top that is appropriate to the media you are referencing and it automatically retrieves the details. You are able to modify and clean up the citation accordingly then add it to your list of citations. Lists can be saved and added to in the future, I signed in using my Google account but it also supports Open ID, Facebook etc so it is very easy to get started. Once my list was compiled it was a simple case of copying it and pasting it into my TMA fully referenced in the MLA6 format. This is obviously not the Harvard system that the OU recommends but it is perfectly acceptable, you can also switch formats automatically and the tool will convert all your references.

I'd highly recommend this and will be using it for all my citations during this project.

Simon

Apple Higher Education discount for the Open University

2012-02-24T22:59:00.000Z

I'm currently looking at replacing my 2007 iMac 24" with one of the current 27" core i5 models. In the past I have received HE discount from Apple by providing my student information over the phone to Apple but today I have managed to secure a link directly to the Open University store.

So if you are an Open University student and would like to earn between 12-15% off a new Apple computer click this link

http://store.apple.com/uk_edu_5000751/ Quidco are also providing an extra 6% cashback which can bring the saving up to the 20% mark which is nothing to be sniffed at!

I'll let you know if I take the plunge and upgrade...

TM470 General progress update

2012-02-09T21:43:00.000Z

I've now been allocated my tutor for TM470 and I have sent off an e-mail with a few paragraphs documenting my project intentions for review.

The project choice forum has been fairly active with lots of people and a diverse array of project ideas which seem to have been growing as the late sign ups have been arriving onto the module website. It's odd really, the early sign ups have had access to the site from October/November time, around 4 months before the course start and then there are those who turned up last week just before go day!

All in all things are going well and I am slowly working towards the first TMA, I have purchased a project book that was recommended by the course, and just about every other computing course run by a higher education establishment.

Projects in Computing and Information Systems: A Student's Guide

This book is fairly recent and gives fantastic guidance to working on a software development project as well as a research based project so it should be suitable for all students of TM470 or any other similar course. I'd highly recommend it.

That's about all for now, I should be getting into the project quite intensively going forward, I'm going to use this blog to capture my progress as well as documenting research and ideas so apologies in advance.

Simon

Geo Spatial data and the google maps API

2012-02-09T21:33:00.002Z

Ok so here's the first of many blog posts that I will be capturing thoughts and research around my project, so apologies for those who read this regularly its going to get busy and I guess over time it will also become quite technical.

I have been carrying out some research on geo information as it is going to be fairly critical for my project, firstly for user registration and location management and secondly for identifying things that are close to a given latitude and longitude. In particular I have spent some time digging around the Google Maps API, documentation for which can be found here http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/geocoding/.

This API allows you to pass a partial or fully constructed address and get a fully geo located JSON or XML response with the address modelled including and missing attributes. An example for Brick Lane in London is outlined below.

http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json?address=1+Brick+Lane,London&sensor=false

As you can see this isn't exactly a complete address, but look at the JSON response below that documents the full geocode information

{
   "results" : [
      {
         "address_components" : [
            {
               "long_name" : "1",
               "short_name" : "1",
               "types" : [ "street_number" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Brick Ln",
               "short_name" : "Brick Ln",
               "types" : [ "route" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "London",
               "short_name" : "London",
               "types" : [ "locality", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "London Borough of Tower Hamlets",
               "short_name" : "London Borough of Tower Hamlets",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_3", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "Greater London",
               "short_name" : "Gt Lon",
               "types" : [ "administrative_area_level_2", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "United Kingdom",
               "short_name" : "GB",
               "types" : [ "country", "political" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "E1 6PU",
               "short_name" : "E1 6PU",
               "types" : [ "postal_code" ]
            },
            {
               "long_name" : "E1",
               "short_name" : "E1",
               "types" : [ "postal_code_prefix", "postal_code" ]
            }
         ],
         "formatted_address" : "1 Brick Ln, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London E1 6PU, UK",
         "geometry" : {
            "location" : {
               "lat" : 51.5173560,
               "lng" : -0.0709070
            },
            "location_type" : "ROOFTOP",
            "viewport" : {
               "northeast" : {
                  "lat" : 51.51870498029150,
                  "lng" : -0.06955801970849797
               },
               "southwest" : {
                  "lat" : 51.51600701970850,
                  "lng" : -0.07225598029150203
               }
            }
         },
         "types" : [ "street_address" ]
      }
   ],
   "status" : "OK"
}

Not only do I now have a fully modelled address that I can easily parse into a Javascript or Java object, I also have the lat/long information that I can use to base geo spatial searching e.g. show me all locations in my database that live within 5 miles of point x, I think it is pretty incredible!

From my research this can be done in any database using the Haversine formula, one solution for MySQL specifically is documented here http://qnatech.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/how-to-use-geo-spatial-with-mysql/

When playing around with example addresses I noticed that if the street name is unique enough all you need to provide is the house number / street and you get the same level of detail which is great if your working with malformed user data.

1970s Style Laptop - My new project logbook

2012-01-15T22:01:00.002Z

I couldn't resist it, I needed a log book for my TM470 project and saw this in a stationary shop called scribbler today and had to buy it.

It's approximately one hundred pages with ruling on one side and the other side being plain, which should accommodate sketching and capturing of information as I work through my project. I'll eventually have to digitise a lot of the information but it will be a useful thing to have a round.

At £6.99 it's certainly the cheapest laptop I have ever bought... and it will never crash!

TM470 and my new keyboard

2012-01-11T19:32:00.001Z

Here it is, the MK520 logitech keyboard! So after a late night of frustration trying to work up a CENTOS 6 installation with JBOSS in Virtual Box I realised that a Mac Keyboard being used in a Linux OS via Windows 7 really wasn't working. I had been trying to get an example instance set up of the Virtual Private Server that I am going to use to host my project application on but the keyboard mappings for Mac keyboards were appalling.

I decided to go down to PC WORLD this morning and hunt for a keyboard that I could comfortably code on late into the night and would map smoothly onto the Linux operating system and my current setup. After playing around with various keyboards I settled on the MK520 which is pictured below, after 5 hours coding I'd definitely recommend it!

As for the project, I've been working up the project idea in the course forums and it seems to be going well. Without going into too much detail at the moment I am working on an idea for a Java based web application for a corporate service. I've registered my domain name and started to work up my ideas, I'll be keeping a separate project blog but will try to incorporate some of the information as I progress into this blog so that those of you who are interested, or future TM470 students can get an idea of whats involved.

As an overview of what the course has gone like so far (its not even started formally!) once I got around to being able to access the web forums there are two major forums, a project choice forum and a general discussion forum. The project choice forum is a place for all students to post ideas and contribute comments to each others ideas, providing feedback and suggestions where appropriate. For those people who are yet to identify a project, students have been posting the courses that they have previously studied and topic areas with other students trying to help provide suggestions. The course team are also very active posting responses to project ideas and help to try and focus ideas where they are too broad, or widen ideas that are far too focused. The general discussion forum is there to provide a place for discussions around other topics such as "which IDE should I use?".

So far we have had to submit a tutor assignment form, where you list the courses that you have studied in the past or are currently studying and rank the two topics that you wish to base your project upon in priority order. For me this is M362 Concurrent and Distributed Systems and M359 Relational Database Theory and Practice.

I am expecting to be allocated to a tutor towards the end of the month and will post anything else of relevance that comes up as the course continues.

Back from Christmas and the M359 Results and TM470 registration

2012-01-03T22:25:00.001Z

Ok, lets go.... Final module of my BSc (Hons) in computing is about to begin, Christmas has been and gone and it seems like a blink of the eye ago that I sat my Exams.

The M359 result came in over the Christmas break and I scored a disappointing Pass 3 with an OCAS score of 81% and an OES of 58%. Whilst it was a disappointing result and the poorest result I have had with the OU to date, reading my blog posts back it was quite obvious that I didn't have the usual enthusiasm for this course and ultimately my final grade reflects that.

It is frustrating because if I had pulled my finger out a little more I know I could have done a lot better but hindsight truly is a wonderful thing and when life and work is already on top of you its easy to reprioritise your M359 efforts.

Whilst the grade is what it is I am still looking for a strong 2:1 degree if TM470 goes well and I am quite excited about getting started on it. I parted with the £735.00 a few days ago, which to be honest seems steep for a 30 point module which is likely to have far less support than any module I have studied. I can't help feel that its the final milking of the Student before they graduate, and when it's your own money you've saved up it makes you that bit more conscious of how you spend it. I'll be interested to see if I still feel this way come completion.

I've got an idea for a project and after all my thoughts around carrying out a project on AI based work, over the Christmas break I have come up with a new idea for a concurrent distributed system. It will be a big piece of work and I will probably only have time to do some basic work on it during this project, but if it does go well it is something that could be developed and commercialised so it gives me that bit of extra drive to make it work. More on that to come once it has been approved, for now I wait with baited breath for the course module information to become available so I can get on with the project.

I'm intending on running a project log through a blog but I'll post all that information up once it has been created. I've been looking at project management tools and I think I'm going to take run the management through BaseCamp which is a basic project management facility allowing milestone setting, document storage and note making facilities. You can host one project for free at BaseCamp by visiting this link. I've also been looking at source control hosting and have been debating between Google Code and Git Hub I'll post up once I've decided on which to go with.

Until then good luck with the 2012 study!

M366 Results are in....

2011-11-29T17:46:00.001Z

The results for M366 were made available today, I obtained a Pass 2 scoring 66% in the final exam and having and OCAS of 86%. Speaking with one fellow student they scored nearly identically to me so it looks like I wasn't the only person to struggle with the exam.

The fact that I scored as pass 2 with 66% suggests everyone under performed however I can't find the usual OU course breakdown which shows where the exam results distribution sat for all students sitting the course. If anyone has it please let me know.

So thats it for now, I'm in the process of working out what to tackle for my final project and will update once I have got a proposal together.

M359 Exam complete, TM470 here I come...

2011-10-19T18:07:00.000+01:00

Just returned from the M359 Exam and it was tricky although I think I have got enough marks to pass (well here is hoping). I made sure to take time over the questions and go back over them trying to squeeze out any marks that I may have missed and whilst there were the odd 2 marks where I was literally clueless in general it felt better than it could have done. I certainly wouldn't have liked sitting the course on its first few presentations as I really think I would have struggled without access to all the past papers.

I have also enrolled on TM470, the project element of many of the Computing degrees run by the OU. I believe this is its second presentation, and in a nutshell as a student you chose a topic of interest out of those that you have studied at level 3 and carry out a project into a particular area with some (but not a lot of) tutor support.

I'm quite excited about the idea, I bumped into Paul a fellow OU undergrad at the exam today who has been mirroring my courses over the last few years as we both head towards the same degree. We were discussing how the AI area is of particular interest and it sounds like Paul has already made good progress with thrashing out a concept for his project and starting to research it. As for me I am pretty confident that I will base mine on AI although I'm fully intending on giving myself a few weeks off before I start to do any research into the matter.

The good news is that was the last exam I have to sit for my degree (and hopefully for a little while longer), I didn't find the course fairly dry compared to M366 but it is bread and butter computing theory so everyone really should do it or something similar to become well rounded in the subject.

That's it for now, I'll update anything new with TM470 as it comes around, I wish everyone who is sitting exams good luck and hope the Christmas results period is a festive one.

OU Degree Classification Calculator

2011-10-18T12:53:00.002+01:00

In the midst of exams people may be wondering what grades they need to be pushing for in order to obtain the degreee classification that they want, I've come across the following unofficial degree classification calculator which may be of some use.

Degree Classification Calculator

It appears to be working although I, like the developer, would not want to make any promises of accuracy. It is definitely worth a look if you are interested in how you are progressing or awaiting those grades or also experimenting with course grades to see what the outcomes could be.

Simon

M366 Exam Complete and Assignment scores

2011-10-13T16:31:00.002+01:00

So the exam is complete and there is no doubt about it, it was a real slog.... This is the first time I have ever had to write all the way up to the end of an exam, there is just so much content in this course that you end up putting down lots of information. I think it went ok, a couple of bits didn't go too great but overall I managed to work through the questions reasonably.

One issue I had was a misprinted formula in the exam book, I knew the formula must have been incorrect but thought I would revisit it at the end, little did I know how long the exam would take and when I had a quick glance at the end I noticed what the issue was but didn't have time to re-write my calculations. I've posted this up in the course forums and it looks like everyone else had noticed the formula issue, hopefully we won't be penalised for using the incorrect formula.

I'd agree with a lot of people that this course could be considered a 60 pointer, it has a phenomenal about of work to get through and when it comes to revision time you realise just how much you need to learn. That being said it is an extremely interesting course and I would recommend it for anyone with an interest in the subject matter.

I noticed I never posted the TMA 04 results for the two modules so here they are..... As it stands I'm operating at something like 86% average for M366 and with substitution I think I will be around the early 80% for M359.

M366 TMA04 - 88

M359 TMA04 - 83

Back to revision for the M359 exam next Wednesday, my last exam with the OU! Just a project to go after that!

Simon

M366 The night before the exam + some mind maps to help with revision

2011-10-12T22:45:00.001+01:00

Well... the final night of M366, its been a real joy to study but revising truly has been difficult. It's one of those subjects where you are trying to remember so much you seem to forget what you learned the day before! I have been revising for quite a while and it has been going well but spending the last two days working through past papers has had me caught out on more occasions than I want to admit. I know the concepts its just making sure you pin point the buzzwords, which has lead to a lot of interesting acronyms being thought up last minute.

One thing I did do was create mind maps using a piece of software called FreeMind, this really helped me link the materials together so I am sharing them for people who study the course in the future with the hope that they will benefit from them. I have covered blocks 1,2,3,4 up to unit 3 and block 6.

I ignored block 5 in an aim to reduce the amount of information I had to remember, the way the exam works you have three sections the first two made up of 3 questions each (compulsory to do one from each section) and the final section of one question which is mandatory (covering block 6). You have to answer 4 questions in total and block 5 appears as one question out of the 6 you choose from, so I decided to ditch it and stick to block 4 which appears twice in the exam.

The files can be downloaded here

They will open with FreeMind, I hope you find them useful.

Ok time to get some sleep and get this exam out of the way, I hope it goes better than I expect!

Simon

M366 Revision Aid

2011-10-09T12:22:00.001+01:00

A fellow student has made a set of flip cards that cover the bold statements from all 6 blocks of M366. This is an excellent exam revision aid and I would highly recommend its use.

The cards are hosted on StudyDroid.com and can be used on any android phone by downloading the free study droid app from the android marketplace.

To move the cards to your phone create a free account on the studydroid website and then add the m366 card packs to your device by clicking the card pack you are interested in an then selecting the add cards. If you then move on to the Study Droid app and sign into your account you can click the sync icon from the main menu and all the card sets will be downloaded.

I hope this is useful.

Simon

Bringing everything up to date

2011-08-27T16:26:00.000+01:00

Life has got the better of me for the last few months and I haven't kept on top of my blog in any way whatsoever. Now that I have a few moments I thought I'd write a short blog to bring everything up to date.

M359
TMA02 - As expected this didn't go particularly well and I scored 65%, the less said about that the better.

TMA03 - I managed to get back into my stride with this TMA and scored 89% so hopefully pushing through TMA04 which I am currently doing I should be able to bring the average back up to a respectable position.

M366
TMA02 - I scored 95% in this TMA which I was really pleased with, the course content is extremely interesting and up to this point my marks reflected how enjoyable it was.

TMA03 - In this TMA I scored 75%, I struggled a little with the work on error curves but to be honest this asignment was probably one of the worst I have ever been delivered by the OU. Multiple errata were issued and the TMA had a rushed feel about it, a lot of students on the course forums voiced there concerns about this so hopefully the OU have taken note.

In general I am finding M359 fairly dry and uninteresting which is making it that much more difficult to spend time working at it compared to M366 which is extremely interesting and engaging and is a real pleasure to study. I am concerned about how the timetable has split the work for M366 with the vast majority of the work, two 30% weighted assignments and the final exam, falling in the last 11 weeks of the course. I'm not sure much can be done about that as you have to cover the basics before tackling the more advanced topics, but its not the most fun I have ever had!

This years study comes to a close in Mid October and then I will have a short break over the winter until I begin my final module, the computing project in February. The majority of the theory for my degree has been taught and now its just a case of putting it into practise before being a graduate, which has got me feeling fairly reflective already but I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet and will save those thoughts for another blog post.

M366 TMA01 Results

2011-04-26T22:26:00.001+01:00

I received my results for M366 TMA01 and scored a great 93% which I am really chuffed with. This easily felt like the hardest assignment that I have had to complete in my degree so far, and it took me a lot of time to complete. I was honestly thinking this is going to be a fail and was nervous when the results e-mail came through but it looks as though the hard work paid off.

I submitted M359 TMA02 this evening which has been pretty tricky in itself, in particular the problematic Q3 B) iii) which had a discussion well over 50 posts deep in the course forum with what looks like only 1 person so far claiming they have managed to solve it. It surrounds relational algebra and I'll confess now I didn't solve it, I put down all my working to get to the different relations I thought would help answer the question, but ultimately it is worth 6 marks out of 100 and I invested many many hours into it to no avail. If I can scrape a couple of marks from what I managed to jot down I will be pleased, but I'm somewhat comforted by not being the only person in this position.

Hopefully the results aren't too hideous!

M359 SQL Anywhere and Interactive SQL in Windows 7 Java Errors

2011-04-25T22:28:00.001+01:00

The Open University provides course software to load and manipulate databases, their choice of program is SQL Anywhere and when trying to query anything using Windows 7 the version used just dumps huge stack traces.

This seems to be a common problem for a lot of Windows 7 users, here are the instructions for getting it to work for anyone who comes across this issue on future presentations.

You need to run the programs in compatability mode. To do this Go start > programs > m359 > right click on the "Start M359 Server" shortcut and click properties.

choose the compatability tab then check the "run this program in compatability mode" checkbox, select windows vista service pack 2.

under privilege level at the bottom, check "run this program as an administrator".

Do the same for the Interactive SQL shortcut in the same location. Once done, close down the server, fire it up again manually and it should all work.

M359 Relational Algebra Checker RAEval

2011-04-25T12:20:00.001+01:00

Fellow student Nick E has developed a relational algebra checker in Java which can be used to prove your relational algebra and ensure that it is generating the results you can expect. This is an awesome piece of software that I think should be noted for future students who will be studying M359 as it will help massively come TMA time and during study/revision.

Here is Nick's original post to the course forums.

Relational Algebra Interpreter
Attachment Screenshot.png
I've written an interpreter that can work with relational algebra.

The idea is that it is easier to get the hang of relational algebra if you can play around and experiment with the different operators. I looked at some of my solutions and though 'if only I could just run this to see if it works'.

The interpreter handles select, project, join, divide , rename, union, difference, intersection, alias and times.

The main limitation is that you cannot create a relation within the interpreter - you have to load it in from a CSV file. But then you can create new relations from it.

For example,

rela := load "/home/nick/my-rela.csv"

Then:

select rela where a > 2

project rela over a, b, c

project (select rela where a > 2 or b <= 5) over a, b It also handles assignment, so: relb := project rela over a, b, c Which creates a new relation called relb. Loads more examples in the documentation along with some example CSV files and how to make your own. Hint: in the interpreter use to get a newline (for long expressions) and use to evaluate.

The project is written in Java and has a re-usable class called Relation that does all the work. It's free for anyone that wants to use it.

You can download the executable jar file and/or source code at:

http://code.google.com/p/relational-algebra/

The interpreter itself is a JAR file called "raeval.jar" and is available under the downloads tab. To run it you need the Java Runtime Environment that is also available free. I have had it up and running on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu Linux.

There are some (really) basic instructions there too.

Note: this is beta software. I've tested all of the functionality but there probably are some bugs left. Contact me from the project home if you spot them. But please be gentle, because this has been an obsession...

M359 TMA01 and the year so far

2011-04-10T10:43:00.000+01:00

Well its been a long time since I last got around to updating the blog so I thought that it would be important to take a little bit of time to write down how the year has gone so far.

I'm currently studying M359 Relational Database Theory and Design and M366 Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Its fair to say that the workload of these courses has definitely made me have to raise my ame a bit to fit everything in alongside work and social commitments.

M366 has a particularly heavy workload with lots of theory which I found myself re-reading and expanding upon further through online and offline resources. It feels like everytime I turn a page another intruiging concept or idea is dropped on me and I have to go and explore it further to make sure I am understanding it fully or just to find out that bit more. It's an extremely interesting course, but it is definitely taking up more time than any other 30 credit module that I have studied to date. I am currently working through the first TMA which is due during the middle of next week so hopefully it all goes well.

The first TMA for M359 was due during the end of March and I scored 80% which I am quite pleased with. Databases have never been something I have invested much time in learning before, getting by with what I have picked up as I have worked with them over the years. It is nice to actually sit down and go back to the beginning and truly understand how databases have evolved and how we have reached the relational database models that are so common today, but also where we seem to be going in the future. The course is covering the fundementals but also more advanced concepts and I hope that by the end of it my patchy DB experience will be much more well rounded. Watch this space ...

M362 and M363 Results

2010-12-17T07:36:00.000Z

The results were made available last night and I am overall quite pleased with how I did.

M362 I scored 73% in the exam giving me a pass 2, I was initially a little disappointed with this grade until I looked at how all the other students faired with 46% of all students who sat the exam scoring less than the 40% minimum. This proved to be a particularly difficult exam but I'm glad I was able to keep up my grade in the pass 2 region.

M363 was very similar in score with 74% giving me a pass 2 again, students in general seemed to have a fairly evenly spread distribution of scores, with 9% getting distinctions and 19% getting pass 2's the rest of the grade ranges followed in the teens.

I enjoyed the study last year and have just registered for my next lot of courses. After seeking advice from the OU they have suggested I don't study 2 level 3 courses and my final project at once, which is a shame really as it adds another year on to my studies but does mean I won't let my degree suffer as a result. I have gone for M366 Natural and Artificial Intelligence and M359 Relational Database theory and design.

Open University Changes to IT program update!

2010-11-15T21:49:00.003Z

Following the last blog, and judging by the comments I'm not the only person who couldn't get the link to work, the OU has sent another e-mail out with a revised link which is direct to the ou website.

A copy of the email is below..

We recently contacted you to let you know about changes to our Computing and ICT qualifications.

In the message we sent you we provided details of a website for you to visit to find out more. Unfortunately, we are experiencing problems with this website and have therefore set up an alternative.

The new website can be accessed at http://learn.open.ac.uk/site/uict-cp/

Please visit this site for details of the changes to our Computing and ICT qualifications and to find out how you and your studies may be affected by these changes.

If you have problems accessing this site please contact the Faculty using the enquiry form at www.mct.open.ac.uk/enquiry.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Linda Landsberg
Programme Manager

The website is quite comprehensive and contains details of what is happening and letters to students of each of the affected courses explaining what is happening and the impact that it will have.

The outline of the B62 course is also made available, this is the course that will replace a large number of the undergraduate computing courses. It seems to be an amalgamation of technology and computing syllabuses with M450 being replaced by TM470 (which I think might be the module I end up taking if this is indeed M450's last presentation). A quick browse of google turned up this link, which seems to confirm my suspicions and means my final project will be a first presentation course. There also sees to be nested documents for each of the joint honours B67 degrees, if people feel that they would be valuable to link them I can upload them also.

I have uploaded a copy of the B62 structure here.
http://hotfile.com/dl/82801463/94928fd/B62_Structure_.pdf.html

It does seem very broad, the pathways document outlines 3 Accredited strands being Software Engineering, ICT and IT and Computing. These three strands appear to maintain a level of BCS accreditation which is good but I am unsure at what level the accreditation will be. When looking at the pathways advice document it outlines more refined core strands including vendor certification and work-based learning which I assume do not have the BCS accreditation that the others maintain.

Both documents have been attached below.

http://hotfile.com/dl/82802309/5520167/B62_Pathway_advice.pdf.html

http://hotfile.com/dl/82802410/2e44cb2/B62_Accredited_Pathways_3.pdf.html

I hope that gives existing students and those who cannot access the website enough information to go on. I think its important that people understand what their options are and what the impact of this decision to amalgamate the syllabus will have on your choice of degree.

Open University IT course changes

2010-11-13T10:40:00.002Z

This blog has been updated. Click HERE
Last night I received an e-mail stating that the OU will be replacing a lot of there qualifications in the IT area and replacing them with new courses. A copy of the e-mail is attached.

We are contacting you to let you know about changes to ALL of the OU’s Computing and ICT qualifications.

What are the changes?
For complete details of the changes visit our website at www.tinyurl.com/3ymmdqm. If you have problems accessing this site please contact the Faculty using the enquiry form at www.mct.open.ac.uk/enquiry.

The following new qualifications have been introduced:
* Certificate in Computing and IT (K10)
* Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) in Computing and IT (E66)
* Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) in Computing and IT Practice (E67)
* Foundation Degree in Computing and IT Practice (G23)
* BSc (Hons) Computing and IT (B62)
* BSc (Hons) Computing and IT Practice (top up) (B68)
* BSc (Hons) Computing and IT (joint honours) (B67)

Currently the B67 joint honours qualification is available as:
* BSc(Hons) Computing, IT and Business
* BSc(Hons) Computing, IT and Design
* BSc (Hons) Computing, IT and Mathematics
* BSc(Hons) Computing, IT and Statistics
* BSc (Hons) Computing, IT and Psychology

These replace the following qualifications that are to be withdrawn:
* Diploma in Computing (D12)
* Diploma in Information Technology (D39)
* Diploma of Higher Education in ICT (E39)
* Diploma of Higher Education in Computing and its Practice (E41)
* Diploma of Higher Education in Business Information Technology (E45)
* Foundation Degree in Information and Communication Technologies (G04)
* Foundation Degree in Computing and its Practice (G06)
* Foundation Degree in Business Information Technology (G13)
* BSc (Hons) Information Technology and Computing (B13)
* BA/BSc (Hons) Computing and Mathematical Sciences (B14)
* BSc (Hons) Computing (B29)
* BA/BSc (Hons) Computing and Statistics (B34)
* BSc (Hons) Computing with Business (B35)
* BSc (Hons) Information and Communication Technologies (B38)
* Top-up BSc (Honours) Computing and its Practice (B40)
* BSc (Hons) Computing and Design (B44)
* BSc (Hons) Computing with Psychological Studies (B49)

B40 will be withdrawn on 31 December 2012.
G13 will be withdrawn on 31 December 2016.
All the other qualifications will be withdrawn on 31 December 2014.

What does this mean for me?
If you want to claim one of the existing qualifications you must complete all the academic requirements before the relevant final withdrawal date.

If this is not possible, you will need to transfer your studies to one of the new qualifications.

All modules which count towards our current qualifications can also be counted towards the new qualifications.
To find details of the changes and how you are likely to be affected you must visit our website at www.tinyurl.com/3ymmdqm. If you have problems accessing this site please contact the Faculty using the enquiry form at www.mct.open.ac.uk/enquiry.

Where can I get more information?
If you need further help or information please get in touch with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service by emailing general-enquiries@open.ac.uk or by phoning +44 (0)845 300 6090.

Linda Landsberg
Programme Manager
Undergraduate ICT and Computing

It looks like I have until 2014 to finish my studies, which is fine but it will be interesting to see the implications for students who started there degrees later than me. The B67 degree seems to be covering off a large number of undergraduate qualifications, I wonder what it will actually consist of and if it will maintain the BCS accreditation currently provided by the B29 Computing degree.