Studying with the OU your work is not finished when you submit the assignment – once the tutor’s assessment comes back you have to then write a reflective assignment on what they have commented on in your work. This of course is assessed, marked and your score counts towards your award. I did better than I thought I would with TMA1 for AA100 and earned a respectable 69/100 which is pretty cool considering it was my first piece of academic writing in ten years so I was happy.

I’ve just submitted my reflective assignment and found it to be somewhat of a challenge in that you not only have to do a re-write of one of your works but also submit a short piece on what you thought of your assessment and how it influenced your way of writing. Having to do such a thing with a word limit of 150-200 words was not easy as you might have a lot of things to respond to so I basically summed everything up and hoped for the best. The outlook so far with which degree I will be working towards look good with possibly a previously unimagined BSc in the making, which could allow me to do a teaching degree online – depending on which courses I opt for in the near future. Right now I am even teetering towards the possibility of doing a teaching degree online which was something that I never even considered aiming for a year ago.

All being well I should have 120 points clocked up by this time next year.

I had a bit of a brainstorm some months ago when I signed up for two essential skills courses with the local college. I thought I could brush up on my literacy skills and then decided at the same time to enrol in the numeracy course as well. Maths was never my strong point at school so as the course was offered for free I thought what the heck!

What the heck indeed. Following that closely, I was ‘persuaded’ by Arnold to sign up for an Arts degree with the OU. He is something of an OU veteran nowadays and has been hassling me to take up a course with it as well – so I did. I have reached the point with all three courses where assignments are all due and I currently have steam coming out of my ears trying to find the time to fit the study and practical work into my week. Not as easy as it seems…

Anyway, my OU assignment came back with a pretty decent 69/100 which even I will admit is not a bad effort for my first piece of academic effort in just on ten years. Now I have just to complete the literacy and numeracy assignments to assess how I have progressed. Considering the stress factor involved I have to admit that all three have given me a good challenge – and we all can do with that now and again to keep us on our toes.