By tim, on May 17th, 2012 at 9:06 pm This week’s lectures have been about the response of networks to a sinusoidal drive and how to analyse them. First of all, this involved using an incredibly difficult method based on solving differential equations (so difficult that the attempt terminates part way through after much baffling mathematics), a “sneaky” approach based on complex algebra and finally a “super sneaky” approach based on the impedance model.
This final method turns all of the steady state sinusoidal circuit analysis problems which seemed pretty difficult using the first two methods into problems which can be rather more simply solved by the application of Ohm’s Law, along, of course, with all of the usual circuit analysis techniques based on the node method, Thevenin, Kirchoff et al.
I think if we hadn’t been warned that the conclusion of the week was going to be relatively straightforward I might have been tempted to cut my losses and plough straight on into week 11 – but I’m glad that I didn’t. In the end, the lab and homework problems seemed to be fairly tractable once I’d thought about them properly – and been guided by the odd hint or seven from the discussion forum of course!
I now have the magic 59% mark showing up on my profile page – which, even if I complete the next two weeks homework and labs, I won’t be able to improve on until the final exam. Despite many pleas from students to the course team on the discussion forum, they still appear to be keeping silent about the form the final exam will take, when it will appear, how long we’ll have to complete it in and so on.
Not knowing when the final exam will appear is pretty frustrating, as one of the “joys” of being a part-time distance learner is that the rest of life tends to get in the way of study, in exactly the way it doesn’t when you’re full-time at a brick university.
One of the lessons therefore that the MITx/edX team ought to take from this first run of 6.002x is that certainty over the time windows for assessments at or very near the start of the course is essential. Without such certainty, it’s difficult to see how edX would ever get future students to pay for assessment, even if the delivery of course content remains free.
By tim, on May 15th, 2012 at 8:58 am I’ve just run across this rather unscientific poll which suggests that despite (because of?) two years of coalition government, Vince Cable is still the people’s favourite to dig us out of the economic mess that we’re currently in. However, my enthusiasm is tempered somewhat, not only because of the self-selecting nature of the respondents to the poll, but also that Gordon Brown is currently at number two. Go figure.
It may very well all change over the course of this week while the poll remains active, but it’s interesting to see that the Lib Dem minister who was most closely associated with the immensely damaging student fees episode is nonetheless still regarded (by the respondents to this poll) as the best politician on offer to steer us to economic safety.
By tim, on May 12th, 2012 at 10:30 pm I’m writing this post on the train back to Derby from Cardiff, where I’ve been for my OU graduation ceremony today, along with 280 other graduands and their families and friends. I’d travelled to Cardiff on Friday afternoon with Jane, meeting up with my daughters from Exeter and Carmarthen so that we could enjoy a pleasant evening together. Today, the weather was beautiful and I enjoyed wandering around in my academic dress – no hat, of course!
The great thing about the OU is the diversity of the student body and the stories everyone has about the ways in which they’ve managed to achieve their goals. Some 11,000 of us graduated at the end of last year, with around 6,500 choosing to attend one of the ceremonies that are held across the UK and in more exotic climes like Moscow and Versailles. It’s been a real privilege to be a part of the family for the last 5 years. The support from staff, fellow students, my employer and family has been fantastic and my thanks go to you all – you know who you are!
Of the many things that were said from the platform today, perhaps the one which stuck in my mind most was said by Martin Bean, the Vice-Chancellor. When his speech from today is made available on the OU website (I’m pretty certain it was being recorded) I’ll post a link to it and double-check his exact words, but I’m convinced that he made an observation about the value of higher education not being solely an economic one. Rather, he argued that HE has a far wider impact on the individual, the society they’re part of and the wider world.
The Vice-Chancellor was absolutely right of course, but the “public good” aspects of education seem to me to being rapidly squeezed out of existence with the marketisation of HE thundering on at breakneck speed. I found myself wondering how much longer OU graduation ceremonies will look and feel the way they did today, with far more of the costs of HE having to be borne by individual students rather than from general taxation. I suspect those of us who have studied with the OU simply for “personal development reasons” will become increasingly rare as existing students finish their transitional allowance (TA) funded qualifications between now and 2017.
Still, there’s absolutely no doubting the Vice-Chancellor’s commitment to the success of the institution in the future and to the success of its current and future graduates. That’s extremely heartening and I suspect that the vast majority of past and present OU students want that success to continue and wish him and the staff of the university every good fortune in their endeavours. I certainly do.
However, for me, it’s definitely the end of my time with the OU. Without a psychology masters programme for me to progress onto, there’s simply nowhere for me to go despite the enthusiasm of the folk on the OU prospectus stand today. There’s still a chance that I might be able to study for an MSc elsewhere, and I’m waiting to hear from Leicester University in July whether my application for a place on their distance learning masters in occupational psychology has been successful or not. But £8,500 is a lot of money to find over a couple of years, even with the potential of some support from my employer. As good as Leicester may yet turn out to be, I’d really liked to have been able to spend that money at the OU – as it has earned my trust and respect during my time there.
In the longer term, I’m hopeful that initiatives like edX (the newly announced joint venture from MIT and Harvard) might just be enough to keep my brain ticking over. As unpolished as the presentation and assessment style of MITx (soon to be edX) 6.002x is, I’m certain that its methods will improve to eventually become comparable with those of the OU and other established distance learning providers – at least for purely objective, scientific courses. You’d never be able to run a BSc in Psychology through the methods that MITx currently employs however. It might just be able to work for a module like SD226, but it would never, ever work for DD307!
So here I am. An OU psychology graduate. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (literally), as they say.
I hope that I can live up to Martin Bean’s assertions that being an OU graduate means that you will become kinder, more humble, positive and creative – I’m not sure that I’m any of those things very often. But more importantly, I’m optimistic that the OU will continue to succeed in its mission in the future. I’m immensely proud to have been a part of what it has achieved so far.
 Been there, done that, got the t-shirt
By tim, on May 7th, 2012 at 10:04 pm This week’s theme on 6.002x was hard sums. Second order differential equations to be precise. However, for anyone still struggling to get through the lectures, don’t give up! It turns out that most of what we’re expected to do is find the characteristic equations of second order circuits – and that’s all. Certainly none of the lab work or homework required any difficult calculus.
Being exposed to all the maths was simply meant to be good for the soul apparently. I suppose that it does make sense to have at least a vague understanding of why circuit problems involving resistors, . . . → Read More: MITx 6.002x week 9 – the school of hard sums
By tim, on May 3rd, 2012 at 7:35 pm Having basked in the afterglow of a successful midterm exam for a little while, I returned to week 8 of the course on Sunday. The lecture sequences were on step, ramp and impulse inputs to RL and RC circuits, followed by a sequence on digital memory.
The first sequence of week 8 (S15) is a good example of a part of the course which really needs revising for online consumption before it’s presented again. The video lectures for this sequence were overly long and repetitive – making the whole experience boring (rather than “fun” or “amazing” as we’re always being . . . → Read More: MITx 6.002x week 8 – just about keeping up with the schedule
By tim, on April 30th, 2012 at 1:30 pm It’s Saturday afternoon(*) and I’ve just completed the 6.002x midterm exam. In total, there were five multi-part questions, covering some basic circuit analysis (Q1), Thevenin and Norton circuits (Q2), a common gate MOSFET amplifier (Q3), a logic circuit consisting of a couple of inverters and a NOR gate (Q4) and a diode circuit (Q5).
Q1 – which involved finding a couple of node voltages and the power drops over resistors in the circuit, Q2 and Q5 were straightforward, although I confess it took me three attempts to get the Norton current right for Q2 (even though I managed to get . . . → Read More: MITx 6.002x – midterm complete
By tim, on April 22nd, 2012 at 10:27 pm I wrote yesterday that I was concerned I needed to complete the week 7 materials, homework and lab this week, as well as tackling the midterm exam. However, encouraged by some of what I saw on the 6.002x forum yesterday evening, I dived straight into the material this morning and attempted the homework and lab this evening.
What a relief!
MIT must be feeling kind. Or perhaps the midterm exam really is going to be a stinker …
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