One of the notable aspects about OU study today is it usually feels a lot less isolated than when I took a management course with them in 1990. Other than a handful of tutorials and a frantic long weekend at York University, the amount of contact you had with other students was pretty minimal. Yes, we did all exchange names, addresses and telephone numbers at the first tutorial and for all I know, others in the group may well have got together to study. But I really was on my own.
Today of course, OU students have the remnants of the OUSA forums on FirstClass, the burgeoning new course forums (based on Moodle – yuk!) which, certainly on SD226, are far too busy to read properly with the notable exception of the tutor group forum. There are numerous OU facebook groups, yahoo! groups and of course, instant messaging and Skype, not to mention mobile ‘phones (even if mine is rarely switched on) and texting, all of which I’ve used over the course of the last four and a bit years. Heck, there’s even this blog and a growing number of others as well.
So there’s absolutely no shortage of (virtual) contact available, with current and past students.
However, even with all of these new forms of support since I first studied with the OU 20 years ago, it can still be a real challenge being a distance learner. I’m really not very proud of my last post on this blog, not because it isn’t a true reflection of how I felt about DD307 and TMA02 in particular on Sunday evening, but as the comments on the post hint at, I’d “forgotten” that I wasn’t alone at all and that there were plenty of fellow students out there willing to offer advice, support and help. And you did.
So this post is really by way of a “thank you” to everyone who contacted me, through this blog, through facebook and other means to prod and point me in the right direction. You know who you all are and I won’t embarrass you all by naming you individually here (unless you really want me too, that is!) But my appreciation of you all is heartfelt. (I’ve a feeling I might be embarrassed by this post too when I look back on it. *Puts on manly expression and stops bottom lip from wobbling*)
Thanks to everyone for reminding me it’s not 1990 still.
It’s a shame this blog hasn’t got a like button as I would have just pressed it, lol!
You can, however, use the facebook button at the end of the post to share it, and then you could like your own link!!! I’m told by my daughters that liking your own facebook messages is not the “done thing”, however …
Yes, I was told that liking your own post was the equivalent of giving yourself a high five in public, lol! I do completely understand where your posts are coming from though, fb has been a lifesaver these last two years for me and it’s nice seeing posts like yours that make me remember that I wasn’t the only one thinking that way sometimes during the degree (if that makes sense!), I know I definately owe many people a thankyou myself for all the support they gave me during my degree
Hi Tim
Although I loved my 6 years with the OU I did miss not being able to sit around a table with like-minded people discussing what is necessarily a subject that requires a lot of discussion for those ‘top’ grades. Not having detailed individual feedback on exams was also frustrating because I never did get the hang of writing that ‘perfect’ answer!
I miss the OU though