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 . . . → Read More: MITx 6.002x week 10: (sine) waving but not yet drowning]]> 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.

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 . . . → Read More: Vince Cable for Chancellor?]]> 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.

The great thing about the OU is the diversity of the student body and the stories everyone has about the ways in which . . . → Read More: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt]]> 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

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]]> 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, inductors and capacitors can be solved using just the characteristic equation of second order differentials, even if all the maths made the lecture sequences for week 9 pretty daunting at first.

Something else I learned this week was that unlike the rest of the world, electrical engineers write the square root of -1 as j, rather than i. Seeing j used in this way had me reaching for my favourite Internet search engine to make absolutely sure that I hadn’t missed something important since I took maths A level! I guess that it makes sense to do this so that it doesn’t get confused with the symbol for current. On that basis, it makes it even more of a shame that the subtle but important differences between VI, vI, vi and Vi when scrawled in the hand of Professor Agarwal are often lost. One conclusion that I’ve already drawn from this course is that it’s amazing that any electronic circuits ever get built correctly, given the huge potential there is for errors in notation.

Anyway, I’m hopeful that there will be no more hard sums on this course. On second thoughts, that may be somewhat of a vain hope …

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]]> 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 told). As a result, it took substantially more than two hours just to watch the 27 separate videos (let alone understand their content). I really believe that the material could have been easily and better explained in half that number in 45-60 minutes. Slower is not always better – even if for some electronic circuits it may be!

It seems I wasn’t the only person that felt this way about this particular sequence as its provoked similar consternation in the course forum. There’s nothing new there – OU students were (and probably still are!) always good at voicing their feelings about pedagogic style in the module forums too.

However, what is particularly impressive on this occasion is the positive reaction of the 6.002x staff to the criticism of this particular sequence – well done, THuang! I’m not certain that other institutions would have reacted quite so well to student feedback of this type.

Anyway, on to the week 8 labs and homework. The lab was fine – once I’d realised that the value shown on the graphs didn’t relate to the end of the curve as I’d assumed – but the portion of the graph that was marked with a very faint dotted line! I wasted a couple of hours trying to figure out what I’d got wrong with my maths …

I found the homework questions for week 8 rather tricky on the whole. Part two was relatively straightforward, but part one was especially frustrating (though I got there in the end) and part three, on a memory circuit, was somewhere between the two in difficulty.

I got around to starting week 9 yesterday evening by attempting the lab – which I was able to complete without studying any of the material beforehand. Clearly, my intuition is being developed, just as Professor Agarwal promises!

The homework questions look rather more challenging though … time to get back to the video lectures. Fortunately, there are only 18 to watch in sequence 17!

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]]> 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 the equivalent Thevenin voltage right first time – go figure!). Q5 was a repeat of an earlier homework question, but with slightly different values used, so it was pretty simple.

Q4 was a little trickier. I manged the first few parts of it easily, but then managed to over complicate the calculations for the falling and rising time constants so ended up taking a second attempt to get those values correct. I spent ages (and all three attempts) trying to work out the maximum power that could be used by the circuit, assuming it obeyed the static discipline. Eventually, I realised that only two of the MOSFETs could be on at the same time (rather than the three I’d assumed originally) and managed to get the answer right.

The question on the common gate MOSFET amplifier was, for me, the toughest of the lot. On the first attempt, I found that I’d only managed to get one part correct. Furious scouring through my notes, the textbook and a couple of other sets of notes from the internet saw me get three out of five parts correct on my second attempt. My final attempt saw me get four out of five parts correct. I’m kicking myself over the part I got wrong – as it was one of the large signal parts of the question and I’ve now figured out what I managed to mess up. D’oh, as a popular cartoon character might exclaim.

So my overall course progress now looks like this:

MITx 6.002x progress - after the midterm exam (and part way through week 8!)

I’m part way through week 8 at the time of writing (and had got part way through the lab for week 8 by the time I remembered to take a screen capture of my progress), so unless I manage to mess the remainder of the course up spectacularly, the only question that remains is what level of pass I’ll obtain. I’ve set my sights on an “A” now of course, but I’d be happy enough with a “B” too. There was an ominous warning on the course information page a few days ago that the algebra and maths was about to get difficult again in week 9 …

(*) In compliance with the MITx honour code, the publication of this post was deliberately delayed and scheduled to appear well after the 30th April 1200 GMT midterm exam deadline.

What a relief!

MIT must be feeling kind. Or perhaps the midterm exam really is going to be a stinker …

With another birthday fast approaching and with rather more miles on the clock than when I hatched that plan, I’m sat drinking a coffee at an absolutely unearthly hour in a Welcome Break Service Station on my way down to Bracknell, smiling at how naive that hope was.

That’s not to say that things haven’t worked out well. They have. I’ve very little to complain about . . . → Read More: The dreams of a 21 year old]]> Many years ago, when I was a mere 21 years old, I hatched a plan that, had I been able to execute it, would have seen me retiring in a couple of years time.

With another birthday fast approaching and with rather more miles on the clock than when I hatched that plan, I’m sat drinking a coffee at an absolutely unearthly hour in a Welcome Break Service Station on my way down to Bracknell, smiling at how naive that hope was.

That’s not to say that things haven’t worked out well. They have. I’ve very little to complain about at all when I look at the way life in general has worked out for me.

But that still doesn’t stop me being just a little bit nostalgic for the golden age of the 1970s when as a child, I remember that one of the big concerns of policy makers was how people were going to occupy all their free time as the march of progress meant we’d need to work less, retire sooner and we’d all be richer! I even remember XTC writing a (tongue in cheek) song called “Leisure” about this “problem”. (OK, so it was a damning indictment of the Thatcher government really, but I’m not going to let little details like that interrupt my reverie. My blog, my rules and all that.)

I’d write more, but it’s now time for me to climb back into my metal box on wheels, head down the M40 and take part in a couple of conference calls while I’m doing it – all before the real working day starts.

I’ll see you all again at the weekend, assuming I survive another few hours …

Despite the many options . . . → Read More: Where Are All the Psych PhDs?]]> Now that you’ve graduated, and you’ve got your degree in your hands, you’ve realized that you don’t want to be a psychologist. After battling through Harvard, or got the best PhD online, and completing your thesis, you think that the last thing you want to do is listen to people’s problems. What do you do now? You’re not alone: more than 75% of psychology degree graduates go on to work outside specifically psychological careers, and about 40% go on to higher education. There are dozens of untapped markets for those interested in psychology work outside counseling.

Despite the many options for those with psychology degrees, future job applicants should realize that they are one of hundreds of thousands with their degree. To be competitive in the job market, investigating related, specific graduate programs to distinguish yourself from your competition will give you a leg up. Frequently, these subdivisions of psychology are called “applied psychology” disciplines; these literally apply psychology to other fields, like ergonomics, nutrition, or product design.

A degree in forensic psychology is the first step towards becoming the next Fox Mulder. Government job hiring frequently prioritizes those with psychology degrees: if you’re interested in using your understanding of people, you could find work with the FBI or CIA as a criminal profiler, or with local police as a parole officer. Both of these fields require attention to fringe elements of psychology, and what influences a person to commit criminal behavior.

Advertising is a ripe market for psychologists. Market researchers’ and copywriters’ stock and trade is in understanding why people want what they want, and how to deliver that to them. If you’re interested in becoming a human resources manager, a PR representative, or a store manager, consider compounding your psychology degree with training in writing; advertising agencies seek psychology graduates for their insight into interpersonal relationships and a track record of writing skills. Prove to your employer that you don’t just understand why people want a brand new basketball, but that you can articulate the reasons behind the want, and write the ad campaign to go with it.

Ergonomics, the study of human factors with work, is an important field for psychology degree graduates to consider. It marries design with people: how to best suit the needs of a product’s users. For example: to create a better cockpit, a psychology degree, supplemented by coursework in engineering, would allow a graduate to understand what a pilot needs, and how to give it to him.

Similarly, if you’re interested in working with businesses as an efficiency expert, or to fine tune a company in crisis, look into a degree in business or industry organization. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in the Occupational Outlook Handbook that, though master’s degrees in psychology stand to increase by more than 15% in the next six years, those with training outside industry organization, an up and coming sub-discipline of psychology, will be struggling to compete in the labor market. The recession is causing employers to look for ways to increase employee satisfaction and retention. Understanding psychology is an important factor in improving the workplace for employers and employees alike.