TMA Double-O

TMAs in the course are submitted electronically. TMA is uploaded in a file to be assessed by the tutor. It can be a .doc file or if there are more than one files involved (e.g. a Sense programming .sb file) then everything is zipped in a .zip file and uploaded on the eTMA system.

TMA00 it is not a marked assignment. The tasks for this TMA are assigned by the tutor so it might be different from one tutor to another. My TMA00 is about showing skills for basic pc use and explaining the aim for doing this course.

Week 0

This week is all about preparation for the start of the course (which is the 4th of February). The study planner has all the tasks lined up.

The planner has set tasks for this week. Reading the TU100 Guide; going through the study resources; an overview of the course and how different resources apply throughout the course; last but not the least a reminder to take part in the forums.

It is recommended in the course to opt in for the Google Apps for Education. It is an educational version of Google Apps for the OU students. This will provide an email account to students such as, yourname@my.open.ac.uk. Students get access to Gmail (OU mail), Google Calendar, Google Documents and Google Sites.

Forums are a good way of keeping up-to-date with the activities and discussions. It is recommended by the tutor to subscribe to the tutor-group forum, that way the updates are sent via email. At this point TMA00 should already have been assigned by the tutor in the tutor-group forum.

TU100 module website!

The website is up and running. This is the command central which will work alongside the study material and the tutorials. Everything needed to plan/do the studies for the year is there.

First thing as recommended by the tutor is to subscribe to the tutor-group forum. The tutor will layout the first task for a trial TMA00 (sounds like the Gundam 00).

On the website there is the study planner, forums, resources, course material, assessments timetable, assignments, tutor/tutorial details, handbooks, information on learning strategies and a lot more available. The study planner will guide throughout the lifetime of the course with tasks lined up and gives the option to track the progress by marking completed ones.

Lets talk some SENSE.

From what I have gathered, TU100 is a beginner's programming course. It is based on Sense programming environment which works hand in hand with the open-source SenseBoard hardware kit which is supplied along with the course material. SenseBoard looks like Arduino which is another open-source integrated development environment (IDE) and single-board micro-controller.

My curiosity took me to the OU Sense website. There are links on this web page for OU students registered for this course (this is where I went) and people who are interested in Sense (I haven’t yet checked the forums on this link). OU TU100 students need to log in, from where they are taken to the Sense installation web page. Everything on this web page is self explanatory.

The 'Sense installation link' takes you through a 6 steps process for setting up Sense/SenseBoard. There is an introductory video, information on the contents of the SenseBoard box sent by the OU, how to install the Sense software (it can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux), connecting and testing of the hardware as well as an overview of the first few weeks of the course.

If you are impatient like myself, then you can go ahead and dive in the course material which you might already have received. I read somewhere that programmers are lazy people so this time around I will take my time just being curious and jump in when the course website opens on the 24th of January.

First things first – set reminders for important dates.

On the module website the assessment and tutorial dates are already given, so the best thing is to mark all these dates in my trusted smart phone. I was thinking of using a diary this year but the reminders on my phone are a lifesaver.

From what I can see there is a dummy TMA to start off with, then 7 TMAs and 7 iCMAs. TMA is a tutor marked assignment and iCMA is an interactive computer marked assignment. Looks like a TMA a month. All the iCMAs are on the same date which is confusing but I am sure it will be doable somehow or the other. It does say on the page, 'Warning: these dates may potentially change'. Ah! Will have to wait and see how that works.

Moving on and there is a list of all the tutorials for this year. They are alternating between day schools and Elluminate sessions through the year. Day school sessions are 5 hours long and the Elluminate (which is a real-time virtual classroom environment) sessions are for 1 hour each. There are 5 day school and 4 Elluminate sessions scheduled, but OU students can goto any tutorial by searching in the tutorial finder.

Now that the dates are all set up in my trusted smart phone I am ready for the course material to arrive which should be any time soon.

Here it goes!

I have finally received the email from OU welcoming me to the course. Time for me to go to the OU StudentHome page. Not much is on there as yet but soon it will be busier than the 9 o'clock rush hour traffic (well it can be depending on what/how many courses you have for the year).

A quick glance at the module page tells me that the TU100 module website will open on the 24th of January, which means I have time to prepare for a few things.