DD209 Running The Economy : Week 19

Week 19: Perfect competition

Away in the 'bad-lands' for a couple of weeks, study isn't going to be easy :-(

DD209 Running The Economy : TMA03 Marked and Returned

Well its all come at once.

Another high pass, although disappointed that it is the lowest mark yet. On the upside the tutors comments made sense and I can see that there are many facets to the inflation diamond, not all of which I fully appreciated. So a good heads up to sort these issues out before the exam.

So the plan is to watch TeamGB win old at the means curling, then tomorrow I can really launch into Part 2 knowing I'm effectively two weeks behind.

A333 - Looks really interesting

The level 3 Philosophy course A333 runs for the first time in October 2014 and the early information on its content makes it look really interesting and a possible contender as a Level 3 course towards my BA PPE,

The OU website describes it thus:  "This broad-ranging module investigates five different topics in philosophy: truth in fiction, the justice of war, reason and action, life and death, knowledge and reason."
There seems to be quite a lot of 'reason' in this course, so I'm guessing very little religion :-)

More information here A333

I think I want to avoid a first run of this course after the experience on DD209, so unless a Level 3 Politics suddenly becomes available it will be DD309 Economics for me in October.

DD209 Running The Economy : iCMA42 returned, but hidden away in the Asessment Resources page

Another good mark in the iCMA, spoiled a bit by losing marks by not reading a question correctly and getting another question wrong. Really no excuse for either mistake.

So it appears 8 days is the time it takes to get the iCMA back, I'll be prepared for next time.

Just watched an excellent win by the girls in Team GB Curling - Bronze for them, looking for the men to go gold.

DD209 Running The Economy : Still no news.....

Still no news on the iCMA front one week after the deadline.

However, on the plus side wondering when the iCMA is being returned has meant I've completely forgotten about the TMA. Now I'm wondering which one will come first.

Another plus is that Part 2 of the course has been a fairly gentle, almost blindingly obvious, start.
Getting in the way of study is the fact that the Team GB curlers are both still contending for medals.... brilliant 10th end from the men two games in a row....... keep it up in the final.

Go Team GB!!!

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 18

15 Feb

• Week 18: Market forces Website content

  
  The Post-TMA slump has really set in, and I haven't opened the book yet. Despite assurances from the module team that the next iCMA would be returned promptly, certainly within a couple of working days, 3 working days after the deadline still nothing. As far as customer service and setting expectations goes it is just really, really poor.
  
  Others have also received their TMA mark, but I'm not expecting mine for a week or so yet, so I need to get motivated before I find myself too far behind..... Just need to finish watching the curling, C'mon Team GB.

DD209 Running The Economy : Book 1 errata sheet.

I find it inexplicable that the DD209 Course team would choose to post the errata sheet for Book 1 and the Online Tutorials on the day before the TMA and iCMA were due, and when we have effectively no more use for Book 1as a teaching resource - although we will obviously need it as a revision resource.

There have been some quite significant errors mentioned in this errata sheet which should have been posted on the website immediately after they were identified. Waiting until the end of the section to do this is just perverse.

It makes you wonder what further errata we have yet to encounter in Book 2 and the rest of the online stuff.


While I'm on..... the Forum Posting bit of the TMA, worth an overall 5 %, was as predicted a car crash. There were those who chose to post before anybody else had got near to reading the necessary material, a few who posted at an appropriate time and attempted some discussion and the majority who posted the minimum required at the 11th hour without any hope of stimulating discussion at that late stage. Goodness only knows how they are going to mark this.

It makes me think that this course is not overly academically rigorous. 4 x ICMAs done over a long period of time, open book and with whatever support you can muster = 28% of the course, a mini TMA to get us started 7 % and this Forum Discussion thing another 5%, means that you should be getting pretty close to the required 40% pass without having to put pen to paper, or finger to keyboard on the 4 main TMAs. 


Also, the promises of a prompt turn around of the iCMA scores have failed to meet expectations. These are computer marked, it should take milliseconds.


Oh well, I might get round to looking at this weeks work by the end of the week, times already slipping by.

DD209 Running The Economy : TMA03 Submitted

Well that was a bit more of a problem than it should have been.

A weekend away, the winter Olympics and a pretty mental work project ending tomorrow (today now) - which may mean I am in work until after midnight meant that this TMA had to go now.

Maybe not my best work, I would have preferred to have had another couple of days to re-read it and make changes, but I have crammed what I know about the Inflation Targeting Model into pretty close to 1760 words.

The Student Notes were very useful as I may have missed a  fairly crucial part of the TMA in my rush to explain the model, without the reasons why it was necessary.

Anyway, its gone and I doubt I will get a chance to even think about it tomorrow, so lets hope for a quick return if the iCMA, then the TMA and so on to Book 2 and microeconomics.

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 17

Week 17

8 Feb

• 
• Week 17: Made in China Website content

Events

• Assignment: iCMA 43 (open date 8 Feb)
• Assignment: TMA 03 (cut-off date 11 Feb)
• Assignment: iCMA 42 (cut-off date 11 Feb at 23:59)

iCMA 42 already submitted so the pressure is off for that deadline.

TMA03 however......... Got loads of ideas down but need to mould them into an essay and control the word count. It doesn't help that there is quite some overlap between Q1and Q2, to the point where I may have to reference my own post in Q2 in Q1.

This is going to go to the wire.

DD209 Running The Economy : Exam Date Confirmed

I'm sure the date has been available for some time, but it is now double-official, having received an email from the O.U. saying that the exam date has been confirmed.

So, the DD209 exam is 4 June 2014 at 14:30-17:30.

I'm glad it is an afternoon exam, morning exams are just too much of a rush.

So, better get this on the calander, although there is a lot of economics to flow under the bridge between now and then.

DD209 Running The Economy : iCMA42 submitted

I've been chipping away at this for nearly 50 days now, and having gone over it for the second time and  not finding any reason to change an answer I've decided to send it.

I think ti s more tricky than difficult, meaning that you have to watch what they are really looking for and get the terms correct, I am not 100% sure I've got it all right, but probably any mistakes are down to mis-readng or mis-understanding and having gone over this so often these errors are now firmly established so I am unlikely to suddenly spot them.

So, to save me wasting time by going over it again it has been submitted. Hopefully, we will get this back promptly this time.

Now to write TMA03.....

DD209 Running The Economy : Week 16 - C'mon Course Team, sort the online errors out.

Week 16

1 Feb

TMA week

• Week 16: TMA week Website content

  
  
• iCMA42 Repeat

  
  
• TMA 03 Repeat

  
  
  
  

  
  

  Chapter 10 (Week 14) has finally been read and the online tutorials for that week completed. This section of the course has been a struggle. Lots of repetition of content, and then subtle differences are slipped in that can take a bit of thinking about.

  
  

  But the biggest frustrations have been the errors and other problems in the teaching materials. 

  
  

  Being the first year this course has been run you'd expect there to be some problems, and there have been,

  
  

  • Text in the books has been incorrect and misleading.
  • Activities on the on-line website have been wrong.
  • Text on the on-line website has been incorrect, misleading or badly written 

  
  

  and the most disappointing aspect of this is that there has been no official response from the DD209 course team in the form of warnings or corrections. 

  
  

  This would be difficult for the text book, but should be done immediately for the website. Having students struggle, doubt themselves and waste their time unnecessarily with online activities that could easily be changed is unacceptable.

  
  

  So, just over a week to sort out last weeks online work and then tackle the iCMA and the TMA. Looks like it will be a busy weekend next weekend.