DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences to be replaced by DD102 Introducing the Social Sciences

The replacement for DD101, DD102 looks very similar to DD101, so I guess the general themes are being refreshed as DD101 has been going for some time.  The benefit for those about to take the course should be a lack of Lloyd Robson showing you down City Road, I'd be interested to know what differences there are. There seems to be 5 TMAS, an iCMA and end of course assessment, so that is one change

https://msds.open.ac.uk/students/study/undergraduate/course/dd102.htm

As you need 60 points at level 1 for PPE, the new DD102 is effectively a mandatory course, as at present there are not the smaller courses available to make up 60 points.

https://msds.open.ac.uk/students/study/undergraduate/qualification/B45.htm#courses

DD101 to run for last time Feb 2014

Just read on the OU website that DD101will start for the last time in Feb 2014. It will seem odd not having that course available as it has pretty much been the OU's most popular course for some time, and although I did it some time ago now, I can't see how it would become out of date.

I guess this is the same for DD131and DD132.

Looking back DD101was a really good introduction to social 'science' (although I don't think I'll ever fully accept it as a science), and a very sensible course to choose to get back into studying, so the OU will have a real job on their hands to design a suitable replacement.

It will be interesting to see what this course will be replaced by, but I can't see any information about the new course yet.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Course Finished

So the end of the DD101, what have I learned and what do I wish I'd know before it started.

For me, as I have never done any social science studies before, this was a good insight in to what is a vast and interesting subject. It has certainly go me thinking about identities, inequalities, consumerism and waste. The psychology and geography aspects of the course were also very interesting and nearly prompted a change in direction, but now I've paid for A222 Exploring Philosophy and its effectively started, its probably too late to change.

Pretty much every section of the course had something of interest and the TMA essays would not have been overly onerous if you were happy with just a pass, and as the result of this course does not effect any future degree classification, that is all that matters. However I don't really work that way and probably did spend a bit too much time on the essays.

If I had any advice regarding the TMAs it is that, IN MY OPINION, the essay questions are not being asked to find out what you think or think you have learned - they are to find out what you know of the course content, and so your essay has to reflect the text, the authors views and the quoted theorists, and if it doesn't you won't be answering the essay correctly.

I pretty much tried to identify every relevant theorist or idea needed to answer the essay question and then just made sure they were quoted or referenced in the essay. Also dragging in theorists from previous chapters also went down well with my tutor and as the 3 main course strands are inter-linked there is a lot of identity / consumerism / social order ideas through-out the course.

Also, what worked best for me was to work out an essay framework and a rough idea of what I wanted to cover and then using the on-line PDF of the books copy and paste chunks of text that I needed into a word document. Once I had everything in the word document I would start writing the essay from the top of the page and as I covered topics I would delete them from pasted text - this made sure I didn't miss anything and was a good reminder on what I thought needed to be covered.

This way also meant you can get a lot of words and ideas down quickly, and I found it more motivational to know you were over the word count and it was a case of refining language and dropping weaker ideas, than starting at the beginning with 1500 words to write and trying to do it in a linear fashion. I had an iterative repetitive process of writing, reading, refining until I was happy with the essay.

I also thought that the timetable for the course was really good and while ahead of the suggested timetable things seemed in control and there was time to do everything. During the last two TMAs life sort of caught up with me and I fell behind and it just seemed impossible to do everything, so my advice to anybody doing DD101, and what I will make sure I do on my future courses, is to stay a bit ahead of the suggested timetable, its just makes things so much easier.

So that is the end of the first 60 point course, 5 more to go, and looking at the new fee structure it is just as well I started when I did as the new fees would have meant I could not have afforded to even start this course.

Anyway, as we close the Chapter on DD101 (except for the TMA 07 result expected in December) this blog has received just over 10,000 page views which is far more than I ever thought it would receive.

Update:
With the end of course information we found out that 1865 students submitted ETMA 07, and the marks followed the pretty standard bell-curve of A-12%, B-30%, C-39%, D-14%, E-3%, F -2%, G-0%.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 2 days to go !!!

Managed to get my essay proof read and it only cost me a good bottle of wine. Good thing too, made some useful points regarding poor punctuation and asked questions which identified areas that needed more clarification.

Anyway, a couple of re-writes and 3 submissions later, I think I am finished. 1649 words and managed to include every theorist bar Hoffman (who is just wrong) from page 57 of the Learning Companion, and several from previous parts of the course. So I think the essay is as 'theorist rich' as it is possible to be, it has a logical framework and the paragraphs seem to flow OK, so I guess the submission below is effectively the end of 'DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences' for me.

Your assessment was received by the University at 10:35:37 (UK time) on 01 October 2011 

Bring on A222 Exploring Philosophy 

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 3 days to go !!!

Still waiting for it to be proof-read. Looks like it will be a Sunday submission.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 4 days to go !!!

FINISHED !!!!

Really, this is as good as it is going to get.

1634 words and all I'm doing now is making such small changes that they do little to change the content, just the way the essay reads. It is now getting counter productive, so I am finished, bar something serious being highlighted if I can ever get it proof-read.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 5 days to go !!!

A social engagement means nothing further will be done on the essay today.......... I guess its all about priorities :-)

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 6 days to go !!!

I'm now struggling to get my proof-reader motivated to read my assignment, and to be fair having read it myself several times I can understand her reluctance :-)

So no further forward towards submission today, but there is still six days to go ........ I think this may go down to the wire......

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 7 days to go !!!

The suggested time table for Week 30

      ‘Conclusion’ to the ‘Ordered lives’ strand of Exploring Social Lives (30 minutes) .
       ‘Reflections on “Ordered lives”’ (Audio CD 3) (1 hour) .
       Online Reflective Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, ‘Ordered lives’ (10–15 minutes)

Most of your time this week will be spent preparing for your final assignment, Assignment 07. Or, if you are running a little late, there is some time to catch up.

To be completed by 9th September

I have to admit to not listening to any of the audio for the last  bit of the course, there just hasn't been time. Flicked through the conclusion and aced the quiz. The quiz you get at the end of each section all seem too simple and limited to actually test you. I think they should either be longer and more involved or drop them.

Nothing more done on the TMA, will read it again tomorrow or Wednesday, and I need to get my proof reader motivated :-)

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 8 days to go !!!

1605 words and very close to finishing this. My proof reader (wife) was however on-call over the weekend and spent most of the time on the phone or actually at work so no proof reading was done, and I was hoping if she could read the essay and understand everything (let alone spot spelling mistakes) then it would be about ready to submit. However, the NHS have scuppered that plan.

There are one or two points I may wish to add, but I need to prune back the work count first, but I think that is enough for today.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 9 days to go !!!

Well, I've had a good go at getting some words down today although after starting to tackle the essay in the normal way, by working on the introduction and struggling a bit to get in to a rhythm, I gave up and did what I was most certain of.

So I have ended up writing the essay backwards ??? Started with the conclusion which was obvious, then I wrote the outcome of the three tests of empirical adequacy, coherence and comprehensiveness - although I obviously wrote them in the order comprehensiveness, coherence and empirical adequacy.

I then wrote how Jill's story showed the many actions and interactions with the state and then defined the state. The introduction was a bit easier after all that. Managed to work in several references from previous chapters on identity, social order and discourse - which to be fair may be obvious that that is what has been done - still it proves that I've done some reading.

Leave it for tonight and re-read it tomorrow and see if it needs re-written or not. There is definitely enough there for the minimum pass I need, but having put so much effort in this far, I would be very disappointed with less than a very good mark..... we shall see.....

The good thing is that by the time we get the marks, I should be so engrossed in the next course that they won't really matter.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - 10 days to go !!!

Good telephone tutorial last night, well for me anyway - not sure what the others thought. Confirmed that my basic plan is heading in the right direction,

i.   Intro
ii.  Definition of 'The State'
iii. Look at Jill's story and tie this to interactions with the state
iv. Use same three tests of an argument as in last TMA - Empirical accuracy, that it makes sense and comprehensiveness of argument.
v. Discuss outcomes of the tests
vi. Conclusion

Need to get as many references as possible from previous chapters and 7,8,& 9, definitely looking at identity and discourse, and hopefully some others.....

The tutor also pointed out some other arguments I could use, although they did also say that with a limited word count and much to write about you have to be very selective in what you wish to write about.

Hopefully, I will have broken the back of this by the end of the weekend.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 29

The suggested time table for Week 29

            Chapter 9 of Exploring Social Lives (7 hours) . 

            Online Activity 43 . 

            ‘Making connections: POLIS and social policy and criminology’ (Audio CD) (45 mins) . 

            Online Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, Chapter 9 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 2nd September.

Right this is done, telephone tutorial later today then just two weekends left to get this TMA done....

Feels like time is pressing, especially as the course materials for the next course have now arrived.....

I would like a lot more time, but then I'd only slack off until the last two weeks so better crack on.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 28

The suggested time table for Week 28

       Chapter 8 of Exploring Social Lives (7 hours) .
      ‘Citizens and the state’ (Audio CD 3) (1 hour) .
       Online Activity 42 (1 hour) .
       Online Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, Chapter 8 (10–15 minutes)

To be completed by 26th August.

Well this Chapter was obviously of more use than Chapter 7, didn't really find much substance in Chapter 7 unless I have missed something. I have looked at Chapter 9 and it would seem to be of more use to Option A, but I'll read that tomorrow.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - Week 27

The suggested time table for Week 27

         ‘‘Introduction’ to ‘Ordered lives’ strand of Exploring Social Lives (30 minutes) .
            Chapter 7 of Exploring Social Lives (7 hours) .
            'Integrating different sources’ (Developing skills Audio CD) (30 minutes) .
            Online Activity 41 (1 hour) .
           Online Quiz: Exploring Social Lives, Chapter 7 (10–15 minutes).

To be completed by 19th August.

Well what happened to the timetable..... now doing things in the wrong order........

Having decided on Option B, I am now reading Chapters 7,8,9, looking for relevant parts to include in the TMA Essay. Not ideal, but effectively losing 4 weeks of study between handing in TMA 06 and now, due to work, holiday and getting married means something has to give.

Oh well I'd better get on with it !!!

DD101 Introducing The Social Sciences - TMA 07, descision made.

Good tutorial on Saturday and it has really helped me decide which option to go for between,

Option A:
Critically assess the claim that states are necessary evils.

or

Option B:
'Jill's story tells you all you need to know about the state.' Explain and evaluate this claim.

I will be doing Option B, as the discussion with other tutors at the session made it seem that this is the more obvious question to answer correctly, partly because the answer is obviously 'no it doesn't', but also because there is a better framework for the essay rather than Option A which is a far more open question and so the risk of going off on a tangent is greater.

Also, the discussions and guidance notes regarding Option B seemed to make far more sense and offer far more help.

I am a bit behind where I would ideally be, but with two weekends before the final submission this should not be too of a panic. So re-read chapters 7,8,& 9 looking for obvious theorists and references and see how I can tie this in with previous parts of the course and once done I ampretty much ready to start putting the essay together.

DD101 Introducing The Social Sciences - TMA 07, back from holiday

Back from holiday and with very little done on this part of the course I need to get a wriggle on as there is a day school tutorial this weekend, and the deadline is fast approaching.

DD101 Introducing The Social Sciences - TMA 07, on hold due to holiday

Now 'officially' on holiday until mid-September and I can't see me getting much done between now and then, so TMA 07 will be a bit of a rush on my return.....

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06 Marked & Returned

Well a bit disappointed, lowest mark yet just managing a Pass 1, however very useful and sensible comments from my tutor.

The problem with my TMA was that I had sort of re-interpreted the question. I thought that the claim we were to evaluate has been made by Hollway in her research, she certainly supported it, but this was a more general claim and I should have looked and discussed further than just Hollways research.

On the positive side the criticism of Hollways methods and conclusions were well received.

So the main thing is with the next TMA is not to make the same mistake and to be absolutely clear who has made the claim and from what body of work or research we need to be drawing from.

DD101 Introducing the Social Sciences - TMA 06 Submitted

Well that was a lot tighter than it should have been. Less than one hour to go before the deadline. I think it was always pretty much under control, but competing priorities meant I had to finish it off this morning. My previous Internet provider did not help, I could never recommend TalkTalk going by my experience of the last 3 months. As of 1030 this morning I am a BT Infinity customer and the download speeds are staggeringly good, however as I was disconnected from my previous supplier earlier than expected, I was a bit unsure if I could submit from home or would have to go out and find a hotspot - but it all came good in the end.

The TMA actually, I hope, turned out pretty well. Seemed to get lots of arguments to question the validity of the claim and the methods used, so we will see when the mark comes through.

Oh well, better get reading for the final TMA, not long to go and I have about 3 weeks of holiday in the middle in which I intend to do no study at all !!!