DD209 Running The Economy : TMA 03 relies on interaction in the Tutor Forum, should be interesting.

I've been looking ahead at the next TMA question (yeah already!) because the next TMA eassy looks as though it is worth more than the others, as the relative scoring is:

TMA01 - 7%; 

TMA 02 - 15%; 

TMA 03 - 20%; 

TMA 04 - 15%, 

TMA 05 - 15%; 

iCMAs 41-44 - 7% each

but having looked at the OU website I bit closer its not quite that simple.

The main 1600 essay is actually worth exactly the same as the other TMAs, i.e. 15%, the difference is that the other 5% of our total overall mark, or 25% of TMA04 is down to your interaction with the Tutor Forum.

The wording of the TMA blithely says,

"Now, as part of your TMA, copy and paste your forum post from (c) and at least one post you made under (d) into your TMA and write a short reflection about the Tutor Group Forum discussion, in particular whether the discussion reinforced or altered your original view. Note: if you do not include a copy of your posts in the TMA, you will not gain any marks for this question."

I guess they are expecting a level of participation in the Tutor Group for TMA03 the like of which we have yet to see. I'm not really sure how this part of the TMA is in any way academically taxing or how it is marked, but it will be interesting to see if everyone from the group actually joins in. I think in total so far, maybe 8 people have posted on the forum from a group of 20, so this will either flush them out of the woodwork or perhaps they will just not bother with this part of the TMA.