Im in second year of OU sciences as a refresher as i had been out of academia for a while, but worked in research and have been pretty creative, producing some biological theory thats been presented at high level conferences. but i want a break from that high flying stuff, and so back to basics.
Hey At first i loved the flexibility, and how slick it is in comparison to other places i will not name. I mean at least for me its hard to F up, if you stick at what you are told to do, and do not pick stuff beyond you.
However the OU just feels like school with advanced subjects, rather than a university atmosphere or buzz, where theres that be creative and if you want to be a dynamic go getter go do it.
Sometimes they gave me an assignment i had a lot of experience and depth in, but the assignment made me look at it fresh and i got inspired to try and really push the envelope of the subject. They marked me worse than if i give them the predictable answer, which appears to be all to easy to do lately. In a regular university, the tutor may have been mmm that line you have taken is interesting, try taking that somewhere, perhaps that might lead to something one of my colleagues in dept AB might be interested in.
The OU tutors hate that completely and their is no such network. They appear to want an easy life. They dont appear to want to have to read anything outside this quantized, almost semi-automated remote system. i guess due to the crap wages, and being part time. Also unlike universities not many tutors you get have actually consruct the courses they taught so they dont have an emotional or intellectual investment in what they are doing and are admins rather than teachers/ coaches. I heard there are exceptions, but thats why they are called exceptions.
Rant over.. Is this going to get better. I just had my second blow out with an overworked pedantic tutor that is not happy at anything less than mediocrity.