The tale of the journey through my degree with the Open University!

Hi all! It has been a few weeks since my last post at Steemit. Though I do not have many followers, I have had several highly enjoyable interactions with people, and I have missed it. The reason for my absence was an important one though, that being revision for the final exam of my degree. The exam took place on the 7th of June in Venue Cymru in Llandudno. It was the culmination of four years of hard work, a lack of a social life, and a lack of sleep! Though that makes it sound like I did not enjoy it, I really did enjoy it a lot! Not only did I learn an incredible amount, and in subjects I am incredibly fascinated by, but it was a real confidence booster and gave me a sense of personal achievement. The degree is something I have been intending to do for many years, having been kicked out of school just before I turned fifteen years old so many decades ago. Life just always seemed to get in the way, and until a few years ago I never had the time nor the opportunity to do a degree.

However, a few years back I fell ill, and was told that recovery would take several months. As it meant that I finally had plenty of free time on my hands I seized on the opportunity and decided to use that free time to finally get the degree I had always intended to get. The subject matter of the degree was not a particularly hard choice, as it was in a subject that I always had a deep fascination with. So, I contacted the Open University to see what I could do to begin my foray into undergraduate study in Philosophy. The process was straightforward, and the advisor at the other end of the phone was incredibly friendly and helpful. Soon afterwards I was signed up to begin my studies. Living in Wales offered me an opportunity I will always be grateful for. As I had become unemployed due to illness, and it would take me a while to recover, I was able to acquire funding for my degree. If not for that opportunity I would probably still be dreaming of doing a degree, hoping at some point life would offer the chance to have both the time and the spare money to begin that journey.

For those unfamiliar with the Open University, it is a distance learning University which offers fully accredited degrees. The degree that was decided upon in the end was a combined degree in philosophy and in psychology. My main passion was philosophy, but I have always enjoyed and had an interest in psychology too. Though admittedly, my only experience with it was more in the ‘pop psychology’ realm than anything really serious or academic. Unfortunately, the particular degree I chose is not a BPA accredited degree, meaning that I would have to get a further degree if there was a desire to move into psychology as a field of employment. However, as my desire was one of learning and personal fulfilment, this was less of a concern than it would have been for someone desiring to go into that field. Plus, as stated, my main desire was to study philosophy at an academic level.

That is not to say that part of my drive was not to open up avenues in employment of course. Having been kicked out of school when I was younger most of my employment opportunities were in low paid, unskilled jobs, such as factory work, catering, and the like. Though for the first few years of my young employed life I worked in the computing industry as tech support and a programmer. While I enjoyed it, and did reasonably at it, it just was not the job for me. My interest in computing really is more one that is hobby based than professionally based, and to be honest, I simply could not compete with some of the incredibly talented people out there. That is not to say that there are many employment opportunities in the field of philosophy! However, the skills that come with academic study in general, along with the fact that it was a distance learning course which needed discipline, organisational skills, a drive to improve oneself, and other such personal traits, will come in handy in general when it comes to employment. As will the knowledge that comes with studying philosophy and psychology. Or so I am hoping at least!

As the time got closer to the start of the first module the excitement grew! The date that the module materials would arrive was posted on the Open University website, and the countdown to their arrival began! When the materials finally arrived, it was akin to the excitement of a child at Christmas. The package contained a study guide, two books of illustrations, a set of DVDs, and the course books themselves. The module itself was AA100: Arts Past and Present. It is a general course that serves as a broad introduction into the study of the arts, covering topics such as history, philosophy, music, literature, language and more. There was also supplemental material that had to be purchased by the student as well, however, these were reasonably inexpensive, easy to find, and thankfully I received a grant to help cover the cost of buying these materials. The module itself was thoroughly enjoyable, and taught me a great deal! It also helped ease me into writing academic essays, including referencing.

The subjects covered included how the reputation of historical figures changed over time and through different contexts, how nationalism and religion were used historically in order to unify nations, how to read and analyse pieces of literature, how to analyse and critically discuss philosophical texts, and more. As well as basic foundations for beginning to study various topics such as history, language, literature, and philosophy. Though the course was broad, it most certainly was not lacking in detail, and served as an excellent foundation for moving on to more specific subjects during the rest of the degree. After almost thirty years away from education I was worried that I would have trouble, and that my marks would not be particularly good, however, the tutor was excellent. She was understanding, and dedicated, and was always more than willing to give her time to help. This was also my experience with all of my tutors throughout my degree. By the end of the module I felt reasonably confident that I would do well enough to at least pass my degree, and enjoy it while I did!

The second module of the degree was DD101: Introducing the Social Sciences, and started about half way through the AA100. This module was designed as an introduction into studying things like social psychology, psychology, and various other social sciences too of course. The materials that came with this module were similar to those of AA100, and included a study guide, a set of CDs and a DVD, and the course books; though unlike AA100, no supplemental material needed to be purchased. It was my first time studying this kind of subject, and found it very interesting and very enjoyable. Subjects covered by this module include how society is formed and made, how inequalities are produced in society, value theory, how social scientists study various aspects of society, various aspects about community, how shared spaces work, how value is created, and more. They were all subjects I either had very little, or no, experience in, but the quality of the material, as well as the passion of my tutors, made it very enjoyable, interesting, and accessible.

As with AA100, my marks were reasonably good and even slightly improved. This is to be expected of course, as with practice comes ability, and the comments from tutors about how to improve your work always contain useful information that, if taken on board, will help you to continually improve. As with AA100, the work was difficult, and not disheartening nor soul crushing! As someone who is only average when it comes to academic ability, I had to put in extra effort to do well, but it always felt like it paid off. Though have to admit that by the time the summer break came I was glad of it! I was glad for the rest and relaxation, and glad to have some free time to myself. There was also excitement caused by it being over, because of the knowledge that it meant that the next module coming up was one that I had been looking forward to since signing up for the degree, my first step into studying philosophy academically!

The first dedicated philosophy module was A222: Exploring Philosophy, and was a broad introduction to the foundations of philosophy. Though I did have previous experience with philosophy and various topics due to my interest in it, there was a great amount of material that was new to me. The materials that came with the module was a set of CDs and the course books themselves. We also had to purchase a supplemental book, which was Western Philosophy: An Anthology by John Cottingham. The course books were broken down into six topics, the self, mind, ethics, philosophy of religion, knowledge and political philosophy. Each book contained historically relevant arguments and theories that helped shape discussion and knowledge of said topic, through to contemporary discussions of those topics, as well as contemporary theories and thoughts. They also contained ways to think about the various topics, how to critically assess those topics, and common thought experiments. There was also a lot of general information for getting to grips with the foundations of philosophy itself, such as a glossary, explanations about why things like thought experiments are important and how to use them, how to create formal arguments, good logic and syllogisms, and the like. Important philosophers like Hume, Descartes, Plato, Rawls, Nozick, Popper and Kuhn were covered too, as well as their most important arguments, along with criticisms of and arguments against them. I began to write a break down of what was taught in each book, but by the time I had reached the third book the post had become way too large! Suffice to say, that there was a huge amount of ground covered!

The tutor was also very passionate about the subject, and the passing on of knowledge, so along with the course materials themselves, we were given 2 or 3 handouts each week by the tutor that covered important material, material that supplemented what was covered in the books along with material that was not covered in the book but that the tutor felt was important. This module also introduced us to the idea of independent study, where we were given journal articles to seek out that would help us gain further understanding of the topics being discussed, as well as various books for further reading and study, along with podcasts to listen to and videos to watch to help broaden our knowledge. These were entirely optional of course, and our marks would not be affected by not viewing and reading them, however, doing so would help improve them. I did fairly well at this module, thanks in part to my previous interest in philosophy and having read some of the ideas before starting it, but also thanks to the passion of the tutor whose love for philosophy shined through and helped to motivate us to love it just as much!

My next module was a psychology module, DSE212: Exploring Psychology and began about halfway through A222. As with A222: Exploring Philosophy, it was a broad introduction to the subject matter. Topics covered included evolutionary psychology, identity theory, memory, perception, cognition, learning, discourse theory and much more. However, not only did it cover various theories and studies, a portion of the module was dedicated to learning how to carry out studies ourselves, and how to perform experiments, along with ethical guidelines that had to be followed as laid out by the British Psychological Society; and included in that was also the use of statistics, including learning to use IBM SPSS software and a copy of the software, as part of data gathering and analysis. It was a module that really drew me in, and gave me a whole new appreciation for psychology, having only previously had experience with ‘pop psychology’. Unfortunately, illness struck once again during the module, which had a huge negative impact on my performance. I was hospitalised for a couple of weeks, and spent a couple months undergoing various tests, including the run up to the exam. I still managed to pass, but it was not the best result and not the result I had hoped for. I should have deferred the module until the next year, but I really did not want to add an extra year on to my studies and getting funding for the deferred module may have been difficult. I felt it was better to simply soldier on and hope that the marks could be made up in the final two modules. I was definitely very grateful for the summer break at the end of the module though!

My original intention when doing the degree was to double up modules every year, and get through it in the optimal time available. Both for personal reasons, and for the purpose of job hunting. Falling ill during DSE212 and A222 made me reconsider that though. While my marks for A222 were affected, it was not that great of a hit as I already had a little understanding of much of the material. However, the hit to my marks in DSE212, a subject I had very little technical understanding of, was a huge one. As I needed to make up the difference in the final two modules if I was going to pass with a decent final result, I decided that it would be best to do only one module a year for the final two. That way if illness struck again, it would be much easier to control the outcome. Fortunately, no such thing has happened!

My next module was A333: Key Questions in Philosophy, and what a module it was! The materials that came with this module were simply the course textbooks, there was other supplemental material that we used that was available online. The module introduced us to more advanced philosophical questions (as to be expected) such as the paradox of fictional emotions, truth and tragedy in fiction, just war theory along with pacificism and realism, the doctrine of double effect, questions of rights and morality concerning combatants and non-combatants, practical reason and theoretical reason, the Epicurean view of death and the deprivation view, antinatalism and questions about bringing a new life into being, individual and group agency, value theory, various moral theories (including utilitarianism, preference satisfaction utilitarianism, hedonism and more) along with their various criticisms, and so much more. The included material, as with A222, ran through the gambit of classical theories from philosophers like Plato, Hume, Reid, and Epicurus, to contemporary philosophers like Walzer, Singer, Baber, Sen, Kagan, and many more. There was a much greater focus on independent study in this module, and use of the independent study material was mandatory in the assignments. Though we could pass the assignments without using the independent study material, it would be a very low score.

As with A222, we were also given a further study reading list, designed not only to help us during the module, but also to continue our studies after the module had finished. We were given links to various podcasts to listen to and videos to watch to help us further our studies, just as with the previous module A222. It was an exceptional module, and introduced me to areas of philosophy I had not covered before, nor would I have considered looking into (though am very glad I was pointed in that direction!). There was a steep increase in the difficulty level of the assignments, at least for myself anyway, though the module material eased us into excellently and was clear and thorough throughout. Thankfully the quality of the course textbooks helped me to keep my grades up even though the assignments were difficult, and as always with the Open University, the tutor was very encouraging and incredibly helpful; giving clear comments and suggestions on how to improve my work with every assignment.

My final module, which I sat my final exam for on June 7th, was DD317: Advancing Social Psychology. Of all the modules, this one was the most challenging, and this was a comment heard from almost all of the students that were involved in the module. That is not to say that it was not a thoroughly enjoyable module, as I enjoyed every challenging moment of it! This module introduced me to a subject that was almost as enjoyable and interesting as philosophy, and plan to do further study of now the degree has finished. The materials that came with the module were simply the course books, as it was with A333; and as with A333 there was also a wealth of supplemental material available online for us to listen to and view. During this module we learnt sociocultural theory, cross-cultural theory, the psychology of employment, various gender theories, psychoanalysis, psychodynamics, psychosocial studies, critical psychology, discursive psychology, social constructionism, attribution theory, theories about what it means to be a subject, citizenship theories, social and collective representations, the psychology of protest and dissent, and so much more.

The subject and module gave me a great insight into how people are affected by the context they exist in, and how various aspects of society, culture, education, politics and more, affect our psychological makeup. Though I had very little experience of the subject going in, I came away with a wide ranging and clear understanding of the subject, and various aspects and theories involved in contemporary social psychology, as well as where the future of social psychology is heading. For anyone interested in how society impacts and influences us, this is a subject that is well worth looking into. Though my marks near the end suffered something of a hit, I maintained a reasonable average throughout thanks to the quality of the course textbooks and the enthusiasm and dedication of the tutors involved.

Though the marks for the exam for DD317 have not come back yet, a handy online calculator has helped me to somewhat predict what my final result for my degree should be. If I have done reasonably well on the DD317 exam, and get a Pass 2 result, then I will come away with a 2:1 degree, if I get any less than a Pass 2 result then I will come away with a 2:2 degree. Though I would prefer the 2:1 degree of course, I would still be elated to come away with a 2:2. After 30 years away from education, and not finishing school when I was a teenager, it is a result that I am more than happy with! It is also a result that allows me to continue on to do a master’s degree in philosophy, which I am hoping to start in October, and am very excited about! Who knows, if I do well enough I may even go on to do a PhD, though that is more of a case of wishful thinking I think, considering that it took a lot of hard work to get a slightly above average result! However, one can always dream can they not!

Most of you probably have not got through to the end of this, but for those that did, thank you for reading it! It probably is of very little interest to most, but as it is an important milestone in my life I wanted to share the journey with other people. It also may encourage other people to go on to do that degree that they always wanted to do. I am not sure how the Open University compares to a bricks and mortar university, or the quality of the bricks and mortar course, but can say that I have learnt a great deal. The module challenged me, the tutors encouraged me, the other students helped me, and came away feeling transformed and enlightened; even if I am in debt now! Though the Open University lacks the classroom environment, they do offer monthly face to face tutorials, as well as monthly online tutorials, and there are dedicated forums to chat with other students and tutors about the course work.

So, while it may lack the traditional classroom environment, you will not lack the kind of support that you would get in the classroom environment; it is just approached in a different fashion and you need to handle it differently. Facebook groups are often set up by the students to allow for a more informal discussion environment as well, and have been a huge help. It also allows you to study in your time, and in your own way, and to give as much or as little dedication to it as you feel you need or want to give. There is a lot of support given if you feel you are struggling, and there is a wealth of material available to help supplement your study. If, like me, you have always wanted to go back for that degree, or to learn that subject you were never able to due to other commitments, then the Open University is highly recommended. It has most certainly left with me a sense of self-fulfilment, a sense of achievement, and with a keen grasp of a subject that I have always been interested in; and most importantly, no regrets. I will no doubt speak further of my experiences, but for now, this long but brief account of the journey of my degree will suffice!

(The pictures included in the post are of the various module course books, as well as the supplemental material I read during the degree)