M263: Results Available

The course result for M263 is now available, and to my amazement I got a Distinction.  Well chuffed considering how concerned I was after the exam with regards to running out of time.

Tower Crane - Completed

Well it's Monday morning and it looks as though the tower crane has been completed.

Tower Crane

Behind the building where I work there is a construction site where they are in the process of constructing for building, 2 of which will be over 40 floors high. Today they are installing a tower crane and I have decided to photograph it's construction.

ref: Picasa - Tower Crane

M359: TMA03 - Result

Last night, at 23:40, I got my result back for TMA03.  Although it wasn't 100% like TMA02 it was still in the high 90's, so am rather pleased.

This does present me with another problem though and it is one that I have experienced with other courses.  How do I do well in the exam.  For all my courses so far, except for 1, I have got a grade 2 although my TMA scores have been grade 1 standard.  I really let myself down at exam time.  It's not as though I don't revise for the exams, it's just that I have difficulty in remembering certain things such as lists.  This results I believe from my job in that I work for a small company and have to cover all aspects of I.T. and Computing.  So for a 3 month stint I might be doing ASP.NET programming and then not touch it for another year.  If I then need to do more ASP.NET I tend to refer back to previous work, text books and the Net.  I have termed this as "Use and Forget".  This issue has manifested itself in the courses that I have done, for example with M359 I fully understood blocks 1, 2 and 3, and the concepts involved, with this being reflected in both my scores and my tutors' comments, but now looking back I can't remember the nitty-gritty such as "list the enduring issues in data management" from block 1 without continuously referring back to the text.  This means that I am still hunting for the revision / memory technique that suits me best.

MU120: Update

For this course you need a graphics calculator (TI-83 or TI-84) and on Friday last week I took delivery of a TI-84+ SE.  It's rather impressive and all I have to do now is to figure out how to use it.

On Wednesday I received my first lot of course books for MU120.  This set is classified as the preparatory pack and it contained 3 books, a pamphlet (on how to use the calculator), course guide, audio CD and the usual welcome notes.  If I get chance I will post a more comprehensive list of what I received.

M359: TMA03

Have just submitted TMA03 of M359.  This has been or rather felt like quiet a long slog, but perhaps it's because I had the exam for M263 half-way through the TMA which meant that there was a bit of a gap after starting it due to revision for M263.

Must admit at the moment I am feeling the mid course blues, although now the TMA has been submitted I hope that I can re-motivate myself and get back into the swing of things.

M359: Block 3 Ex 5.13 - Flawed?

IMHO the solution (page 211) provided for exercise 5.13 (page 117) of block 3 is flawed for a specific set of circumstances.

Scenario
If the textbook table has a number of text books recorded for a specific course prior to the constraint (solution 5.13) being added, then once the constraint is added no text books will be able to be INSERT'd or UPDATE'd for any course not just the course where the number of recorded text books exceeds 5.

Example
For the following table:
bookcode,title,                                 author_name,       no_pages,course_code
'65281', 'Beginning Syntax',                    'Kershaw, J.',     247,     'c2'
'12953', 'Grammatical Structures',              (NULL),            258,     'c2'
'63948', 'Interpreting Semantics',              'Hyde, E.',        (NULL),  'c4'
'73642', 'The Semantics of Romance Languages',  'Jane Hanley',     (NULL),  'c4'
'65284', 'A First Course In Logic',             'Jerry Maxwell',   115,     'c5'
'65285', 'More Logic',                          'Jerry Maxwell',   210,     'c5'
'65290', 'Even More Logic',                     (NULL),            (NULL),  'c5'
'65291', 'A First Course In Magic',             'Jerry Maxwell',   115,     'c5'
'65292', 'A First Course In Poker',             'Jerry Maxwell',   115,     'c5'
'65293', 'A First Course In Distilling Whiskey','Jerry Maxwell',   115,     'c5'
'38572', 'Practical Pragmatics',                'Christine Davies',320,     'c7'
'93881', 'Advances in Pragmatics',              'Farmer, S.J.',    (NULL),  'c7'

Note that course 'c5' has 6 text books recorded.

Now the constraint (solution 5.13) is added:
ALTER TABLE textbook
   ADD CONSTRAINT max_5_textbooks CHECK (
          5 >= ALL (SELECT COUNT(*)
                    FROM   textbook
                    GROUP BY course_code));

Both of the following queries will break the constraint with SQLAnywhere generating a "Constraint 'max_5'_textbooks' violated:" error message, even though the first query relates to course 'c2' which only has 2 text books recorded and IMO should not break the constraint:
INSERT INTO textbook
    VALUES ('65282', 'Ending Syntax', 'Jerry Maxwell', 115, 'c2');

UPDATE textbook
   SET title = 'A First Course In SQL'
 WHERE bookcode = '65291';

Solution
The following is my solution, which not only covers the requirements specified by the exercise but also for the above scenario:
ALTER TABLE textbook
  ADD CONSTRAINT max_5_textbooks CHECK (
         NOT (course_code =ANY(SELECT t.course_code
                               FROM   textbook t
                               GROUP BY t.course_code
                               HAVING COUNT(t.course_code)>= 5)));

For the above 2 queries (the INSERT and the UPDATE queries) the INSERT will work and the UPDATE will fail, which is as expected.

OU: Next Courses

After I have completed M359 I will only need 90 points for my degree.  This equates to three 30 point courses and today I registered for 2 of them.  For my winter course I have decided to do MU120 - Open Mathematics, for a number of reasons.  The primary reason being that I want to do a course that I can complete as quickly as possible and with MU120 not only is it a level 1 course but also there is no exam at the end of the course.  Why to I want to do a course as quickly as possible?  Well my main course for next year will be The Computing Project M450 and I want to give this my full attention without any interruptions from any other courses.

ref: Open mathematics
ref: The Computing project

A Weekend Off

Had a weekend off from OU studies this last weekend as we were at Donington for the British round of the MotoGP. Had a thoroughly good time even though Valentino didn't get on the podium due to his tyres deteriorating during the race as the track got drier.

Windows Live Writer Test

This is an initial test to see how Windows Live Writer performs.  Just downloaded it from http://get.live.com/betas/writer_betas

M253: Final Result

According to my student home page the results for M253 are supposed to be released on Friday 22nd June, yet at 4pm this afternoon (20.Jun) the results were released two days early.

I've PASSED!!!!!!

No more worrying that I might have to take this damned course again. Now I only have 5 courses left, including M263 (awaiting result) and M359 (currently doing), until I get my degree.

OU: Update

Well it’s been just over a month since my last blog entry, so I thought I had better give an update on what has happened recently.

The reason for the large gap between entries has been due to me revising for the M263 exam, which took place on Monday (11.Jun). The exam was split into 2 parts, with part 1 being 14 short questions and part 2 being a choice of 2 of 4 long questions. Part 1 seemed to sail-by and until I hit question 13 I thought that I would have plenty of time for the long questions. But question 13 was to do with Proof, and this particular subject has been the only one in the course that I have not been able to get to grips with. After making several failed attempts at answering the question I thought I had better move on, and it was at this point I realised that I only had 70mins left to complete part 2. No worry that’s the amount of time the course team reckoned that we should take to answer part 2. Yet there are 4 questions, each taking up an A4 sheet, to read through before choosing which 2 to do. I dived straight into the database question, and got that completed in 35mins, although I missed part b because it wasn’t database related. I then started the second long question, and with out reading any of the other questions I went for the one that contained some programming. Managed to get the 2 implementations completed (a standard function and a recursive function), albeit I was running out of time fast and my hand writing was getting sloppier and sloppier. Whilst the papers were being collected I managed to top up points to the parts of questions that I had missed and unfortunately even if I get all my answered questions correct I will be just under the 85% needed for a distinct, so therefore I am now hoping for a grade 2.

Prior to the exam I had the final TMA for M263 to complete, which did slow down my M263 revision a bit, but it was worth it as I managed to get 85% even though I didn’t complete it all due to the Proof questions.

With regards to M359, I basically had put this on hold except for completing TMA02 (got a mind-blowing 100%), attending 2 evening tutorials and arranging a self-help group meeting (30.Jun). Now I have to get back into M359, but at least I can give it 100% of my time as opposed to having to split the time between both M359 and M263.

Yesterday I found out that I should get my final result for M253 on Friday 22.Jun. It will be nice to finally find out what I got, which is hopefully a pass.

Apart from a busy month OU wise, as a birthday treat for my wife, we went to Le Mans for the day on the 20.May for the French round of the MotoGP. Even though it rained during the main race and took us 3:30hrs to get out of Le Mans, we had a very enjoyable day.

M263: Unit 14 - Brick Wall!!!

Well it's finally happened. I just don't get unit 14. I have tried working my way through questions 4, 5 and 6, by following examples in the course text and get about halfway through answering the question when bang I hit a brick wall. It looks like I will for the first time ever not be sending in a complete TMA. What is doubly frustrating is this is the first section in any course text for any course that I have not fully comprehended.

M359: A Lack Of Response!

Having just started Block 3 “The database language SQL” I am really enjoying M359. Yet there is one aspect that is really frustrating and that is the lack of response within the M359 FirstClass conferences from OU staff (i.e. the course team, tutors and conference moderators). A number of messages have been posted from students where a response from the OU staff would have helped a lot but none has appeared.

For example:

1. There is a query concerning Q1 of TMA02 dating back to 08.Apr, and yet no response has been supplied from the OU staff;
2. I posted a message on the 17.Apr asking “How comparable is section 5 (Normal forms) of block 2 with what is taught for M263 unit 11 (Databases) section 4 (Normal forms)?”. Yet again no response from the OU staff;
3. Yesterday I posted a question, “For M263 if we want to say that B does not determine A we write it as B /~> A. Is there an equivalent in M359?”. I am not going to hold my breath.

Although this is a level 3 course and we are expected to do a lot of thinking for ourselves, this is the first presentation of M359 and for some of the students this is their first OU course. Therefore I am finding the lack of response very poor.

Slow-Mo Man

Greg Billingham is running the London Marathon, for Children with Leukaemia, in slow motion and has just gone passed the office where I work. His plan is to complete the marathon by noon on Sunday 29th April.



ref: Greg Billingham
ref: CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA
ref: BBC News Report
ref: BBC News - Watch

OU: M450

A description for M450 “The Computer Project”, the replacement for The M301 Project (TM421), The M358 Project (TM422) and The M360 Project (TM427), is now available. At present I am planning to do this course next year.

ref: The Computing project

M359: TMA01 Result

Got my result back this evening for M359 TMA01. 98% and I am really pleased especially as I thought that I would loose a substantial amount of marks for question 1 at least.

I have made a start on TMA02 and managed to completed question 1.

By the way I forgot to mention that a couple of weeks ago I received "Block 3 The database language SQL" in the post. The pdf version does not appear to be available for download yet.

M263: TMA03 Result

Got my result back yesterday for M263 TMA03. 97% and I am well chuffed, especially as this was one of the most taxing TMA's that I have had to do.

M253: Soul Destroyer

M253: “Team Working in Distributed Environments” is a 10 point level 2 course costing £260.

OU Summary
“M253 gives you an understanding of the issues and processes involved in planning and carrying out a team-based, problem-solving project where team members are not co-located: a situation that is becoming more common in the electronic age. You will gain practical experience in team working on a case study, which will be developed through several phases. You will be able to develop: your skills in analysis, design and evaluation; your ability to reflect critically on the processes and outcomes involved; and your team-working skills. You will work remotely, communicating with your tutor and collaborating with other team members electronically.”

What this summary does not tell you is that…

1. This course does not reflect a majority of cases where you will find yourself working in a project team;
2. You are reliant upon your other team members. Without them you run the risk of failing the course;
3. You have to stick to the course schedule. You can not get a head;
4. The teams tend to be run on a democratic basis with each member taking it in turn to be for example project leader. Can you imagine participating in a real life project where the team leader changed every 3 – 4 weeks?
5. The supplied materials are minimal, both printed and electronic, and comprise primarily of 21 resource sheets (in the form of downloadable pdf files) of up to 10 pages per booklet;
6. For those who have not studied an OU course that introduces you to system development (i.e. the former M206 or M301) or worked in a system development role, some of the concepts can be difficult and time consuming to grasp;
7. Communication between team members is limited to FirstClass conference areas, e-mail and FirstClass online messaging. There is no form of verbal communication available;
8. M253 is extremely time-consuming. You will end up spending more time on this course then you will on a majority of others.

I started M253 with a lot of enthusiasm but as the course progressed I found myself having to keep motivating myself to keep going, and towards the end I was getting quiet depressed, continuously looking for the “light at the end of the tunnel” when the course would be finished.

Is the course good value for money? No!
Is the course worth 10 points? No! Not for the amount of effort required.
Would I recommend M253? No! Unless it is mandatory for your degree.

So to sum up:

DO NOT DO M253 UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!!!

ref: Team Working in Distributed Environments

OU: and relax....

Yes I know that it has been a while since my last posting but I have just had a hectic 3 weeks. I have had to submit the ECA for M253 (26.Mar), TMA03 for M263 (02.Apr) and TMA01 for M359 (04.Apr). Oh the joys of doing 3 courses at the same time. Fortunately I have now finished M253, thank god, so I will hopefully not be in the same situation again especially as it did get a bit stressful. Of the 3 I enjoyed the M263 one the most, even though it was the hardest and required a lot of thought. The M359 TMA was ok except for question 1 which was a 600 word summary on how DBMS’s implement the enduring issues in data management. And what can be said for the M253 ECA? Only one word… HORRID!!!

My next set of TMA’s are…
M263 TMA04 (cut-off: Thursday 24.May)
M359 TMA02 (cut-off: Wednesday 16.May)