I’m a full time History and Art History student at The Open University (OU). Today I wanted to talk about my experience of studying A113: Revolutions with the OU, my second OU module. This is one of two second level one modules in the Humanities stream of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS).

As with any organisation, the OU has many acronyms. I’ll try to write them out when I first use them, but drop me a comment if anything is unclear! I’m also happy to answer any questions which you have.

You can find my review of A111: Discovering the arts and humanities here. This was the first module I took for my degree.

The OU provides useful info on what to expect on each module of a degree path here.

Featured Image: Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

Some background…

I left school at 16 and worked in (and studied) accountancy for many years. Working in a role managing risk and compliance on international healthcare projects for a charity, and after funding got cut from one of our key projects, I found myself working part time. I was bored and ready for a new challenge.

If I’d stayed at school to complete my A levels, I’m not sure whether uni would have been the right next step for me. I had vague ideas about what I wanted to do, but nothing clear, and no actionable plan. While I don’t regret not going to uni, it’s always been a bit of a ‘what if’. The OU’s flexible approach to part time study seemed like a great fit as I was still working at the time I signed up. You can choose to study up to 120 credits in a year, which adds up to one ‘level’ of study. Most modules are 60 credits, but some are 30 credits. This means you can study for a bachelors in 3 years, as you would at a brick university, or you can take longer if you need to – the time limit is 16 years.

I began looking at courses which sounded interesting, slowly narrowing them down to Arts and Humanities, and finally settled on History and Art History. Another nice thing about the Open University is that there aren’t any educational entry requirements, so I didn’t need to worry about whether my C grade History GCSE was going to cut the mustard. Phew!

I’d read that level one modules didn’t require anything like the amount of hours the OU suggested, so I signed up for two, while working four days a week. I’m planning a separate post about studying two modules at once – all of my student content will be posted under this category. For now, let me just say that I think the amount of time required varies significantly depending on your modules and your prior experience with a subject.

How OU study works

You learn through textbooks and an online environment. At level one, they don’t really expect (or want) you to go off-piste with finding your own sources, as it’s all about learning to build an argument with what you’ve been given. An online study planner in your module site tells you what you should be studying each week, and you can check things off as you complete them. I enjoy watching the progress bar at the top of the module site fill up as I work through the year.

I’ve personally found that while I often have to click around to a few different places to look for information, it’s relatively easy to navigate the module sites. Not everyone has the same inclination to explore, so I know some of the other students in my cohort have struggled more. There are regular study skills exercises to help you learn things like developing your academic writing style and how to reference correctly, and I felt that these were often enough that I was prepared for what was coming.

Alongside solo study, there are group tutorials in the run up to each assignment – these are usually online but in my first year were sometimes in the form of a ‘day school’, where you go to a regional hub for a day of lectures about all of the TMA options. They seem to have now changed the format of these day schools, and they are much less accessible. I’m hoping they change them back going forward because I enjoyed meeting fellow students at the one I attended. None of these tutorials are compulsory, but they are useful, either for direct support on an upcoming TMA, or for learning more around the subject. They’re never as specific to the subject of the TMA as I expect, but you almost always have the opportunity to ask tutors any questions you have.

Your marks are based on the following types of assessment. These differ for each module, but you can see the types of assessments for each module prior to signing up:

• TMA – assignments which from experience are due around every six weeks. For A113: Revolutions these have taken the form of essays and forum posts. We’ve had a choice of questions, based on the units studied in that block. You receive a score and tutor feedback to help improve moving forwards.
• Interactive Computer Marked Assignments (iCMA) – an online multiple choice test. This was not part of the A113 assessment in the year I took the module.
• EMA or eTMA – end of year assignments which are marked by someone who is not your tutor, or by your tutor plus one other tutor. I’ve done one of each – they’ve been a more intense version of a TMA, but I approached them in the same way. For an EMA, you receive a short summary of feedback from the other tutor. Feedback on an eTMA is from your normal tutor, and is in the same level of detail as usual. For A111: Revolutions, it was an EMA.
• Exams – these are generally taken remotely and are open book. The OU appear to be phasing these out, and there are no exams on A113: Revolutions. You can download free past papers from the OU student shop if you do find yourself sitting an exam at some stage.

In order to pass the module, you need an overall score of 40% (each TMA has a different weighting). Level One module scores with Open University do not count towards your final degree classification – you only need to pass.

What is A113: Revolutions?

While A111 provided an introduction to all of the Arts and Humanities disciplines offered by the OU, A113 narrows it down to History, Music, Philosophy and Religious Studies. If you’re interested in Art History, Classical Studies, Creative Writing and English Literature, then you’ll probably want to choose A112: Cultures for your second module. As I’m studying both History and Art History, both options were open to me, and I was torn. In the end, I went down the history route because I was studying full time alongside work, and I was concerned about the amount of reading I would need to do for a module which included English Literature and Creative Writing. This did leave me feeling a bit exposed at the start of my level two Art History module, but the OU are really good about bringing people up to speed at the start of modules.

My thoughts on the A113: Revolutions units

Each unit of A113: Revolutions is made up of four chapters – one for each discipline. While the module is about different revolutions, one of the recurring themes is how a revolution can be defined – and whether the revolutions included are revolutions at all.

The Reformation and the Print Revolution
This is studied over two weeks, and covers the religious causes and impact of the Reformation and the philosophy of Martin Luther. Then it moves onto the print revolution, exploring how printed materials, including music, spread. I was introduced to broadside ballads, and completely fell in love with them during this unit.

As I understand it, depending on when you sit this module, your TMA question for this unit will be on either philosophy and religion, or music and history. The TMA is also very early in the year: I submitted it before I’d done my first TMA on A111, the ‘introduction’ module. As I was in a ‘religion and philosophy’ year, and was new to both subjects, this was quite nerve wracking!

The French Revolution
I was not expecting the French Revolution to be so convoluted and hard to get my head around. Again we covered all four disciplines, though I did feel that the music of Beethoven was a bit shoehorned in. I really appreciated learning about the Haitian Revolution and Toussaint Louverture during this unit – it’s really shocking the impact the revolution continues to have on the country even today.

There’s an episode of my favourite podcast, You’re Dead to Me, about the Haitian Revolution if you’re keen to know more, and not planning to study A113: Revolutions.

For this TMA we wrote essays on history and music, to round out the four disciplines. It’s fair to say I learnt that music was absolutely not my forte! Can’t be good at everything!

Revolutions and the First World War
The historical focus here was on the Russian and German Revolutions following the First World War, and why the German Revolution proved less ‘revolutionary’. We also studied Marxist philosophy, religious division on the island of Ireland (up to the present day), and the music of Igor Stravinsky. Once again the music section didn’t seem to fit with the others, but perhaps the more musically minded would understand the link.

We could choose our TMA subject for this assignment, so I was thrilled to focus in on history. I got a really good grade for this assignment which was nice, as this was probably my favourite unit.

The 1960s
This unit covered revolutionary events in the USA during the period, how the sexual revolution impacted women musicians, the development of the philosophy of existentialism, and religious change in the 1960s. While all of these topics are quite different, it did feel like a more cohesive unit across the four disciplines than the others, and there were definite links in the study materials.

Once again, we could choose our TMA subjects. This was my first assignment on the module after leaving my job, so I enjoyed having more time to explore external sources.

Independent Project
We then had to write an EMA based on one of the disciplines and one of the units which we’d covered through the year. While it was an independent project, one of our TMAs was to submit a plan for our chosen answer, and this was scored. In a way, scoring a plan felt quite unfair, because we had to use a specific template (understandably – think of the poor markers otherwise), but this wasn’t necessarily the way that everyone would have laid out their plan.

I chose to write my EMA about the print revolution, because I hadn’t written about that before, and the question was the most interesting to me. I will say that when I then started studying A223: Early Modern Europe, I felt quite Reformationed out, so I might have chosen differently if I’d known that.

Pros and Cons of Studying A113: Revolutions with The Open University

Pros

• While there is a weekly planner, you can get ahead or behind if you need to. I found two weeks ahead was ideal for me, and I was able to skip units which I knew I wouldn’t choose for a TMA if I was behind.
• The OU has always been set up for remote study. On the whole I found the online environment user friendly and quite easy to navigate.
• Nowadays an OU degree is regarded on par with one from a brick uni. It’s certainly not an easy option!
• While you register for one degree path, there is lots of flexibility if you want to change for future modules. The OU even run an ‘open degree’ where you have free rein over the modules you choose.
• The study material was engaging, and the combination of textbooks and online materials helped to break things up.
• I found the feedback I received from my tutors so helpful in improving my work.
• The OU library and their Student Hub Live (SHL) group run separate study skills sessions. The careers service also have seminars where they get people from different industries to talk – these are really interesting.
• There are also lots of separate study skills toolkits to help you brush up your academic writing and other skills.

Cons

• Online tutorials are held using Adobe Connect, which is buggy and unreliable.
• While I found the online environment quite easy to navigate, you do have to do a certain amount of exploring to discover everything available.
• You need to be (and stay) self-motivated.The OU would probably get in touch if you missed an assignment, but nobody (except the study planner) is going to remind you that there is one due.
• It can be lonely – there are forums for each module, but participation varies. The OU aren’t keen on this, but students set up facebook groups and WhatsApp chats for each module – I found these so helpful this year, if only to feel like I wasn’t alone. I do suggesting muting the WhatsApp chat though and dipping in and out when you have time!
• Different tutors want different things from you and have different communication styles – this takes a while to get used to!
• It can be hard to keep track of all the events going on so you have to look for them in different places. The ones I’ve found are: SHL, Library, Careers Service, Student Union. I just go and check those websites once a month if I have time.
• The online environment is divided into regions. Although I am in the South East region, I attended day schools in the London region, due to proximity. However, emails sent by tutors about the day schools only go to students in that region, so I’ve had to request information separately. If I wasn’t on the WhatsApp group, I wouldn’t have known about the information going out.

Up for some study (Arts and Humanities or otherwise)?

So what do you think? Is this something you’d ever consider? Any questions you’d like me to answer?

I’ll be following this post up with some more study related content soon.