I’m studying towards a BA in History and Art History with the Open University. As we move into the new academic year, I’m catching up on my thoughts on my previous modules. Today I’m sharing my experience of studying A223: Early modern Europe: society and culture c.1500-1780, a level two History module.
As this is a post about a level two module, I won’t go into detail about more general aspects of OU study. If you’re interested in that, you can read my other posts about studying remotely with the Open University here. In the level one posts, I talk about my background, choosing my degree path, and how I finally became a university student at age 38. I also explain at how OU study works, and the pros and cons of studying in this way.
Level two is the first time that Arts and Humanities students at the OU get to focus on their subject. At level one, modules are made up of first eight and then four disciplines. It’s fair to say I was happy to leave most other disciplines behind. They were fun to learn about, but not to be assessed on (especially music). However, as level one scores don’t count towards an OU degree classification, it was a safe space to learn that I’m tone deaf.
The OU provides useful info on what to expect on each module of a degree path here.
Featured image: Lukas Blazek on Unsplash
What is A223: Early modern Europe?
The A223 module timeline runs from c.1500-1780, which covers the period from the Reformation to the Enlightenment, shortly before the French Revolution. Rather than being taught chronologically, A223 is divided into three sections:
- Individuals, lives and livings
- Communities, activities and places
- States, commerce and ideas
I think this bottom-up approach was interesting, but if I’m being completely honest, I didn’t like it. Covering nearly three-hundred years during a period of great change, across a large geographical area in this way was quite confusing. It’s difficult to get a sense of the bigger picture. On the plus side, I got a lot of practice contextualising the case studies I used for assignments.
The module is also broken down into themes, which were covered in each of the sections:
- Society and social order
- Religion: Reformation and Counter-reformation
- Bodies, health and disease
- Work and trade
- Knowledge and ideas
While the title of the module is Early modern Europe, the focus is primarily on Western Europe (particularly Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the UK). I didn’t read anything which made this clear prior to the start of the module, and understandably, some students were disappointed that we weren’t learning more about Eastern Europe. I would have liked to, but at the same time, I don’t know how it would have been squeezed in.
I studied the Reformation in one of my level one modules. Religious themes in the early modern period also featured in an EMA I wrote at the end of level one. As I’m not particularly interested in religion, the amount of covered in this module was heavy-going. It’s a key theme of the period, but it was another reason I can’t say I wholeheartedly loved the module.
The module was updated in 2022 to include a chapter on Black lives in the period. This was one of the most interesting chapters in the book for me, and indeed is a very interesting area of historical research which is still developing. It felt a bit like it was cobbled onto the module at a later date, but I guess there’s only so much you can do with a pre-existing module. I hope (and expect) future iterations of this module have more minority stories throughout. I would recommend Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann if you’re interested in reading more about Black lives in early modern Europe.
Another thing which I really enjoyed about the module was the medical history. I wrote an assignment about plague control which I just loved researching. I also learnt about things like green sickness, which was completely new to me.
In addition to the module materials and set book, there are also independent study activities to undertake each week. There are usually a choice of options, and I would always choose the one most closely aligned with the next assignment. This was due to the limited time I had available, rather than a lack of interest in all the study options.
How is A223: Early modern Europe assessed?
I’ve talked about OU assessment at level one in my previous posts, and the overarching structure remains the same. A223 is assessed through five TMAs and one EMA. The TMAs can be loosely divided into the themes of the module (though the questions are quite specific). The EMA is an opportunity to bring together learning from throughout the module.
The length of the assignments ranges from 1000 words for TMA 1 up to 2500 words for the EMA. One of the TMAs also requires you to write a summary, and another requires a presentation (PowerPoint or recorded oral). While there were various people freaking out about these in the module Facebook group, I thought that these additional tasks were well explained in both module materials and tutorials.
I disliked the lack of freedom in the TMA questions – there was only one choice of question for TMAs 1-4. TMA 5 and the EMA both had options, and I enjoyed both a lot more for it.
I don’t think the assessment questions seemed harder at level two than level one, but there is an implicit expectation for you to do a much deeper dive into your arguments. I experienced a reduction in scores from level one, which is common. If I had advice on how to approach a TMA on this module, it would be to pick specific case studies and build arguments up around them – it’s important to include context, but they seem to really want you to go in depth, using different sources to back up your argument. They’re not looking for an overview, but you do need to explain your decisions in your introduction.
A223 In Conclusion
As you might have noticed, I found this module a bit of a mixed bag. This is one of my favourite periods of history, and while it was fascinating, I didn’t like the module structure. At the start, I struggled to achieve the marks I wanted. I found my feet with some trial and error, and while it was sometimes demotivating to watch my scores creep up so slowly, it was also exciting to see consistent improvement. Based on my TMA results, I didn’t think I could score highly enough in my EMA to get a distinction, and that actually gave me a lot of freedom to just write about what I wanted to (within the confines of the question). I enjoyed that assignment so much, and somehow got my distinction in the end. I’m not sure what the lesson is there – stop stressing and have fun with it??
Do you have any questions about studying A223: Early modern Europe: society and culture c.1500-1780 with the Open University?