After a year of no academic study, I have once again reached the point where I need to quench my thirst for knowledge. For what is life if it is boring? and attaining new knowledge and new skills is rarely boring.

So here I find myself back on that education train with The Open University. One of the best education establishments that I have had the pleasure to be a part of.

This time I find myself studying for the undergraduate Certificate in Information Technology and Computing. which comprises of the two level 1 (translate: first year of University) courses Data, computing and information (M150) and Networked living: exploring information and communication technologies (T175).

I have decided to study these two courses for two reasons. Firstly because they make up the Cert IT & Comp (open) certification, and secondly because they are the two compulsory level one courses in the BSc (Honours) Information Technology and Computing. So not only will I have started working towards a new degree, but I will also obtain an interim qualification along the way!

Originally I decided to study just M150, but after receiving the course materials the other day, which I must say, after studying 6 OU courses in the past, has the highest quality of course materials so far. I really was impressed when I opened the box delivered to me. Contained inside are 3 DVD’s containing all the software that I would need to complete the course (unfortunately most of it is for Windows users, whereas I’m a Linux user), detailed course outline and guide, a glossary, but most of all 16 high quality glossy booklets with all the course material enclosed.

What more could you ask for? Well if that was not enough, there was also the online resources, which include a series of podcasts, tutorials and student/tutor conferencing. Brilliant.

Looking through the booklets correcting the errata that was emailed to me from the University I did notice however that the content was rather basic. The M150 course is more for beginners than someone at my level, and although the course was a compulsory course as part of the degree, I realised that this course would be very easy for me and I would not learn very much from the course that I did not already know. It was at this point that I started to consider studying the other of the two courses at the same time. But, given that I work full time and have other commitments, would I have the time to study both courses concurrently? Well I have decided to give it a go.

However, the deadline for signing up to the T175 course is today and I have not managed to sign up successfully yet as the online registration is currently down. Fortunately, my office is just round the corner from an OU regional office and maybe I can pop in there on my lunch and sign up.

I’m quite eager to see if the course materials for T175 will be as high quality as M150, but no matter what, these courses will give me something to write about here on here!