09 April 2012

S175 The Frozen Planet

The Frozen Planet is a module from the Open University that I completed during its first presentation in November 2011. It's a level 1 science module and a 10

A first presentation of a new module can sometimes be a fraught experience with things going wrong and people (staff and students) generally not really knowing what's going on. But this module was different. It was a brilliant first presentation, and more than that; it was a brilliant module. Of course, as a first presentation, things did evolve - like the addition of high quality videos which were initially quite low quality, but the issues were minimal.

Like most people, I was watching the BBC/OU television series, Frozen Planet, at the same time as studying the module, unlike most students, I was also reading the BBC book to accompany the TV series too! For some this may have seemed like a bit of an overload, but far from it: It really added a lot to the module for me. I was learning great things on the videos, some from previous BBC series, such as Life in the Freezer, and some purposely made for the modules. I was learning a lot from the OU module book too.

What really rounded the module off was the brilliant handling of the forums by the module team and the facebook page that a fellow student set up and which was quite active with lots of news links, and such like, being added and discussed.

The topics of the module included:
  • An introduction to the Frozen Planet
  • Frozen in Time
  • The Drive to the Poles
  • The Poles and Global Climate
  • Life in the Polar Regions
  • Habitats and Ecosystems
  • Polar Oceans and Food Chains
  • The Management of Polar Regions
  • The Future of the Frozen Planet
 This culminates with an End of Module Assignment, which tests your knowledge of the subject and how to can apply this knowledge to situations. I have to say that it's the best level 1 module I'd studied and I'm amazed that at how much useful, but not over complicated, information that could fit into 255 pages!

For more information, visit the Open University website.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I really enjoy reading and replying to your comments, but please do not use this space for advertising!