open university psychology degree

amg23

Hi
I am interested in starting this course in sept 2010 but need more information. I have looked online and am waiting for the prospectus to come in the post.

Can someone break down for me how u do the course. Is it all online/with course books/attending tutorials online or face to face.

How many hours a week study do you need to do?

IM in galway. Would their be tutorials/exams there or do you have to travel. WHen do they normally have them?

amz5

There's a good few recent threads about this.

I'm in Galway too, and I'm on the last module of the conversion course (which is no longer available to new students).

I had my social psychology, exploring psychology and child development module tutorials in Galway. I had my cognitive psychology tutorials in Limerick. However, I think the location depends on numbers from year to year, and I know there have been cut-backs lately.

There are forums where you can get a lot of help from other students. You are assigned a tutor, who you can contact for help at any stage. You have 6 assessments for each module (usually essays of approx 2,000 word length, but some are projects etc). You have one 3 hour exam for each module. Some of my exams have been in Limerick and some in Galway. They seem to be running the Galway tutorials in the Westwood these days. So the tutorials are face-to-face, you have one every month and a half or so, always on a Saturday. You get a lot of resources; a core text, DVDs, CDs etc. It's a very good course, but it's not easy just because it's online. I would compare it favourably to my other degree in terms of resources. However, it's hard to keep motivated.

Some of the modules have residential schools, which involves a week in the UK. However, you can do an online assessment for those parts if you want. The residential schools were very well run.

Odysseus

I see they have stopped offerring their Post-Grad Dip. I got a letter off them a few weeks ago, it was one of the options I was considering for later this year. It wasn't going to do it in the end, but it was a good option for people.

amz5

It was a good option...but it only cuts out one module, so it's not that great either! A lot of people that had planned to do the conversion ended up doing the full degree as it might look better on their CV. Depending on the grades you had got, it might be better to do a full degree as well. So maybe you should go for the full degree. Best of luck.

Odysseus

amz5 wrote: »

It was a good option...but it only cuts out one module, so it's not that great either! A lot of people that had planned to do the conversion ended up doing the full degree as it might look better on their CV. Depending on the grades you had got, it might be better to do a full degree as well. So maybe you should go for the full degree. Best of luck.

I won't be going for it, it was just one of the further study opitions I was looking at whilst I avoid doing my Ph;). I have applied for the Post-Grad Dip in Bereaqvement Studies run by RCSI and the Irish Hospice Foundation. It ties in with a paper I wrote recently on mood disorders and loss, or in this case giving up drugs, which can be a significant loss.

Whereas the course has little to do with psychoanalysis [my treatment area], it should give me a good foundation in other bereavement models.

I have been considering the psych option with the OU for a number of years, just to give me access to more study options, I might get around it at some stage;)

The usual difficultly is funding and time. I know I would have to pay for it, but thought the HSE might give me the time off my clinical duties to attend. It's only one afternnon a week as it runs from 13:00 to 19:00 plus six weekends. I put in a proposal for the 76hrs it was refused by the Area OPs Manager and I know the he didn't even read it. However, that's life I will just have to make the time up in other ways, but so much for supporting CPD eh.