I think I've finally caught up with all my course work! Last few weeks have been really hectic. First I had to go away for a week so lost 5 days of study. Then shortly after that I was invited for a job interview and ended up losing another week as I had to prepare for it! It will be a couple of weeks before I learn the outcome, so fingers crossed... The extra cash will really help with course fees!
I have been feeling a bit down since I started this course, feeling I couldn't cope. I had set aside 10 hours for study each week, I understand that's the recommended minimum. But I am finding that's simply not enough for me. Reading the recommended literature, doing wider reading, contributing to online conversations, writing my essays, providing feedback on the work of other students, writing a blog etc. it just can't be done in that time! I am going to have to find a few more hours somehow but that's not going to be easy. I sometimes work quite long hours, I do a lot of sports, I also have a family with two young boys (aged 3 and 8) who I need to spend more time with. The Missus, bless her, has been really supportive. She's even let me off from doing some of my share of household chores :)
It has been a real hard slog getting up to date with my work. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I posted my latest piece of work, Part B of the IOCT task about participation in online community. I focused on three aspects of my online participation: 1) requesting help, 2) providing help, and 3) sharing information. I found this task really difficult. I needed to write 1800 words for both Part A and B, but haven't got anywhere near the word limit. Not sure how well I have done. Some comments from fellow students have been quite encouraging but it would also be reassuring if I get some feedback from the tutor, too.
On the subject of feedback, I don't think I have received any feedback at all for some time from my tutor on the Investigating the Work Setting module. In most cases, I think I've submitted my work before we move on to the next task. So although it's within the weekly/fortnightly timescale, I still appear to be too late. If there's a cut-off point for tutor feedback it would be really helpful if this could be made clear. As I feel I am struggling, I think I some form of tutor acknowledgement that I am on the right track would really help.
