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Two or three days ago, the Part-Time applications for Student Finance opened up.  It turns out that my order for applying was fine, and probably even intended:

  1. Sign up for Open University account
  2. Begin enrolment
  3. Apply for SFE account and CR number
  4. Complete enrolment at Open University, using CR number from SFE, choosing course and modules
  5. Wait however long it takes to open Part-Time applications at SFE
  6. Complete application at SFE
  7. Send in evidence and declaration form (I used the same envelope sent First Class Signed-for post)

The online application took about 15 minutes, and only that long because I had to check with my father-in-law and brother-in-law that they wouldn’t mind being contacts in case I skipped out on the country.  (Seriously though, after immigration, all paperwork is easy by comparison.)

I’m probably more nervous that my biometrics residence permit is in the post than anything else. (Also that I just realised I didn’t inform them of my change of address for my BRP when I bought my house two years ago. Hrm.)

Looks like I’ll be paying on the loan (quite heavily) while I’m still on the course, as it takes longer than 4 years to complete. I could pay out of pocket, but would rather just smooth out the rough patches so I only have to worry about one thing at a time.

Just a quick edit to show a timeline:

  • SFE application filled out online: 18/5/2016
  • Evidence and Declaration posted: 20/5/2016
  • Signature confirmation received: 23/5/2016
  • Evidence marked as received on account: 25/5/2016
  • Declaration marked as received on account: 6/6/2016
  • Evidence returned: 26/5/2016 (was returned registered post, though I had not asked or paid extra for it)
  • SFE Application approved: 6/6/2016

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I wonder how often this occurs. There are a lot of people trying to sort out their EMA (End of Module Assessments) right now. If it always crashes when EMAs are due, it’s going to be a very stressful time of year. For the next. six. years.

As an aside … Who are the two guys who liked this?

ou-down

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The pre-studying for T216 has already been very useful. I had a question on Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) path costs. A scenario came up where the two ports of a network segment had different port speeds. I thought that logically, the two ports would auto-negotiate to the slower speed, and the cost of the path would be based on the new, lower port speed. The documentation I was reading, however, disagreed, and said that only the port speed of the root port mattered. So if it was higher than the designated port of that network segment, the cost would be lower and therefore more likely to be preferred when determining a blocking port further down the line.

It turns out that I was right, and the documentation was wrong. (At least for Cisco, which is what I need to know about.)  Further, somebody here was kind enough to not only quote proof, but attribute it for me, too:

On Cisco switches, the STP cost is based on the actual speed of the interface, so if an interface negotiates to use a lower speed, the default STP cost reflects that lower speed. If the interface negotiates to use a different speed, the switch dynamically changes the STP port cost as well.

-[CCNA ICND2 640-816 Official Cert Guide, Third Edition By: Wendell Odom] P.89 {Per-VLAN Port Costs}

Well that’s just about perfect.  I can actually use that at some point for T216, I’m sure, if they ask for an example of something something difficult something.

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With the current course paths that the OU has in place, I won’t be able to take T216 (basically the only networking module in the Computing & IT department right now) until October 2018 at the earliest.  However, it’s one that I’m a bit worried about it time-wise based on reviews and blogs I’ve read on the course from others who have taken the module.

T216 uses Cisco’s own Cisco Network Academy (NetAcad) course curriculum (and online resources) for this module, but they do it in their own way.  That own way, of course, involves (apparently) brutal TMAs that take a lot of time.  As an example, Cisco estimates that the four sections (Introduction to Networks, Routing and Switching Essentials, Scaling Networks, and Connecting Networks) should take roughly 70 hours each, or 280 hours total.  Open University estimates that a 60 credit module should take about 600 hours — but every student that I’ve seen talk about it says that it takes more time and is tougher than any other module that they’ve taken by Stage 2.  That does, though, include four hands-on day classes.  (To sum up: if you want your CCNA, there are faster and easier ways to get it.)

My focus on this degree has to be: Do it the easiest way possible. I know that’s not what I’m supposed to say, but I have to be honest with myself. Spending time with my family is my absolute priority, and I’m going to stretch as much as possible to fit a degree in around that. (Seriously, I’m practically aiming for third-class honours on my degree, because nobody will ever ask.) When I first saw how difficult T216 apparently was, I was resigned to having to cut it from my degree path. But I think I’ve come up with a better plan.

Since the course is really just about CCNA topics, I don’t need to wait until 2018 to get my hands on study material.  There are thousands of resources, many of them free.  There are books, videos, practice tests, courses, all about the same material covered in T216.  So my plan is to study that now, during this summer and next, to be more familiar with it come time to start the module.

If I find any resources (likely free) particularly useful, I’ll put them in my Recommended Pages links list.  I’ve already gotten a lot of great reference notes that I expect will be quite useful.  (It will also help me gauge my current level. While I’m certain I’d fail horribly if I took the CCNA right now, I have been configuring their routers for years with no organisation-crippling mistakes yet.)

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Well, I’m officially enrolled. That step’s over. But my impatience may bite my behind later on.

I signed up for the course and the first module, TU100 – My Digital Life. It’s a requirement for the degree, but it’s being discontinued at the end of this academic year.  It’s being replaced by two 30 credit modules.  (Frankly, the two smaller modules sound more interesting, but what are you going to do.)

At the same time, I signed up for a student finance account.  I couldn’t sign up for an actual student loan, because it’s the first week of May, and apparently you can’t do that until the last week of May.  Because if the United Kingdom’s governmental services are anything, they’re arbitrary. Which I think should be the Civil Service’s slogan. “We’re nothing if not arbitrary.” Because in addition to being true, it’s also particularly difficult to parse. Like them.

Anyway, since I had the student finance account, and it asked me for my student finance account number when I signed up for the TU100 module … Erm … I think they think I’ve already been approved for the loan and now won’t be able to apply the actual loan to the module without a fistful of emails? That’s just how things typically go for me: I do what I’m supposed to do, which is absolutely not what I’m supposed to do.

Long story short (for me) I got an email confirming enrolment from 5/5/2016. Which is great for me, because it’s the same date in English and American.

Oh, one other thing. Since I’m a resident alien with ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain, meaning I’m a permanent resident), Open University wants proof that I’m legally here.  Except they put the requirements of what I’m supposed to send on one page that I can’t find. And I’m not entirely sure who to contact.  I’m just going to ignore it until after I’ve proven identity for the student loan, though, as I’m sure it will require the same evidences.

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I’ve basically said why I’m getting a degree, and why I’m getting it from the Open University. So then why a degree in computing when I’m already a network engineer?

The last time I was looking down this path, before the company I was working for went bust and before my wife became pregnant with our second son, I was asked this question outright by a coworker. He had a degree in history from Ireland, and more than ten years later he was a mid-level engineer for a cloud services company. (Though due to the company falling apart, he was trained up quickly and was helping me do senior level work.) His argument was that I was paying money to study, and could get any education I wanted with that money, but using it to get a degree that people normally use to work for someone at my position was throwing the money away on a piece of paper. Or maybe parchment. Probably paper, though. Like, fake age-yellowed paper.  Fake age, not fake paper.  Because fake paper would be parchment, again.

It’s a fair question. With the whole of the Open University course list in front of me, I could pick out anything I want to study, and go down that path. I could learn history, myself. Business administration, psychology, law, and anything else are all possibilities, and I could just pick the most interesting one.

Except I have already picked the most interesting one.  I picked it twenty years ago. I like computers. I love networking. I like the career, the people, the fact that every year there’s more things for me to learn. I love that no matter what organisation I’m with, I can use my skills to invent a solution to something that’s keeping someone from being satisfied with their job.

What would I do if I got a history degree? I’d still be working in IT. I don’t think there are any IT Historian positions that need filling. You know what I’d be doing with a history degree? The same thing my coworker is doing with his: Letting it sit on the wall and ignoring it while I worked in IT.

In the meantime, it’s not like I’m even close to knowing everything about computing. When I started at the school I work in now, there was a student intern who taught me things about PHP that I now use every single week. He had no degree or work experience, and I learned real world job skills that I’ve constantly used for the year and a half since from him.

Think how much more I’ll use after a current higher education degree course? In a field I already know that I love, have experience in, know I can find work in and will enjoy? Surely that’s worth a few quid here or there.

Also, let’s be honest, I’m already a full-time dad and a full-time employee.  I’m also a part-time semi-professional geocacher and drinker. These things take dedication. To say nothing of all the time I spend avoiding work on the allotment.

Getting a degree in my current field will certainly optimise the time I can devote to study. I know it won’t be easy, but it will certainly be easier than, say, an accounting degree would be, unless I were an accounting clerk.

As an example, I’m going to have a large leg-up on things like coming up with assessment project ideas. I even have a potential idea for my final project of the degree already, integrating our school’s student management system with an open source VLE to give teachers the option of using the VLE without any setup work on their behalf. (I’ll probably end up doing this in a year or two anyway, so I’m not worried if someone swipes this idea. I’ll come up with a thousand more ideas between now and then.) And certainly the CCNA module will be easier for someone who can already figure out networking subnets in his head.

If I can shave off a few minutes here or there because I’m already scripting solutions, and spend them with my kids, and still get a degree, that’s worth it.

And finally, it’s going to give me the chance to explore other parts of Computing & IT than my current little kingdom. I’ve already decided to switch my degree focus from networking to web development. Currently a lot of the solutions I’m providing to the school are bespoke web applications, and I’m really enjoying it.  Before my previous employer imploded, I was starting to design a new cloud services platform. This degree will let me convince future employers to let me keep playing with these technologies, which I love.  I almost wish I could just take forever and take all the modules.  (Considering how often they have to retire modules due to the speed of change in the industry, that’s potentially literally impossible.)

So that’s why. Oh, and I’ve always, always wanted a degree in computing.  Maybe I could have just left it at that.

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I had the mixed experience of using distance learning to obtain my high school diploma after dropping out. I was successful, and it was nice that such an option existed, but to call it a drag on the soul like a million demons trying to yank me into hell would understate it.

Even though it had a positive outcome, it was an overwhelmingly negative experience.  It soured me on distance learning like soaking Tangfastics in pickling vinegar.

I thought advances in technology would change my mind, but after becoming more familiar with the ethos of the Open University, I realised I was wrong. It’s less about the medium of communication, and more about the quality.  And the structure.  And even the intent.  Okay, look, it’s that there is communication.

It’s really not appropriate to say why I chose the Open University, as I wouldn’t be doing this without it.  The Open University convinced me that I could do this.  (Okay, I probably would try it again at some point, as I started in California, but I was dreading it.)

Here’s what helped convince me:

  • Support
    Mostly I mean the tutors. Previously, when I had questions, I basically talked to an administrator who could help insomuch as telling precisely where I could place my study materials.
  • Study Materials
    Look, I don’t care if they’re online or in a book, what I care about is that I don’t have to go around finding them myself, whether at the bookstore, the library, the school’s office, or lost in the post.  People bang on about the quality of the study materials, but I currently don’t know anything about that.  All I know is that they provide all of them.
  • Part Time Student Financing
    Not really anything to do with the Open University, but the UK government allows part-time students to arrange for student loans, now.  Okay, it may have been better a few years ago when the tuition fees were a fraction of what they are now. And yes, I could pay out-of-pocket, the fees are definitely low enough. But it’s nice that I can put it into a manageable payment and eliminate a barrier that would otherwise exist for me, but not an 18 year old.
  • Everything can be done online
    I know a lot of Open University students like that it doesn’t have to be online, that you can go to tutorials and get face-to-face help. But I just want to put my head down and get on with it. I’m pretty anti-social as it is.  As in withdrawn and introverted, not as in ASBO and Stella Artois. But I mean TMA submission and such. Aside from 4 day schools if I choose the networking route, I don’t think anything can’t be done online.
  • Structure!
    Not just structure, but what appears to be a scientifically created one.  Each module has a number of credits (typically 30, 60, or 120), which generally map to 10 hours of study, over 8 months.  So the recommended 60 credits per year at part time study is 600 hours of study over 8 months (or 36-38 weeks), or about 16 hours per week. The module is then mapped out according to these 16 hour weeks to provide for time to study materials, prepare Tutor Marked Assignments, and so on. So you know exactly how far ahead or behind you are at any point in the module.
  • Feedback
    Closing the other end of my biggest problem with distance learning is that you get feedback on any assignments within two weeks. And I’ve seen some examples of the feedback. I’m sure it will often be down to the ability of my tutors to convey, but the structure for the feedback is good. It’s useful.

All of that’s great, but it does (of course) still leave the biggest problem of distance learning up to me to solve: Motivation.  Finding and keeping that is a constant struggle in distance learning. Many future posts I’m sure deal with this.

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This is  a record of my journey from start-to-finish in obtaining my BSc (Hons) Computing & IT degree from Open University. I thought it’d be nice to start with how I ended up on this path. Time will tell how far along it I manage to go.

I dropped out of a US high school in the middle of the 11th grade.  That’s a year and a half before graduation for those outside the US.  (Compulsory education laws can vary state-to-state, and are subject to religious freedoms.  Typically, however, it lasts until 16 years of age, even though secondary education lasts to the year students turn 18.)  It’s difficult to discuss, but the short version was that I was depressed.

My next educational stop was admittance to the ‘local’ community college.  (Again, there’s a cultural divide in describing the US education system to some others. An American community college is a public institution of higher education which mainly grants two-year degrees called associate’s degrees, which are primarily a foundation to a four-year bachelor’s degree at a university. They also tend to offer a limited number of bachelor’s degree programmes like universities, or adult education programmes for obtaining diplomas or continuing/further education.) College was great for me emotionally. However, in addition to being expensive, it was also about forty minutes away by car. When I lost my transport, my commute became two 90 minute bus journeys every day, often for a single 30 minute lecture.  It ground me down to the point that I eventually quit that, too, and I entered employment.

My first job was as telephone support for an online service in the days before the World Wide Web. It was a good education in data communications and paid good money, especially for a drop-out.

This led to my next educational stop: distance learning to go back and get my diploma. I was able to do so in short order whilst working, but I despised distance learning at the time. I would buy, collect, or be sent materials, get a sheet of paper telling me what I had to learn, then I showed up for an exam. It was dehumanising, but I was successful.

I thought that was going to be the end of my education. I couldn’t make enough money and have enough time to attend university classes, and I certainly wasn’t going to go back to distance learning.

By 2012 I was married, living in Southern California, and in a great career as a network engineer. I investigated the possibility of distance learning, and found that the Internet had really revolutionised it. It was attractive enough that I thought I’d give it a go again.  I researched my options, and found the programme I wanted to follow.  It was a few months before I finalised my enrolment. (These British spellings are killing me.)

I had been enrolled for all of about a week when our lives were forced to change.  The immigration laws for the UK were being changed rapidly. Soon, it would be a requirement for my wife to be living in the UK and making around £20,000/year for six months before I could move there.  If we left immediately, however, we could use our current earnings as an indication of our earning potential in the UK to prove we wouldn’t need to go on benefits, and we could move together without being separated.  I had promised my British wife that we would move to the UK before we had children old enough to go to school, so we had no choice but to pack up our lives, withdraw from University, and move to a different continent.

A few years later our son did start school, and I finally had time to enroll at university again. This time I was excited to find Open University. Much more discussion is included in subsequent posts, but the short version is that it’s perfect for my life.  My career was already well established over here, even if I was working about 65 hours a week.  I was sure I could talk them into giving me a break for study time.

Between the time I contacted Open University and the time they called me back, my company went out of business.  And didn’t pay me for my last two months of work, taking £6000 of my money with them. At Christmas.

I found employment again quickly, but my path back to education was blocked again, just as quickly.  This time by good news, though; my wife was pregnant with our second son.

He’s still a baby, but we’ve managed to schedule our lives in such a way that I have enough time to finally study a degree at Open University.  Time to give it another go.

As I already know what I want to do with my life, I’m going to get a degree in my current field. I’m studying for the BSc (Hons) Computing and IT (Q62) degree from Open University. Another entry probably holds more details on why.

I suppose the one thing still missing from this entry is why it’s important.  It’s not.  At least not objectively.  I have a great job, make good money, have a home in a great location, am blessed with a truly special family I love to bits … Getting a degree isn’t going to make my life any better. It’s just something that’s of great importance to me personally. Part of it is being an example to my children. Part of it is out of respect to my dad. It’s something that’s been left undone, though. Like my diploma, it’s something I need to go back and finish.