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A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going to do some preparation for studying at the Open University. It’s a distance learning university, which I’ve struggled with in the past due to poor communications tools before technology improved them.  I’ve been out of formal education for over 20 years, though I have spent a few years employed as a trainer for computer and network troubleshooting.  (I also was assigned one class to train people how to take care of flowers. It was a fun job.)

I initially tried by studying materials for a CCNA in hopes that it would make T216 easier and faster. I made decent progress in learning, but realised that I was only reading the materials. I wasn’t taking active notes, I wasn’t practicing anything hands-on, and while I was absorbing the concepts very well, I wasn’t likely to be able to retain details which would be necessary for the CCNA exam.

So far as my original goal, this was great. Being comfortable with the concepts when I take T216 will indeed make it easier.  But it underscored that my method of study wasn’t going to cut it at university. I realised that I had a golden opportunity between now and the course beginning in October to study how to study, to raise my abilities of learning to get the most I can out of my degree course.

After some doing some online searches, talking to a few people (only online, goodness that would be an awkward conversation for me in person), and heavy doses of self evaluation, here’s my plan for university study preparation:

Resources:

  • The Good Study Guide by Andrew Northridge, published by the Open University
    • This was the first recommendation to me, specifically to help with writing essays at university level.  I am not reading it as a book; I am using it as a study resource and practically the basis for my own self-taught module. I initially devoted about an hour a night to study with it, and now go back to it as necessary to do some activities and reflection.  Though I started with it, I couldn’t complete it without finding other things to study, because it works best with real examples of your work on courses.  The Open University no longer sells this book, but it’s available through Amazon or other avenues.
  • OpenLearn badged courses
    • After the Good Study Guide stalled because of lack of coursework, I moved to MOOCs. I started with badged OpenLearn courses.  I’ll evaluate these courses at a later date, but they’re of varying quality and usefulness to study preparation.  In general, they’re better for experience than they are for what you actually get out of them.  For example, I was hoping to get some maths refreshers or maybe push myself a bit, but the badged courses for maths are well below university level and can be done fairly easily by anybody who stayed awake through GCSE or high school maths.
  • Other MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for fun
    • Realising that the experience of the modules were more useful than the knowledge in the modules, I expanded to FutureLearn just to find courses that looked interesting.  I’ll evaluate these later, too.

Method:

  • My strategy is to treat what I’m doing as seriously as I can. When I enroled to the Open University, I determined I could set aside about 16 hours a week.  Thanks to The Good Study Guide, I’m now closer to being able to set aside about 24.  During my study preparation, I’m taking half of the initial figure and devoting that to my studies.  For an hour an evening and a couple of extra hours on the weekend, I go to the study space I’ve set up, close the door, and do some serious studying.  Most of the time is on the MOOCs, but I also devote a fair amount to the Good Study Guide so that I’m sure my skills at studying are actually improving.

Outcome:

  • I’ve been extremely pleased with the results of this initiative so far.  Perhaps the best thing to come out of it has been the boatloads of confidence that it’s given me.  I’ve proven that I have at least half the time that I’ve set aside for study, and that I can stick to it at least for a few weeks.  I’ve also learned that I really, really enjoy studying. If I were to cancel my degree course right now, I’d be quite happy to continue to do the MOOCs with the same level of consideration and seriousness.

If anybody is considering going back to learning, I highly recommend this method.  You don’t have to use the Good Study Guide, but I would recommend finding some specific guide, and preferably one that helps you analyse your own strengths and weaknesses in relation to course goals.

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Oh, for the sake of Saint Eff. You know, I thought I’d done a fair amount of looking into what TU100 would entail. I read the OU documentation, I chatted to a few former students … At one point I said to one, “Sense seems to be a lot like Scratch.”  The response was that it was “similar.”

It isn’t similar. It’s Scratch.  It’s an old version of Scratch which was modified slightly to have inputs and outputs to the Senseboard.  These modifications have changed the structure of the .sb save files significantly enough so that the two can’t load each other’s programmes, but it’s the same thing.

So, if you’re looking to get a tiny bit of a jump on TU100 before the start of the module, head over to Scratch and check it out. It’s pretty cool.  My five year old son loves it.  I think I’ve mentioned it before.  You use drag-and-drop tiles to build a programme using conventional coding logic structures.  And you can make a cat fart.  (Which is where the part about my five year old son loving it comes in.)  You can do a lot more with it than that, but that’s pretty much how far he’s gotten.  It’ll run on just about anything, including a Raspberry Pi. (I’m already talking about the Pi too much, aren’t I? Fair enough.)

(I imagine it will get worse.)

Scratch is a good enough introduction to coding concepts for my son in Year 1, but it’s going to drive me a little batty.

I just think that it’s interesting that the OU is so uptight about making sure its students give so much attribution to original authors, but they’re pretty quiet about MIT’s input to their Sense environment.

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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.)