EE is for Extra Education
I wrote about this topic in the post A Course, Of Course, and followed up with A Confession Of Course, so you may like to glance back at those first.
In time-honoured what?why?when?where?how? style, I’ll make a start on telling you what education is engaging me this year.
What?
Did you realise anyone can access the UK’s own Open University? You don’t have to study graduate courses, although you may wish to aspire to those and all the very best if you do so.
The courses I use are the OU Free Courses. I assume they were developed as taster courses but they are not an easy-peasy option. Depending on the level you’ve reached in the topic you choose, it might be entirely new to you or it might top up the knowledge you’ve already accumulated over the years.
Later Writers are perfect candidates, in my opinion, because nothing staves off the ravages of time on the brain cells than making them carry on functioning.
Why?
The course I’m currently halfway through is Forensic Psychology. Now then, it is a long time since I last studied any type of psychology.
At College of Education (before the must-have-a-degree-to-teach days) I had to read a lot of educational psychology. I think now I was too young to really appreciate its value. If only I could have gone to college now!
As I’ve elected to write crime mysteries I decided some background study would help. Forensic Psychology has firmly established itself in the crime detection field, supporting police training and procedures.
This week, I learned about the Cognitive Interview that enables the police to question eyewitnesses in the most effective way possible so that the information they’ve locked into their brains can be accessed and recorded as evidence – bystanders, victims and perpetrators alike.
This is a fascinating field that will fuel my future fiction. (This is an alliterative challenge, after all).
When?
All online courses are either real time or anytime. The OU Free Courses are available anytime and I did not have to satisfy any criteria for study. Forensic Psychology is one of the Badged Courses.
“The course lasts eight weeks, with approximately three hours of study each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete another week’s study.”
Introduction and guidance – https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=70526
Where?
I’m sure it’s possible to curl up on a sofa and read through the course, answering the questions as I go. But that is not my style of study. Just as I do all my writing at a desk in a quiet office, so too my coursework. I have printed out information I wish to retain even though everything is available online. This will give me material I can use in my writing – not verbatim but as the bedrock of my plotting, scene-setting, characters and anything else that comes up and needs me to know what I’m talking about. That’s the theory.
How?
I’ve possibly already said this …I will add that I am doing ok if perhaps ‘How are you doing?’ is the question you’d most like to ask. I sat a halfway-through test this past weekend and I scored 37.5 out of 45 with a 50% pass mark required. Phew. With my score equating to just under 83%, permit to smile sweetly.
The course is set as an 8-week one with approximately 3 hours given to each week – or each module. It’s taking me longer than the 8 weeks because the festive season arrived, preoccupied me, and went again. Back to work.
There’s no tutor to send work to – all the interaction is between your brain and the laptop monitor. So you need a pen and notebook, a printer if you want to make a folder like me, and you’ll be ready as soon as you’ve enrolled.
You Now …
As a Later Writer, popping over to the OU Free Courses site might lead you to a topic that interests you or gives you ideas for your own work. Don’t be shy. There’s no Freshers Week, No Tuition Fees, and everything to gain.
More writing practice at ABC Alliterative Title Challenge.
