Open University

This page contains some useful downloads, and a few notes. It has the following sections:

Hilma's "Open University Degree Classification Calculator"

This page came about to host my "Open University Degree Classification Calculator".

Like many, I was totally confounded, bamboozled and confused by the (2003) "Working out your class of honours - how we do it - The Honours Degree Classification process" document, and sorely miss my little excel spreadsheet, which made it easy to see how I was doing and what I would get.
So I have written a program to calculate my future degree classification, depending on the grades I get, and hope it will be of use to others.

Download the .exe:
Hilma's Degree Classification Calculator - #05: 04/01/26

My Study

Do you care?! I doubt it....but there are some useful downloads and links.

I am working towards an degree in GeoScience, and a Web Applications Certificate.
For various reasons, I have now had a few years break from study - then in 2006 decide to change direction to A103, the Arts Foundation course, before returnnig to science next year.

Courses, in the order they mentioned (ie the reverse order of my own study!) are:
A103, S369, U316, TT282, TT281, TT280, S268, S260, S267, S269, S280

My study: Present, Planned, Past

PRESENT
2006A103Arts Foundation Jump to CD transcripts
PLANNED
2007?? feb?? TT380Web Applications - Databases with Websites
2007?? may?? TT381Web Applications - Open source software
2007?? who knows?TT382Web Applications -
Server administration, performance, and tuning
PAST
2004S369The Geological Record of Environment Change Looking good...
But I dumped the course :-o But was still well impressed with 17% for my 30 minutes exam-attendance, as i hadn't opened the CW book, and done no revision :-)
Download the book figures and captions from CUP, book publisher
Activities require: Chris Kendall's simulation movies

Skip to some S369 Downloads
2004SXR369Summer School at Durham, supporting the above failed :-o
2003U316The Environmental Web check out "pilots' opinions" - mine and others' (and my ECA, on "Iron Fertilisation of the Oceans")
2003 (May)TT282Web Applications - Server-Side The pilot, and fun; my ECA, an auction database
Prepare yourself by learning the basics of VBScript first: wrox tutorials and/or W3schools tutorial and temporarily, just for Philip Pilot study guides
2003 (May)TT281Web Applications - Client-Side The pilot, and fun; my ECA, a javaScript Tutorial
From Barbara, an excellent list of useful resources for the course
Prepare yourself by learning the basics of JavaScript first: ECHO tutorials
2002 (May)TT280Web Applications - Web Design The pilot, and fun; my ECA - Pots and Pans
Prepare yourself by learning the basics of html first: ECHO tutorials
2002S268Physical Resources and Environment Geology in the real world - sadly out-of-date, but it made me excited about waste management and road-building.... sad
Skip to some useful S268 Downloads
2001S260Geology A prize-winning multi-media course, being a mix of text books, workbook exercises, posters, videos, CDs and a real live microscope - which made it difficult to study anywhere away from your home desk with computer and microscope
Visit David Scarboro's revision site (a tutor of the course)
Visit Frances's revision page
2001SXR260Geology Residential School hic ;-)
2001S267How the Earth Works The most technical, and remote of the earth-science courses to date. Challenging. Enjoyable.
Download my glossary for S267 (as there isn't an offical one)
Updated by Derek
See other S267 Downloads
2000S269Earth and Life My favourite OU course to date (2003).
The history of the Earth, from 4.6 billion years ago to a few 1000 years ago....A small topic.
Visit David Scarboro's revision site (a tutor of the course)
1999S280Science Matters "A foundation course for those who don't want to do a foundation course" - all about science, its place in society - and why it matters.
There were 7 blocks, on 'Agriculture,' 'Leaded petrol', 'Nuclear Power', 'Genetic Engineering', 'Climate Change', 'Discovering the Deep Oceans', and 'Diabetes'.

For full details of these courses, please visit

Useful Downloads

The following is a collection of useful downloads to other "student for student" (unofficial) OU resources.
(Note that it is easier to right-click then "save link target as...." and save onto your desktop, rather than open these downloads from the web.)

CourseLink
GeneralHilma's Degree Classification Calculator
A103 CD 3B transcript (2): "Architecture and Design"  
CD 3B transcript (1): "Plan Reading"  
Daily Mail article about Gladiators - 25th Feb 2006  
S369 My glossary, covering GIA and SR (excel)  
Jacques glossary for SR:
SR glossary .doc  
SR glossary .pdf
S268 Block 2 summaries .doc  
Block 3 summaries .doc  
Block 4-1 summaries .doc  
Block 4-2 summaries .doc  

Block 5-1 summaries .doc  

Block 2 revision notes .doc  
Block 3 revision notes .doc  

Block 3 glossary terms .doc  
Block 3 glossary definitions .doc  

for those of you without M$ Office:
Block 2 summaries .pdf  
Block 3 summaries .pdf  
Block 4-1 summaries .pdf  
Block 4-2 summaries .pdf  
Block 5-1 summaries .pdf  
S267 Glossary.xls     my original, with Derek's updates
Glossary.pdf     the same, in various formats
Glossary.doc     all formatting provided by Derek :-)
GlossaryCribCards.zip     Flash Cards for revision
Complete Summaries
Revision Notes
S260 Visit Frances's revision page
Visit David Scarboro's revision site (a tutor of the course)
S269 Visit David Scarboro's revision site (a tutor of the course)
TT280 VBScript tutorials
TT281 Javascript tutorials
Barbara's list of useful resources for the course
TT280 html tutorials

Student-price software

As students, we are eligable for discounts in professional software.
I have bought from entec, and fully recommend their selection and prices.
ENTEC - Student Discount software at http://www.entec.co.uk

Last time I looked, the site was 'undergoing maintenance'. If you have a problem with it, you can contact the sales manager at: steve.heasman@entec.co.uk

alphabetically....

  • Bill ('environmental web', computing, web design)
  • Frances (Earth Sciences and loads more)
  • Gillie (S103 and Earth Sciences)
  • 'your site here'

What to do with unwanted course-books

Odd as it seems to me, some people don't keep their old course texts :-o