The first 2 days
It's seems a convenient time to post my musings on the start of the course. While not as horrendous as I may have been anticipating there have been more than enough heart-stopping moments. I turned up in good time on Monday and already the place is packed.
I found later that there are about 460 students on the LPC. I did a quick bit of maths-460 at £8,750 a pop comes out as a few quid above 4 million pounds. It appears that there is money in education after all...
As I previously mentioned (I think) I have been assigned to an afternoon group. What this means is that for 4 days a week for the first couple of terms I begin at 1.30 and work in class to 4. For these 2 1/2 hour workshop sessions we are expected to put in (about) 5 1/2 to 6 hours preparation. In all the College expects us to do about 40 hours a week (so, making up about 8 hours between the other 3 days).
This is not too bad-better than I had expected although it could be argued that the prep (so far) is a little uneven. Preparation consists of a mixture of readings/i-tutorials (short recorded lectures on CD rom) and exercises.
We will be expected to arrive with completed answers for the exercise and they may (or may not) be covered in depth in the workshop.
There is a high reliance on teamwork; each student is assigned to a 'team' of 5 (or so) and it would appear that you will stick with those people (and sit on the same table for each course) for the whole year. This rankles me a bit since I would prefer being able to mix with a larger group (and of course to attach myself limpet-like to the most able!).
During the workshop, various class-based exercises are attempted by the team (or table) and the results discussed by the group. This is so unlike everything that I've ever done before academically that I can see myself having a huge in-built resistance to it.
Whoop-de-frickin-do.
If there is a phrase in the English language capable of turning my stomach or making me anti-something from the start, it's that one. In my mind I associate it with employers leading training sessions and when they have run out of things to do or if they need to pad out the time will introduce 'roleplay'.
To me, it's the most pointless and futile tool in any training meeting. It neither recreates not reproduces 'real-life' situations and it's always done in a teeth-gritted half-hearted manner by the participants (except of course by the training organiser who loves it more than life itself)
You also are expected to bring certain books to each workshop session.
Oh, the books. My god, the books. We are given so many that we have to receive them in two batches. They are sitting at present on one of my bookshelves. The vast majority are A4 size and together they are nearly a foot thick! This compares to about 4 1/2 inches for the thickest OU course. And even worse these have NO pictures! Coupled to these are the handouts for the various workshops-these are also A4 in size and are to be put in ring binders.
Note to anyone going on this course: Buy a LOT of ringbinders
The workshop notes are just under 6 inches in thickness. On top of this we have also been given some other A4 sheets on;
Today we are going to have one of our most important group sessions. It is the first of our practical legal research workshops. It's scheduled to be only 90 mins long and focuses on using electronic sources to find the cases or statutes that we will need.
This should be one of my good areas since I love computers (but not in the biblical sense) and the OU is quite strong on this area.
After that we have a short careers talk and then a workshop group 'party'. Oh joy! One of my nightmares in this world is going to organised parties. We have been told that fruit juice and wine will be served.
Yesterday, during a workshop we were told that something was 'not mandatory but you do have to do it'. I think that I may have been the only one to have noticed the slight incongruity in that. In the same light I think that the 'party' today is not compulsory but we do have to be there...
Note to self: Must buy some A4 ring binders sometime
How many people are doing this course?
After signing in and picking up some books (more later), some of us are ushered to a large room where we are formerly welcomed by one speaker and then given a run down on basic IT matters by another. After an extended break the first workshop session begins with our personal tutor. (It is a workshop on what to do in a workshop, ho hum)I found later that there are about 460 students on the LPC. I did a quick bit of maths-460 at £8,750 a pop comes out as a few quid above 4 million pounds. It appears that there is money in education after all...
As I previously mentioned (I think) I have been assigned to an afternoon group. What this means is that for 4 days a week for the first couple of terms I begin at 1.30 and work in class to 4. For these 2 1/2 hour workshop sessions we are expected to put in (about) 5 1/2 to 6 hours preparation. In all the College expects us to do about 40 hours a week (so, making up about 8 hours between the other 3 days).
This is not too bad-better than I had expected although it could be argued that the prep (so far) is a little uneven. Preparation consists of a mixture of readings/i-tutorials (short recorded lectures on CD rom) and exercises.
We will be expected to arrive with completed answers for the exercise and they may (or may not) be covered in depth in the workshop.
There is a high reliance on teamwork; each student is assigned to a 'team' of 5 (or so) and it would appear that you will stick with those people (and sit on the same table for each course) for the whole year. This rankles me a bit since I would prefer being able to mix with a larger group (and of course to attach myself limpet-like to the most able!).
During the workshop, various class-based exercises are attempted by the team (or table) and the results discussed by the group. This is so unlike everything that I've ever done before academically that I can see myself having a huge in-built resistance to it.
We have been told in advance there will be roleplay components to perform.
Whoop-de-frickin-do.
To me, it's the most pointless and futile tool in any training meeting. It neither recreates not reproduces 'real-life' situations and it's always done in a teeth-gritted half-hearted manner by the participants (except of course by the training organiser who loves it more than life itself)
You also are expected to bring certain books to each workshop session.
Oh, the books. My god, the books. We are given so many that we have to receive them in two batches. They are sitting at present on one of my bookshelves. The vast majority are A4 size and together they are nearly a foot thick! This compares to about 4 1/2 inches for the thickest OU course. And even worse these have NO pictures! Coupled to these are the handouts for the various workshops-these are also A4 in size and are to be put in ring binders.
Note to anyone going on this course: Buy a LOT of ringbinders
The workshop notes are just under 6 inches in thickness. On top of this we have also been given some other A4 sheets on;
- Time use
- Timetables
- Exam dates
- Hippopotamus feeding regimes (it might as well be-I doubt I'll get around to reading it all).
Today we are going to have one of our most important group sessions. It is the first of our practical legal research workshops. It's scheduled to be only 90 mins long and focuses on using electronic sources to find the cases or statutes that we will need.
This should be one of my good areas since I love computers (but not in the biblical sense) and the OU is quite strong on this area.
After that we have a short careers talk and then a workshop group 'party'. Oh joy! One of my nightmares in this world is going to organised parties. We have been told that fruit juice and wine will be served.
Is this a test of character?
There are only about 20 of us in the group and the party is from 3:45 to 4:45-something tells me that the party will never reach full swing.Yesterday, during a workshop we were told that something was 'not mandatory but you do have to do it'. I think that I may have been the only one to have noticed the slight incongruity in that. In the same light I think that the 'party' today is not compulsory but we do have to be there...
Note to self: Must buy some A4 ring binders sometime
posted by Paul Salmon at
10:37 am
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