H809-24. Getting the hump

Has everyone on H809 disappeared into a cyberhole?

I emailed my tutor for clarification of TMA03, I believe over a week ago now. I simply cannot be sure what is meant by 'summarising the contexts of the research, with appropriate references to previous research.' About 2 or 3 days later I got a reply saying she would need to consult with the rest of the team on my queries. I am still waiting, and in the meantime I have posted my pleas in all three tutor groups. I have now lost a good 8 or 9 days of work for lack of reply. I fail to see what is difficult to answer? In any case, I expect a prompter comeback. I did not take on this course lightly. It is a huge time and financial commitment for me and I would not have started if I hadn't intended to do my very best. I don't expect others to be at my beck and call, but from the beginning I have completed every activity and I have posted regularly in all three tutor forums. I had high hopes, but slowly and reluctantly I am starting to lower my expectations and to doubt whether I am willing to continue with the Diploma, even though it is extremely important to my personal development, if the communication is going to be this lacking.

And this has nothing to do with distance learning; I am doing an MA by distance learning through another UK university, and the communication and response have been stellar. Since the Open University are known for their pioneering work into this form of learning, this would seem a decided irony.

Obviously I do not wish to offend my audience, but neither do I wish to continue bottling up what I have been experiencing these past couple of weeks. This is as diplomatic as I can possibly be at this point in time.

H809-23. I must, I must

stop obsessing over these forums. I am clicking on them endlessly. It's like I have nothing else in my life! I feel so bloody bored without a big pile of work to do. It's nearly 18.30 in England, so somehow I don't think I'm going to find the magical key to the TMA tonight. Just close down the windows!

H809-22. Back to frustration

Well, I see I haven't posted anything here for awhile. That's probably down to my frustration with various aspects of the course and not wanting to seem as if I'm laying blame all around. This is the problem with blogging, at least with Blogger; I need some posts to be private.

In any case, I only need to write about 250 more words to finish TMA03, but I cannot finish it because I cannot understand exactly what is meant by "describe the context of the research with appropriate references to previous research." It seems to me like this is asking us to simply re-cite studies which were mentioned in the literature reviews of the two papers, which doesn't make much sense. Alternatively, if we are expected to do further research, I need to know this quite soon in order to schedule time for it!

I started this paper 3 weeks in advance because I have other papers to write, not to mention a heap o' marking coming up with the end of my teaching semester AND two wedding parties to plan. Tuesday was a holiday in Turkey and I had high hopes of finishing it, but I remain stuck. Communication has become more and more sporadic on this course...I have kept up with every single thing from the very beginning and I'm trying not to deflate.