Taking Your First Steps Into Higher Education
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Head of Intellectual Property, The Open University 2 of 148 Thursday 2 January 2020 Contents Introduction and guidance 6 Introduction and guidance 6 What is a badged course? 7 How to get a badge 7 Week 1: First steps 10 Introduction 10 1 Some assumptions 11 2 Active learning 14 2.1 Higher education – some options 14 3 What's right for you? 17 4 What should I study? 18 5 This week's quiz 20 6 Summary 21 Week 2: Introducing the arts and humanities through poetry 2- 3 Introduction 23 1 What is learning in the arts and humanities like? 24 2 What is poetry? 25 2.1 Feelings about poetry 26 2.2 Poetry is powerful 26 2.3 The effects of poetry 28 3 Learning to engage with a poem 29 4 The study diamond 33 4.1 Effects 34 4.2 Techniques 35 4.3 Context 36 4.4 Meaning 36 4.5 Studying works of literature and art 37 5 This week's quiz 39 6 Summary 40 Week 3: Art history 42 Introduction 42 1 What is art? 43 1.1 Defining art 44 2 Artworks and their effects 47 2.1 Emotional impact of an artwork 47 2.2 The relationship between effects and techniques 48 3 of 148 Thursday 2 January 2020 3 The form of art: looking at techniques 50 3.1 Colour 50 3.2 Analysing colour 52 3.3 Medium 54 4 Analysing sculpture and installations 56 5 This week's quiz 59 6 Summary 60 Week 4: Introduction to social science 62 Introduction 62 1 Social science and the everyday 63 1.1 Identity 65 1.2 How social science thinking works 67 2 Social science: individuals and identity 68 2.1 Cultural and group identities and belonging to groups 68 2.2 Group membership 69 2.3 Spider diagrams 70 3 Communicating connections 72 3.1 Appropriate space 73 4 Stereotyping 75 4.1 Piecing together an identity 75 5 This week's quiz 78 6 Summary 79 Week 5: Work, inequality and diversity in families 81 Introduction 81 1 Is work in the home shared today? 82 1.1 Changes in women’s employment patterns 82 1.2 Division of labour within families 84 1.3 Making sense 84 1.4 How work is divided in different families 87 2 Location and life chances for families 88 2.1 Life chances and place 88 2.2 Comparing different housing 92 2.3 Housing wealth as an influence on life chances 94 3 This week's quiz 96 4 Summary 97 Week 6: Communicating ideas in science, technology and maths 99 Introduction 99 1 What are science, technology and maths? 100 2 Communicating ideas and information 102 2.1 Reading text 102 2.2 Understanding diagrams 105 4 of 148 Thursday 2 January 2020 2.3 Reading graphs 106 3 This week's quiz 109 4 Summary 110 Week 7: Water for life 112 Introduction 112 1 The relationship between population and water 112 2 How much water do you use? 116 2.1 Household use of water 116 2.2 Reading tables 117 3 Saving water 120 3.1 Using fractions and percentages 121 4 This week's quiz 125 5 Summary 126 Week 8: Reflecting on the course and looking forward to your next steps 128 Introduction 128 1 Reflecting back on the course 129 2 Reflecting on the arts and humanities 131 2.1 Poetry 131 2.2 Contemporary visual art 132 3 Reflecting on the social sciences 135 3.1 Identity 135 3.2 Domestic roles 137 4 Reflecting on science, technology and maths 139 5 Looking forward: what will your next steps be? 141 6 This week's quiz 142 7 Summary 143 Tell us what you think 144 Glossary 144 References 145 Acknowledgements 146 5 of 148 Thursday 2 January 2020 Introduction and guidance Introduction and guidance Introduction and guidance Introduction and guidance Taking your first steps into higher education is a free badged course which lasts 8 weeks, with approximately 3 hours' study time 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. This free badged course is always available on OpenLearn. You can study whenever you wish and at a pace that suits you. At the end of each week a short quiz provides an opportunity for you to check your understanding. These short quizzes also prepare you for the longer quizzes at the end of Weeks 5 and 8. If you score over 50% on both these quizzes you can claim the Open University badge for Taking your first steps into higher education. Week 1 provides an overview of the course and gets you to think about what you might get out of it. Weeks 2 and 3 introduce what it’s like to study arts and humanities subjects at university. Weeks 4 and 5 introduce what it’s like to study social science subjects at university. Weeks 6 and 7 introduce what it’s like to study science, technology and maths at university. Week 8 looks back over the course and encourages you to think about your next steps. After completing this course you will be able to: ● demonstrate a basic understanding of what is meant by higher education and the nature of study at this level ● demonstrate an understanding of a range of basic facts, ideas and theories associated with the arts and humanities, social sciences and science, technology and maths ● recognise and use some of the basic terms and concepts associated with these subjects ● use and apply routine skills associated with these subjects ● recognise your own personal skills, interests and preferences relating to higher education study ● plan and review your study pathways to link your learning with your own personal or career goals. Moving around the course The easiest way to navigate around the course is through the 'My course progress' page, you can get back there at any time by clicking on 'Go to course progress' in the menu bar. From the quizzes click on 'Return to Taking your first steps into higher education'. 6 of 148 Thursday 2 January 2020 Introduction and guidance Introduction and guidance It's also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page, including links to the quizzes, to open it in new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you've come from without having to use the back button on your browser. What is a badged course? While studying Taking your first steps into higher education you have the option to work towards gaining a digital badge. Badged courses are a key part of The Open University’s mission to promote the educational well-being of the community.