Y166– Starting with Law

The OU law degree comprises of 7 modules, 4 compulsory and 3 optional courses.

The starting point to the LLB at OU is the W100 – Rules, Rights and Justice. This is a 60 point course at Level 1.

However, I chose an alternative introduction called Y166 – Starting with Law. This is an introductory 10 point course that aims to introduce law concepts and “why law matters, how laws are made, why we need laws and who the key players are in the legal system”.

The cost of this course is £120.

I completed this course some time ago, and found it useful in the extreme, although it will not count towards my LLB.

The main reason I chose this as my starting point was to give myself confidence in starting ‘formal’ education again after many years. Not only did I find the course useful for building confidence, it also started me thinking on how to write better.

Writing ‘regularly’, for example on this blog, is a bit different to writing for law. I found law requires precision and concise wording, especially if you have to stick to a word limit. More on this when I move on to discussing the W100.

The Y166 does not give a grade, but instead a pass or ‘fail’. There are 2 tutor marked assignments (TMAs) and an end of course assessment (ECA). Tutors are contacted by phone (usually the tutor calls) at scheduled times, but they can be contacted via email and can be contacted by phone if additional help is required. Grading is as follows: “Achieved, Just achieved, Not quite achieved, Not achieved”.

The course requires reflective learning, i.e. throughout, the student is asked to reflect on how and what he has learnt. So a learning plan is submitted with every assignment as well as an essay plan. My essay plan was done as a mind map. I used the free EDraw Mind Map to do this.

Assignments are submitted by post in hardcopy. The feedback from the tutor is also in hardcopy, mailed back with the assignments. TMAs are sent to the tutor and the ECA to the OU. Care has to be taken to mail these before the actual deadlines so that they can reach before the deadline date – inclusive of unforeseen delays in the postal system.

I obtained ‘Achieved’ on all my learning outcomes.