I am 3/4 of the way through writing TMA03, using Mathtype for word. I have to say, that having spent approximately 20hrs using Mathtype, now; it is becoming very much a breeze, to use. The results of using it are nicely typed, automatically well formatted maths equations.
With regards to the content of TMA03, I did find it a real mixed bag of difficulty. I found most of it relatively straight forward, except for the question on orthogonality. I found myself in a real twist for about 6hrs, before working out what I needed to do, in order to find an orthogonal basis for a subset, that they had given.
I think what really threw me, was the increasingly annoying way that the O.U secrete an 'audio' section into the units, with cryptic accompanying notes, to guide your path. I am not a purist, by any means. I do enjoy occasionally learning in ways that are not connected with reading dusty old text books; but these audio sections are driving me insane.
I could understand the use of them, if they were needed to describe intricately subtle ideas, that wouldn't be apparent from just reading a text book; but my experience of the O.U's treatment of this format, leads me to the conclusion that they are just used to read out what is already written on the page of notes. Hardly helpful!
They are an unnecessary distraction, in my view. I believe that the use of an audio section in the 'Orthogonality of subspaces' section, has contributed to my confusion on TMA03; and I fear that there are more audio sections, to come.
Couldn't agree with you more vis a vis audio sections. The best solution is to print off the audio transcripts and have them side by side. I think M208 is one of the worst culprits in this respect. Unfortunately M337 also has quite a dependence on the audio sections. My advice at least for the analysis sections is to just read Brannan thats what I did and I scored best in the analysis sections.
ReplyDeleteAnyway keep up the good work
Best wishes Chris