Student and tutor module reviews

I throughly enjoyed this course. It covered all the main areas of psychology in enough depth to get a good understanding but without getting bogged down. I found the book very well written and easy to read and the online materials were useful and complimented the book well.

Overall this is an excellent course which I would highly recomend.

Course starting: May 2012

Review posted: April 2013

Although I had never done any science based courses with the OU, I found this an interesting challenge. My tutor was brilliant, and as I cannot attend tutorials, she kept in touch and encouraged me throughout the study period. The book was very well written, set out and the index was easy to use. Some OU books still do not have an index! Recommended course.

Janet Edith Godden

Course starting: May 2012

Review posted: April 2013

This course was quite good. I'd already done the Y183 Openings course and it gave me the desire to do a longer course. However, I think I was spoiled by the fantastic tutor I had on that course, because the one I had on this one, although helpful completely 'vanished' after TMA02 and so I had no support for the third TMA or the EMA.

From the coursework point of view I found it very interesting and the textbooks weren't too dull and heavy going. I did struggle with structuring the essays as it was over 30 years since I'd last written one! Finding the appropriate information for note making was easy and clear.

I'd recommend this course as a first step into studying psychology and/or counselling as it gives an excellent insight into how the brain works and how we think.

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: February 2013

DSE141 was my first module with the OU towards my Psychology degree. I found it fascinating, the support from my tutor and the OU staff in general was excellent. I would definitely recommend to anyone wanting to study Psychology to start with this module, since it's focused on Psychology issues rather than social issues like the DSE131 (which is the recommendation of the OU. The essays were nicely organised, the study material was very well explained. Overall I really enjoyed the beginning of my journey as a OU student with DSE141. :-)

Amalia Efstratiou

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: December 2012

This was essentially my introduction to Psychology as it was my first Level 1 course on my BSc Psych Hons.
It was a fantastic start. It is so broad and the assignments are very interesting. I learned so much from this course, and it just helped to ignite my passion for psychology even more! Take this course at the start of your degree!

Jessica Elizabeth Eaton

Course starting: May 2011

Review posted: November 2012

Hated psychology before this but quite liked this course. Interesting, easy to read and understand materials, nothing crazily taxing. Would recommend.

Emma Whiting

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: November 2012

This was my first time studying psychology, and I would thoroughly recommend this course to anyone interested in psychology. My tutorial group was based in Luton, and my tutor was extremely supportive and had excellent knowledge of the topics, which were all very well explained.

I found the course material very interesting, covering how dogs are conditioned, methods of teaching in the classroom, how different parts of the brain are associated with language and speech, why witnesses to crimes may be unreliable and may even claim to remember things that didn't take place, to name but a few. The materials were clearly and well presented. Overall an excellent module!

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: September 2012

Interesting, informative, engaging, and a well structured course. I enjoyed every minute of it, and as other reviews have stated, the book was something of a page turner. I just wish all other OU courses lived up to the high standard of this one. My tutor was excellent too...

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: August 2012

This was the best module so far, the course topic was engaging, the variety of course materials (books, videos, radio programmes, online tests, etc) was very stimulating. Congratulations to the course team for creating such a perfect module. I hope other Psychology modules will be equally engaging.

Note: the course does not really require cooperation with other fellow students, therefore I saw our online groups fairly desert throughout the module. It did not bother me, but I think you should know.

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: August 2012

I really enjoyed this module! This was my second module with the OU and I think it is a fantastic introduction to Psychology. I found DSE141 had a very manageable workload with a good mix of text, audio and video materials. I found the materials interesting, very readable and easy to follow. The TMAs, iCMA and EMA were an enjoyable challenge that were accompanied with lots of support from my tutor and the module team as a whole. There was also an array of interactive online activities that complemented the main module materials and brought everything I had learnt together. I would highly recommended DSE141 to anybody studying Psychology or the Social Sciences, I'm sure you will love it!

Course starting: November 2011

Review posted: August 2012

Discovering Psychology was my first course with the OU and I absolutely loved it. Although I had sufficient credit transfer to start my Psychology Degree from the compulsory Level 2 course Exploring Psychology, I decided to study DSE141 as an introduction and to gain confidence in my study skills and I can say this module helped me achieve these objectives.

Since then I have completed DSE212 and realised I could easily have done so without DSE141; I am however glad I started with DSE141: the one DSE141 book nicely summarises what I then studied in three DSE212 books and is as interesting to read as a crime novel (I finished a page and could not but go on to the next until the small hours of the morning despite having to get up at 7 to go to work; this book will stay on my library shelf for a long time to come).

The activities online and at the tutorials are a good start to understand how to structure essays and reports; finally, there is plenty of audio and video material to help you understand the written material. Not all audio and video material is essential to pass the TMAs but is nevertheless very interesting. I was lucky I had a good tutor, who shared his tutorials with another group's tutor. Both tutors were very good, knowledgeable and supportive. As I learnt on other OU courses, although the OU tries to ensure all tutors score in the same way, this doesn't always happen as tutors have slightly different views of writing and referencing methods.

All in all a Level 1 course is good to learn how to formulate, write and present TMAs and EMAs in the format required by the OU to gain good marks in higher level courses which have a bearing on the calculation of your honours degree.

I would recommend it to all who start their Psychology degree unless they have already studied psychology in secondary education (who might as well start with DSE212) and to those who simply need an interesting 30-credit course to complete a different degree than Psychology.

Nirmala Bellino

Course starting: May 2011

Review posted: July 2012

This was my first 30-credit course with the OU and I loved it. The workload is very manageable and the material makes for interesting reading. The fact that there are no exams and only 2 TMAs and 1 end-of-course assignment means that there is no pressure to remember everything for a scary exam! My tutor was great - very encouraging and gave me the courage I needed to mentally commit to a BSc Psychology.

Course starting: May 2011

Review posted: June 2012

This was my first OU course on the path to a Psychology degree. I enjoyed the course a lot and found the materials, particularly the textbook to be interesting and informative. As it is a Level 1 course, the content matter (in my opinion) was not too difficult to get my head around, and was pulled together nicely with the 3 TMAs.

The tutorials and forums were also great in helping clear up any questions I had about anything. The pace of the course was fairly leisurely (I felt!) which was great to ease me back in to study with a manageable workload. That said, after getting ahead of schedule to begin with, I ended up with a bit of a rush towards TMA deadlines through my own complacency!

All in all, I would recommend DSE141 to anybody new to the OU interested in Psychology as it provides a good introduction to the subject area, and has lots of tutoring on essay writing, referencing etc and other academic skills that are useful in most areas of higher education study.

Katherine Harrison

Course starting: May 2011

Review posted: June 2012

I really enjoyed this course, it was my first proper course after my 10 credit starter course, loads of interesting material. I would totally recommend.

Course starting: November 2010

Review posted: June 2012

This was my first course in social sciences/psychology since completing an OU science degree and I have to say I did enjoy it despite having concerns about studying in a different subject area. The course book was well set out and the main points were made clear. I did find the TMAs hard going for a Level 1 course compared to science modules but passed with reasonable scores. The only criticism I have is that the chapters seemed brief and I'm not sure how much it prepares you for advancing onto the Level 2 'core' psychology course which I studied next. Overall I did enjoy the course and would recommend it.

Duncan Rivers

Course starting: May 2011

Review posted: June 2012