Information and communication technologies at work
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| 4 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-course assessment | No residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
Learning happens all the time and in all sorts of situations including the workplace, but it isn’t always recognised. This course enables you to gain academic credit for learning at work. Highly relevant to your career, it will develop your practical and professional skills and knowledge by completing real work-based activities designed to help you improve your work performance. You must be working in a role, whether paid or voluntary, that involves significant use of and/or management of ICTs. You will need someone other than your tutor – normally your line-manager – to authenticate, though not assess, some of your course work.
Course content
This course gives you the opportunity to achieve 30 points towards our higher education qualifications whilst working with information and communication technologies (ICTs). Studying the course will enable you to:
- develop your ability to learn from your work and apply learning in your workplace
- apply your understanding and knowledge of the theory and practice of ICTs within the workplace
- understand how contemporary ICTs are used at work
- develop your skills in understanding how your organisation functions
- evaluate and develop your personal and professional skills
- develop your personal and career development plans
- enhance your employability.
You will achieve this by working through a series of activities and assignments with support from your work colleagues and your course tutor. Guidance comes from the course book, The Manager’s Good Study Guide, which we’ll send you along with your other study materials. Additional support comes from the course website and forums, the Open University Library and selected websites and journal papers.
You will learn
Over the six months of the course, you’ll become a reflective practitioner, allowing you to deepen your understanding of your ICT practice in your work setting. You’ll learn how to evaluate your own work, and prepare and present evidence of your professional competence against, for example, the National Occupational Standards for the ICT sector and the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). By the end of the course, you should be able to provide evidence, based on your practice in your workplace, of your competence against most of the core learning outcomes of the foundation degree. You will also be in a position to take ICTs, change and projects at work (T226) (the Level 2 work-based learning course), another compulsory component of the ICT Foundation Degree.
Vocational relevance
This course allows you to develop, practise and enhance skills that are directly relevant to your work. These include:
- identifying and understanding key legislative and other issues relating to ICTs at work
- demonstrating an understanding of reflective practice and the ability to learn from your experience
- developing an initial personal development plan in relation to future goals
- identifying and selecting appropriate evidence of carrying out aspects of work roles relevant to the ICT standards expected in employment.
You’ll also be introduced to the concepts of continuing professional development (CPD).
Entry
You must have written permission from your employer to use your workplace to help you complete your studies on this course. When you register on the course, you will be sent a Permission Agreement Form (PAF) for you and your employer to complete and sign. It is vital that you return the PAF together with your other registration documents, as without it you cannot be registered on the course.
This course is a compulsory component of the Open University Foundation Degree in Information and Communication Technologies (G04) and Foundation Degree in Business Information Technology (G13) (Diploma of Higher Education in Business Information Technology (E45)). If you want to study for these qualifications, please link your registration for this course to them as it helps us to identify your future plans (you can alter this later should your plans change).
In order to successfully complete the course you must:
- be working in a suitable ICT setting in either a paid or voluntary capacity
- have access to ICT facilities for at least eight hours per week
- have permission to carry out work-based learning tasks in your work setting
- have a suitable person within your work setting who will confirm that the work you submit is based on your practice within that setting
- be competent in using the internet and office applications (e.g. word processing).
Further detailed information will be sent to you once you have registered for the course.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Qualifications
T121 is a compulsory course in our
- Foundation Degree in Business Information Technology (G13)
- Foundation Degree in Information and Communication Technologies (G04)
- Diploma of Higher Education in ICT (E39)
- Professional Certificate in ICT Practice (C89)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Business Information Technology (E45)
T121 is an optional course in our
- Certificate in Business Studies (C63)
- BA (Hons) Leadership and Management (B54)
- BA (Honours) Business Studies (B04)
- Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) (B24)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Business (E42)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Leadership and Management (E43)
- Foundation Degree in Business (G07)
- Foundation Degree in Leadership and Management (G08)
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it can help to weight your degree towards a BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader and mathematical, scientific, and foreign language materials may be particularly difficult to read in this way. Large print versions of the course material can be provided on request. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
The course materials will consist of course books and a website. The website will provide links to:
- electronic versions of the study guide and The Manager’s Good Study Guide
- relevant documents and templates
- computer-mediated forum for the course
- other relevant resources.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will be allocated to a tutor who will give you advice and guidance on the course requirements and will mark and comment on your written work. Your tutor is particularly concerned with helping you with your study methods and providing feedback on your assignments. You will be expected to communicate with your tutor and you may be offered some face-to-face tutorials that you are strongly recommended to attend. Where tutorials are held depends on the distribution of students taking each course. There may also be online tutorials in the computer forums.
From the beginning of the course you will be able to gain support from your peers through moderated computer forums, including your own tutor-group forum. In addition, you will have the opportunity to benefit from updates about changes to relevant policy and/or the requirements for the ICT Foundation Degree, via the course website.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit some of your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Three of the TMAs are for assessment purposes and one is used to return a short form relating to your workplace confirmer.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in November 2009 and May 2010. We expect it to be available twice a year in May and November.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Computing and ICT and Engineering and Technology.
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