Learning outcomes After studying this course, you should be able to: manage time more effectively when revising and in the exam itself learn, or brush up on, revision and exam skills feel equipped to approach exams with less anxiety and stress.
Acknowledgements
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References Keep on learning   There are more than 800 courses on OpenLearn for you to 7 Conclusion Reading is a core activity in most courses of study. The purpose of it is to enable you to learn. But learning is not a passive process, you don't just let ideas wash over you. You have to make sense of them as you read and then use them to think with. 5.1.6 Are the conclusions justified? Though I was interested in the idea of treating high incomes as ‘pollution’, I did wonder whether taxing people to pay for the pollution caused by their rising incomes would work. In general though I was reasonably convinced by the conclusions Layard drew. On the other hand, if I was studying the subject more seriously, I might find that wider reading and further thought would make some of the conclusions seem less convincing. 5.2 The application The first application I shall describe is that of an online bookseller. Such a book sales system would carry out a number of functions: It would allow the user to browse through a catalogue of books. It would allow the user to browse through a list of the most popular books, with the list being updated every hour. It would provide the facility whereby a user can buy books and add them to a notional shopping basket. Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to thinking skills. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance, and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 9 Putting it all together We have covered a wide range of aspects of thinking, particularly those concerned with clear and critical thinking. At this stage, you may find it useful to consider how ideas like these can be put together in ways that will help you when you engage in activities such as reading, writing, speaking and listening. Here is a checklist to use when making judgements about things that you hear, see and experience. Who is speaking or writing? W 8.3 Academic arguments You have looked at some examples of everyday arguments, now look at a short example of an academic argument. Read the argument below. Compare and contrast it to the previous examples of arguments you 8.2 Broadening perception Particular perspectives and points of view underpin speaking and writing. Being successful at many academic tasks, including balanced argument, often requires us to be conscious of and to try to break away from our usual perspectives and ways of thinking, and to attend to things we might not normally notice. The challenge is often to be more open-minded and broad in our thinking, to consider more than one point of view in the way that the caffeine article did. It can be useful to have strateg 3.1.1 Background information Gamelan is the name given to a number of related musical ensembles in Indonesia. These ensembles comprise various types of instruments, the majority made of metal and most struck with beaters. There are several gamelan traditions, of which three are particularly well-known. These three are, moving from east to west, the Balinese, Javanese and Sundanese gamelans. (The term Javanese gamelan normally refers to the tradition developed in central Java; the Sundanese, who occupy the western part of 5.3 The architecture The architecture of the system is shown in Figure 4. It consists of a number of components. The most important of these is the web server. This communicates with browsers used by customers. There are two other computers that are used in the system which are directly connected to the web server: a mail server which sends and receives mail from customers and a mailing list server which administers the mailing lists of customers and their interests. Both these servers communicate with the 5.2 The application The first application I shall describe is that of an online bookseller. Such a book sales system would carry out a number of functions: It would allow the user to browse through a catalogue of books. It would allow the user to browse through a list of the most popular books, with the list being updated every hour. It would provide the facility whereby a user can buy books and add them to a notional shopping basket. 7.3 Systematic approaches Having a systematic step-by-step process for thinking about certain academic tasks can be particularly useful so that everything is done as efficiently as possible. For example, the DANCE system (Rose and Nicholl, 1997) is one of many tools for solving problems. D - Define and clarify what the problem really is (sometimes it is not initially clear). What are your goals? A - Think of a range of alternative ways of solving the prob 6.2 Turning the spotlight on your work Having established some general principles, try now to subject your own work to the same scrutiny. Take one of your most recent essays or reports and ask yourself, ‘What does it look like?’ That is, d 8.4 Carrying out research During this stage you get down to the business of analysing and interpreting the meanings of all your primary and secondary source material (documents, reports, newspaper accounts, books and articles), in the ways outlined in the previous sections of this course. As you do so you will be making notes towards your project report. In this connection, it is very important to write down full references for all the material you use as you read each item. Then you can easily find part 8.3 Planning your enquiry I am grateful to Tony Coulson, Liaison Librarian (Arts) at The Open University, for his help with this section; also to Magnus John, Information Services Manager, International Centre for Distance Learning. At this stage, you will be deciding what methods of enquiry to use and the scale of investigation to attempt. Will examining company papers, government reports and newspapers provide enough of the right kind of information? Or, since independent broadcasting comp Conclusion This free course provided an introduction to studying Business & Management. It took you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance, and helped to improve your confidence as an independent learner. 1 Communication The basis of good communication seems very simple, it is speaking or writing clearly such that any message you (the sender) intend to send to someone else (the receiver) is exactly the one which they receive. This means that as well as the detailed content of the message, we have to give some thought to the language we use e.g. ask ourselves if the receiving person might misunderstand any words or phrases we use. We must also be aware of the way we deliver the message –
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Key points
Activity 26
Activity 14
