The Open University

T209 Information and Communication Technologies: people and interactions

This is a new level 2, 60 point, technology course and I studied its first presentation in 2002. As the course was new there were a few problems with the presentation, although not as bad as I encountered in TT280.

However, a large number of students were unhappy with their marks for the ECA. They could not understand how they managed to score high marks for the TMA (Tutor Marked Assignments) yet scored so badly in the ECA (End of Course Assessment) which is just basically another TMA. Subsequent feedback from the course team stated the reason students lost marks in the ECA was because they did not pitch their ECA at the right technical level. The ECA was written in the form of a report, one part of which was for Board level directors, and one for the company intranet, as you can see two rather different writing styles were required.

Also the pass marks for this first presentation were amended. Usually, to gain a distinction, you need to pass with 85% on both the continuous assessment part of the course (TMA & CMA's) and on the examinable component (ECA or Written Exam). Luckily (for me) the distinction pass mark was dropped to 80% so I managed to gain a distinction with scores of 83% and 80%.

This course had a large 'reflective' element where we were supposed to 'reflect' on our learning experience and state how we could improve our performance or do things differently the next time round. This amounted to up to 10% of the marks on all the TMA's & ECA! The course also had a considerable amount of group working, where out tutor group were split into small sections and expected to collaborate on some of the course work and TMAs - one item was a 'peer review' of one our fellow students TMA answers!

The course consisted of 5 modules, each with an associated TMA, 3 of the modules also had CMA's (Computer Marked Assignments i.e. multiple choice questions). An ECA took the place of a written exam. To pass the course you needed to score at least 40% in each of the two components. As this is a level 2 course, the passes were graded into 4 bands (Distinction, grade 2 pass, grade 3 pass and grade 4 pass). The grades scored at course levels 2 & 3 determine what grade degree you end up with!

The modules were as follows:

1 In Touch and Informed

This was a look at mobile computing and telecommunications. We had a look at PDA's, system design and the various types of mobile telephony available. For the TMA we had to write a report on the technical suitability of WAP over GSM, GPRS and UMTS to provide the means for mobile access to an intranet of an imaginary courier delivery company.

2 Talking with computers

This was the module I liked best, we looked at speech recognition and design strategies. The software provided with this module allowed us to study vowel and consonant waveforms, phoneme transitions - basically how a computer recognises speech. For the TMA we used the CSLU RAD toolkit to create a user interface for a voice activated microwave oven!

3 Managing Networks

I was a bit disappointed with this module, which, as the title suggests, looks a network management (LANS & WANS etc). The network simulation software was, well, a bit Mickey Mouse, although it did demonstrate how routers, bridges, hubs etc worked and how quickly bandwidth can be consumed.

4 Cyborg

This was another disappointing module. The subject area was, I thought, too large and compared with the 3 previous topics a bit 'woolly'. This assignment was 'double weighted' meaning we had to do well in it get good overall course grades. This module was also different in that their was no printed course material (apart from the module guide) and we had to study from the course CD ROM, course website and surf the internet for further reference material.

Basically their were a number of subject areas (Cyborgs in groups, Bionics, Robotics, The Cyborg Perspective, Cyberspace, Cyberpunk, Identity and Views). For the TMA each member of our 'group' has to specialise in one topic area and construct a webpage on that topic, using quotes and references we found to illustrate the subject matter. As a group we also had to construct a summary webpage which gave an overview of the 'cyborg' concept and which linked to our individual web pages.

5 Security

I hate maths. Anyway this module was all about security and encryption and although the course notes say an understanding of maths is not a requirement, their was some fairly complex maths in this, especially when we got to the bit about the RSA algorithm and the Euler Totient Function!

[...]The core is that

P^KxK ≡ P mod n

will work as a decryption method provided that

K x K ≡ 1 mod Ø(n)

and particular relationships exist between the various components. These will occur under the following conditions:

the number corresponding to the plaintext is less than the modulus n
the modulus n is prime
K and Ø(n) are coprime

[...]

You should remember from Section 3.3 of this book that Ø(n) is the Euler Totient Function of n: that is, it is the quantity of smaller numbers that are coprime with n. Monk explains that when n itself is prime then every number smaller than n must be coprime since a prime number has only 1 and itself as factors. Thus, when n is prime Ø(n) is equal to (n-1). All primes except 2 are odd, but since we can discount the use of 2 as a modulus for practical purposes (n-1) will always be even and therefore will have a factor of 2. This means firstly that, to satisfy the third condition shown above, K itself must be an odd number, and secondly, that when n is prime the possible number of keys available will never be greater that n/2

Source : T209 Module 5 Book S : Security Page 41 The Open University 2002

(I hope some of the mathematical characters used above display OK on your browser!)

Perhaps it is unfair to quote the above section from the course book, but as you can see a decent understanding of Maths is very useful in this module. That said, the course did go over the basics of Prime Numbers, Factorisation and Modular Arithmetic.

For the TMA we were given the scenario of having an electronic, anonymous, 'suggestion box' system and had to describe the basics of encryption and how encryption could be used to meet the scenario. All in all this was a very interesting, if somewhat difficult, module.

6 The End of Course Assessment

The end of course assessment gave us a scenario of a company moving offices and we had to decide what form of networking technology was relevant for their new office, given the size and construction of the building, laptop and PDA usage and the fact that the company tests products that created radio interference! Basically this was a study of IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) and Bluetooth wireless technologies.