Using technologies in your
studies
Nigel Gibson
What we’ll cover
• The dreaded eTMA system
• Other stuff
• Hints and tips
Sorry but…..
• This is going to be more “show and tell” than “hands
on”
• If you want to pretend you have a PC in front of you
…..
eTMAs
• Creation
• Submission
• Return
eTMAs - Creation
• Must be a Word document unless the course stipulates
otherwise
• Must be a Word 1997 – 2003 file type rather than docx
from Office 2007
• If you are required to submit a number of different files
you will need to zip them – instructions and a tool to do
this are on the OLA CD
Making a Word doc
• Using OpenOffice (or MS Works)
• I’ll show other ways later
Submitting your eTMA
Submitting your eTMA
Submitting your eTMA
Submitting your eTMA
Submitting your eTMA
Submitting by email
• Send your assignment as an attachment
• Must be the same file format as demanded by the webbased submission route
• Check the process – it goes to etma@open.ac.uk but
you must adhere to specific protocol for the subject line
• Don’t email your assignment to your tutor
Getting your eTMA back
• You’ll get a message telling you it’s ready to download
• If you sent it by email it’ll be returned the same way to
the same email address
Getting your eTMA back
eTMAs
• Any questions?
Some other stuff
• I’m going to suggest a few different tools you might try
• They are all web-based or web related
• One advantage of web-based tools is that you can
access your resources wherever you are and using any
PC (handy for studying during lunch break at work)
• Everything I mention is free (although most also have a
“for fee” service so make sure you pick the right one)
Before we go any further
• Be safe online
• Know something about what you are doing – car?
• Protect yourself
Firewall
• A firewall gets in the
• You and the web
way and filters out
• Send and receive information
the bad stuff
• Some is bad!
• http://www.zonelabs.com
Antivirus
• People who write viruses haven’t all agreed to release
them on Friday at 17:00 
• So do you think you are protected if you only update
once each week?
• Use an AV application which updates and scans daily
(at least)
• Free ones include AVG (http://free.avg.com/)
Browser
• If the browser you are using isn’t the latest version you
may be at risk
• You are at increased risk if you are using Internet
Explorer
• If possible update to the latest version of IE and/or use
another browser
Delicious
•
•
•
•
A place to store your bookmarks
Online
And share them
http://delicious.com
Diigo
• Bookmarks and tags like Delicous
• Add comments to web sites – other Diigo users can
see your comments and you can see theirs
• http://www.diigo.com/
Zotero
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use it to collect, manage and store online research
Automatically grabs the web page URL
Can be used to add notes about the source
And keep a copy of the page
http://www.zotero.org/
(Needs Firefox)
Wikis
• Personal wikis are great
for keeping notes
• Can be “hidden” or
publically available
• Lots of free wikis – I use
http://pbwiki.com
• More Googley goodness………
Google Reader
Google Documents
Google docs
Google docs
Google docs
Google docs – output types
Some benefits of Google docs
• Accessible wherever you are
• Can be shared with others – useful for collaborative
work
• You don’t need your own word
processor/spreadsheet/etc
Converting files
• ZamZar
• Coverts from and to an amazing range of filetypes
including:
• PDF to Word
• Works to Word
• OpenOffice to Word
Finally
•
•
•
•
There are lots of tools out there
As long as you take care it’s worth trying them out
There is a community of students using technology
Any questions?
This presentation is available
online
• http://www.slideshare.net/nogbad/using-technologies-in-your-studies
• Or
• http://croyden.nogbad.co.uk