Smiling Clare

Living Life, Within the Limits of Chronic Illness

FutureLearn: Developing Your Research Project Week 8 & Completion!

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On 14th August 2015

In Studying

It’s difficult to believe it’s been 8 weeks since I begun this course, the time has flown by and I’ve loved every minute spent doing the tasks!

In the final week presenting your research project was discussed. This is something I don’t think I will have to do in my university module but it’s useful to have the knowledge there just in case. There’s a very useful checklist provided during this week, to help you prepare for presenting a project and I learned some useful tips for coping with nerves and engaging with the audience. The educators made clear it’s not possible to teach someone how to practise the delivery of the presentation or how to deliver it in itself, but like I said they did offer some very useful tips and techniques.

Overall this course has been brilliant, it’s exceeded all expectations I had for it when I signed up at the beginning of June. Despite having been at university for five years, I’ve learned a lot and where I did know the topics covered, this course has reinforced my knowledge meaning I now feel better prepared to undertake a project. I can’t recommend it enough, so if you’re about to embark on a project of any sort I strongly suggest giving it a go!

Current and future runs of this course are available here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/research-project-3/details

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Project Walking: A New Type of Physio

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On 13th August 2015

In Goals

For the last few months Project Walking has been put on the back burner, I was either spending almost all of my energy on university work, coping with the loss of a loved one or simply just too poorly to attempt it. But I’m happy to say things are now on the up and I’m feeling a lot better than I have been.

Another reason things ground to a halt on Project Walking, was because the Wii Fit has been packed away while the living room is decorated. As this was my main form of building the strength back up in my legs, I’ve had to have a rethink of how to do this while the living room is being done up.

Now I’m well enough to start building the strength back up in my legs again, I’ve established a new physio routine. Decorating. An hour or two every other day is spent helping with the decorating going up and down some steps, standing and stretching and when I start getting tired or increased pain I stop. Not only does this help me with strengthening my legs (and therefore hopefully my ability to walk further) but it also means I’m helping out, doing something useful. And at the end of most days there is a little more of the room painted; which I can say I did.

Obviously there are some restrictions to when this exercise can be done; because it involves using steps it can’t be done when there’s no one else in the house. It also depends on the day, if I don’t feel too good I don’t do it. And often a days rest is needed in between decorating days; not so much because I’ve overdone it but to make sure I don’t overdo it and give my legs a chance to recover a bit. I don’t want to push it too far too soon.

It may sound a bit of an odd way to build up my muscles and I don’t want people thinking I’m well because of what I’m managing. I’m still moderately affected by M.E. The days I do decorating I don’t do much else, the majority of the afternoon is spent resting (or dozing). But I know if I want to get back to walking up the road I need to work on my leg muscles, and if I can help my family out along the way it’s a bonus. I depend on them so much it’s nice to be able to give a little something back, even if it is a slow process. And so far it seems to be working; I still struggle to get up the stairs some nights, but it is slowly getting a bit easier. Now that’s something positive to focus on!

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FutureLearn: Developing Your Research Project Week 7

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On 7th August 2015

In Studying

The penultimate week of this course, time really does fly when you’re enjoying learning new things!

This week covered writing up your research, and the different ways to go about this. It was interesting to see how different people go about writing research up in different ways. For me I tend to create a rough structure of my report/essay as I make notes on and find sources, slotting them into place as I go along. It helps me develop a flow to my argument and means I can identify any spots in my argument which could do with a little more evidence and sources. Once I’ve got that I start on my first of many drafts, writing, reviewing and rewriting until I’m happy with what I’ve written or at least happy enough to submit it as my assignment!

Abstracts were also explained and we were encouraged to write an abstract of our research proposal for a peer-to-peer review. I found this was very helpful in a number of ways; it made me think about my research proposal and refocus my ideas as I wrote the abstract, giving feedback to a fellow learner allowed me to develop my critical analysis while writing in a supportive manner and receiving feedback from a fellow learned has allowed me to review my abstract and hopefully improve it.

All in all this week has helped me identify my writing style and develop my abstract writing abilities. I’m looking forward to next week, although will be sad it is the final week!

Current and future runs of this course are available here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/research-project-3/details

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FutureLearn: Developing Your Research Project Weeks 5 & 6

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On 4th August 2015

In Studying

In weeks 5 and 6 of this course the subjects of Academic Reading and Referencing were covered. I found both of these very interesting, although I could whizz through a lot of it having gained some knowledge of it through my Open University studies.

For the most part I found my academic reading abilities were up to scratch although I found I do have a weakness in deconstructing an academic argument; something which I shall try and improve in the coming weeks and months before my next university module commences.

As for referencing I’d forgotten how many different referencing systems there were to choose from! I use the Harvard Referencing System as it is the specified one at my university, and I will stick to it for that reason. But the choice available is phenomenal! The most interesting part of that week for me was the use of apps to aid with referencing; several were mentioned but I think the one I’m going to try is RefMe as I will be able to use it on my phone and tablet as well as my desktop and laptop!

I’ve already made a start on the seventh week of this course so a blog post on that should be coming up very soon!

Current and future runs of this course are available here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/research-project-3/details 

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