Process instructions – technical guidance

‘How to submit your assignments’ (Open University, languages students)

I revised and maintained this standard guidance document, updating it regularly in the light of technical changes. For languages students , assignment submission was particularly complex when they needed to submit an recording of themselves speaking the target language. This required them not only to use an audio recorder but also to zip their audio file with any text files they also needed to submit for that assignment

From the opening summary:

When submitting your assignment via the electronic system, you should ensure that the single file that you are submitting contains all of the work you want to be assessed. If you submit more than one file for a TMA to the system, each submission will overwrite the previous one. …

You will not be allowed to resubmit your assignment after the cut-off date if it turns out that you have sent the wrong file or an incomplete version, or if you have overwritten part of your assignment by submitting a second file.

‘Typing accented and special characters’ (FutureLearn, Spanish for Beginners)

Most European languages other than English use various accented or special characters, which an English-speaking student must learn to produce on a computer keyboard. Instructing them how to do this is complicated that there are various ways to produce these characters, which are different on different devices.

For The Open University’s first language course on FutureLearn, Spanish for Beginners, I radically re-wrote an existing OU document to include guidance on Apple and mobile devices which were not previously covered.

From the start of the FutureLearn guidance page:

Spanish has a variety of accented and special characters and it is important that you use them in writing. (The quizzes in this course will mark your answer as incorrect if you leave out an accent which should be there!) If you are typing a document, there are several ways of producing these characters depending on the device and the keyboard….