Hello,

Does anyone do an OU course? – if yes do you have any advice about what computer/software would be most suitable?

Does work have to be submitted in MS Office format or are others (Google Docs, Libre Office ODT etc.).

This is for an access course and some of the work requires watching DVDs.

I guess a bog standard Windows laptop with DVD would be best but I would like to know if a MacBook or Chromebook would be ok?

This is for a total computer novice so I like the idea of a Chromebook although I realize they do not have DVD drives.

The DVDs can apparently be watched on a DVD player or I guess I could rip them to USB.

Thanks

Chromebook would probably be fine, if you email your documents. But you’ve described what 95% of computers are used for so basically anything.

All DVD content for my course last year was on the website anyway.

A laptop running MS Office 2010 would be ideal.

You can get MS Office (the real one from Microsoft rather than an MS Office-like application) for the Mac if you fancy a Mac. It’s fine for documents etc.

If you’re getting adventurous in VBA programming or need Access and ODBC, you may struggle but otherwise, you’ll be fine.

Not sure about OU formats. I did some courses about 10 years ago and was fine with OpenOffice saving as .doc files but my needs were pretty simple. Also, I think other formats have won more acceptance in the last decade.

i completed an ou degree in 2013. it really depends what modules you are taking but from my own experiences, a windows pc running ms office for word doc assignment submissions seemed to be the best option.

I guess a bog standard Windows laptop with DVD would be best but I would like to know if a MacBook or Chromebook would be ok?

You aren’t going to go wrong with a standard Windows laptop. Suspect a Macbook would also be fine. Might be worth looking at something refurbed with Win 7 if monies tight, it’d do all you need and Win8 is a bit of an acquired taste.

Chromebook would more than likely be OK too, but depending on your course and technical ability might require a bit more hoop jumping than the first two options. If they are mailing you DVDs I’d probably get something that can run them just to put it all in one place.

Argos have Acer i5, 4GB ram, 1TB hard drive laptops at £349. That’ll keep you going for a few years.

Chromebook – £200
Macbook – £800

No point in a Mac, for you.

Saw some reasonable looking Windows laptops in John Lewis for just over £200 the other day – amazing.

Set your budget to max £350 for a laptop because that will be more than enough for normal usage. I was looking at some yesterday with ASUS coming up top with i5 processors at Curry/PC world … think John Lewis got some too.

Is there no guidance available from the OU or the course tutors ?

Is there no guidance available from the OU or the course tutors ?

i’ve never met 5 more technophobic people than my course tutors 😆

there always used to be guidance on system requirements, compatibility issues etc on each course webpage though.

Don’t get a chrome book because you can’t run Mendeley on it. And you WILL want to run Mendeley to manage references etc.

Windows or Mac will be fine.

When I finished my masters last year, the TMA upload service could only handle .doc files – not .docx

Thanks for the replies and sorry if my questions seemed a bit random. The computer would be for my wife who was put off computers by the animated paper clip in Office 2000.

I have a Chromebook that she could use if it was acceptable. I do not really want to buy a big clunky Windows laptop with DVD but accept it might be the best option if I can get one with Windows 7 – 8 would terrify her!

And when we went to have a look at computers she likes the MacBook Air hence me asking about that.

Decent enough if you can afford it 🙂 You don’t need to spend that much of course but if you have the cash then go ahead.

External DVD drive sorts the “clunky” laptop part out.

I have a MacBook Air with the Apple Superdrive (external DVD drive, nice and slim, no extra power cables, just the one USB lead). Very pleased.

You should, and should be able to, submit work in PDF format. I do. It’s the safest way anyway as it looks the same on any computer and prints as expected (unlike submitting as a Word document, which can leave margins, paragraphs, fonts etc all over the place, depending on the versions and formatting used). I think PDF’s look very professional when submitted/opened as well.

I don’t have problems opening documents sent by anyone else at the University (or anywhere), and so far I’ve not had anyone tell me they can’t open mine (Pages can save as PDF, or as Word).

So, if you have the money, and like them, then a MacBook Air is great. Not needed (bt then neither is a 3k full suss or Audi A5), but nice to have 8) No need to be concerned about software issues for Uni, not that I’ve found anyway.

The only software you’ll need to buy is,perhaps, Papers, or some other reference manager. This is £39 for students, and well worth it I think. I had Mendeley and it was good, but not compatible with Pages on the Mac (and wasn’t great with Word either). Papers looks much better, be it for Windows or Mac, and well worth spending money on. Also have a look at Evernote. I’m using it, and it is brilliant. Free, or £4 a month, I’ve used the free version for 4 months now and will soon be paying. Works on your laptop and phone, like a giant scrapbook for anything. Really worth a try for everything, from website links to research documents, bills and receipts, to photos of takeaway menus.

Personally I didn’t go for a chrome book because you need access to the web to do anything on them. All your software etc is on the web, storage is mostly on the web. That’s great unless you want to read or work on stuff when you’re not connected to the internet.

Chromebook is no good, you often need to install software. just get a bog standard Windows laptop, even the Celeron ones you get now are pretty powerful.

Personally I didn’t go for a chrome book because you need access to the web to do anything on them.

Not true.

When I did my OU years ago in object oriented programming there was a lot of software sent out on dvd but I suppose there are downloads now. I’d give the chromebook a try but reckon you will end up with a cheap windows laptop.

Personally I didn’t go for a chrome book because you need access to the web to do anything on them.

Not true.

The sales assistant in the Samsung store talked themselves out of a sale then. The way it was explained was a 16GB HDD was plenty, because the software and documents are all stored on the cloud. If that were true, I don’t see how you can work on them without having access to the web/cloud.

I’ve just bought the Mrs this Lenovo for her OU course which starts soon. Only £300 and there’s an offer on for £50 cashback.

Pretty decent spec and plenty powerful enough, it does have windows 8 though if that bothers you?

Unless they have radically changed I would be surprised that a Chromebook would work for you as they were designed to be pretty much a thin client for Google the internet. And are only really functional when they have an internet connection.

If you do want MS Office there is a pretty useful deal on for students at the moment where for around £70 you get Office 365 for 4 years. That comes with 60 minutes of Skype calls per month, all of the main Office programmes and 1Tb of storage. Almost a bargain.

The decision will be driven by how much you want to spend and what features are important to you. Spend a bit more and you could get an ultrabook – light, long battery life but won’t have a built in optical drive. Easily solved by an external USB powered one for around £20 – or push the boat out and spend £60 for the Samsung external Blu Ray, CD, DVD reader / writer. Expect to spend somewhere around £600 though for a reasonable one that will also give you HD graphics (Lenovo U430 for example). Not fussed about going beyond 1366 x 768 then you can get away with spending a lot less.

Or, if money is no object then splash out on a MacBook – just try not to wince too much when paying for it. They do a student discount on them but I suspect that may only be around 10% and you can only access it by connecting to the Apple web site form the University campus network.

And are only really functional when they have an internet connection.

NOT TRUE!

Google apps work offline. So you can read and write stuff offline.

I recently bought a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad for £170 (including delivery), and it’s awesome. OK, it looks pretty industrial like it’s used in movies to arm/disarm nuclear bombs, but it’s powerful enough to run Creative Suite and Unity3d without a hitch. Right bargain.

No DVD drive though, but that’s not a problem for me as I’ve not used a DVD drive on a PC for years – I tend to download applications directly from their websites, and store stuff either on the harddrive, on a USB stick or in Dropbox/Google Drive.

With Google Docs and Open Office, you can save documents as Word .docs, and open and edit .docs (although you have to remember to re-save them as .docs afterwards). If you did want to just stick to Microsoft Office, you can use Word Online, which is kind of their equivalent of Google Docs.

WackoAK – Member

I’ve just bought the Mrs this Lenovo for her OU course which starts soon. Only £300 and there’s an offer on for £50 cashback.

Pretty decent spec and plenty powerful enough, it does have windows 8 though if that bothers you?

That’s a good price.

Did you also buy Microsoft Office?

I might get one as a back up for my PC.

🙂

May be of interest to you,

http://www.software4students.co.uk/t/categories/microsoft-office

That’s a good price.

Did you also buy Microsoft Office?

I might get one as a back up for my PC.

I have spare licenses for office365 (from work) so that’ll be going on it.
It’s just been delivered so I’ll be removing all the installed apps bloatware later..