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Team engineering

Team engineering aims to develop the essential professional engineering skill of working with others. There are two weekend residential schools: you’ll work as part of a small project team, formed at the first weekend residential school. Projects will encompass a broad sweep of engineering, requiring cooperative development of the knowledge and skills needed to analyse an engineering system and produce a revised specification for that system. You’ll work together in a team, meeting regularly online and using a shared virtual workspace, under guidance from your tutor. Your team’s results will be presented and assessed at the second residential weekend school and through submission of a written report.

Vocational relevance

This module will be the culmination of work towards your Master of Engineering (M04) or Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering (E22) – and is aimed at providing the academic base for professional recognition as a Chartered Engineer.

Qualifications

T885 is a compulsory module in our:

This module can also count towards M03, which is no longer available to new students.

Postgraduate Loans

If you study this module as part of an eligible qualification, you may be eligible for a Postgraduate Loan. For more information, see Fees and funding.

Module

Module code
T885
Credits

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
30
Study level

Across the UK, there are two parallel frameworks for higher education qualifications, the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Northern Ireland and Wales (FHEQ) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). These define a hierarchy of levels and describe the achievement expected at each level. The information provided shows how OU postgraduate modules correspond to these frameworks.

OU Postgraduate
SCQF 11
FHEQ 7
Study method
Distance learning
Find out more in Why the OU?
Module cost
See Module registration
Entry requirements

Find out more about entry requirements.

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Module details Entry requirements Module registration Study materials

What you will study

This module provides an opportunity for you to explore an engineering problem in depth, working as part of a small team. Your team will choose its problem from a number of options, each with a particular engineering focus but all involving a broad range of engineering skills – from design through structural and control engineering to sustainability.

You will attend two weekend residential schools that run over three days, from Friday to Sunday. At the first one, which takes place at the very start of the module, you will learn about functioning effectively as a team and get to know each other by confronting a variety of practical and intellectual challenges. You will join with fellow students to form a team of four or five. Your team will select its engineering problem from those on offer and refine it into a project. 

After the first weekend, and working at a distance from the other team members, you will individually and jointly pursue agreed lines of enquiry on your engineering project. Your progress through the project is charted in your team wiki, in online video conference records of team meetings and in team and individual reports, submitted as tutor-marked assignments.

All the teams will report back at the second residential weekend some 20 weeks later. This will give you a chance to engage in discussions with other students and staff members before developing a plan for your final project report, which is your end-of-module assessment (EMA). This is submitted several weeks later.

This is a not a content-focused module. Instead, you and your team will be responsible for gathering together the information you need to pursue your project. You will be supplied with a project brief and with background material about group working and project management. You will have access to a full range of information resources through the internet and online or conventional libraries. You will keep in touch with your tutor and work collaboratively with your fellow team members through frequent , regular online meetings and your team wiki.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will be allocated to your tutor at the first compulsory residential weekend. Your tutor will be responsible for monitoring your progress on the module, marking and commenting on your written work and you can contact them for advice and guidance. Your tutor will also mediate an online forum for your tutor group and oversee collaborative team-working tasks which are an essential feature of the module.

Contact us if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.

You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.

Two of the assignments will be joint submissions from your team, and two are personal accounts of your achievements and your contribution to the work of your team. The end-of-module assignment, which must be submitted online, also consists of a group and individual project report.

Professional recognition

This is a compulsory module of the Master of Engineering (M04) and the Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering (E22) and provides the essential group-working skills required for graduates hoping to become Chartered Engineers.

Residential School

Satisfactory attendance at the first residential school is required. Non-attendance at the first weekend will result in you being withdrawn from this module and losing a proportion of fees paid, the remainder of which can be used as a discount towards the cost of the same or another module if used within 18 months of the start of T885.

Should you not be able to participate in the second residential weekend, it will be reflected in your assessment scores. You will lose a proportion of the continuous assessment marks for the module and the team's score for the team presentation may also be affected.

Residential weekends for the module starting in September are usually in September and February. For the module starting in January, the residential weekends are usually in January and June.

The cost of the residential weekends, including accommodation and meals but excluding travel, is included in the fee.

Course work includes

4 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)
End-of-module assessment
Embedded residential school

Future availability

Team engineering (T885) starts twice a year – in January and September. This page describes the module that will start in September 2018 and January 2019. We expect it to start for the last time in September 2020.

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations which are available on our Essential Documents website.

    Entry requirements

    Registration is restricted to those who have satisfactorily completed 90 credits of approved postgraduate study and who have otherwise completed the requirements for the Master of Engineering (M04) or the Postgraduate Diploma in Engineering (E22). 

    After you have reserved a place on this module, we will check that you fulfil the entry requirements and your reservation may be cancelled if you do not. We aim to confirm about your place on the module within two weeks.

    Your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for postgraduate study. If English is not your first language, we recommend that you will need a minimum overall score of 6 and minimum score of 5.5 in each of the four components: reading, writing, speaking and listening under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Please see the IELTS website for details.

    If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.

    Outside the UK

    The module is suitable for a European-wide audience, but you must attend the UK-based residential schools.

    Register

    Start End England fee Register
    14 Sep 2018 Jun 2019 £1945.00

    Registration closes 16/08/18 (places subject to availability)

    Register
    18 Jan 2019 Oct 2019 £1945.00

    Registration closes 13/12/18 (places subject to availability)

    Register
    This module is expected to start for the last time in September 2020.

    Future availability

    Team engineering (T885) starts twice a year – in January and September. This page describes the module that will start in September 2018 and January 2019. We expect it to start for the last time in September 2020.

    Additional costs

    Study costs

    There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as a laptop, travel to tutorials, set books and internet access.

    Residential school

    This module includes one or more compulsory residential schools. You’ll have to pay for your own travel to and from the venues.

    Ways to pay

    We know there’s a lot to think about when choosing to study, not least how much it’s going to cost and how you can pay.

    That’s why we keep our fees as low as possible and offer a range of flexible payment and funding options. To find out more see Fees and funding.

    Study materials

    What's included

    Study material is available online from the module website. In addition, some printed materials and an audio CD pack will be delivered to you.

    You will need

    You will be using your computer regularly and extensively to work in real time with your team, at times to be negotiated with your fellow team members. 

    If you expect to use a computer from within a corporate network secured by a firewall, you should contact your IT department to make sure you will be able to use appropriate communications software. If you believe that this may be problem, you should get some more information from the module team before registering. 

    For computing at home, it is strongly recommended that you have a broadband connection.

    You will required to purchase any specialised software needed to pursue your chosen project.

    Computing requirements

    A computing device with a browser and broadband internet access is required for this module.  Any modern browser will be suitable for most computer activities. Functionality may be limited on mobile devices.

    Any additional software will be provided, or is generally freely available. However, some activities may have more specific requirements. For this reason, you will need to be able to install and run additional software on a device that meets the requirements below.

    A desktop or laptop computer with either:

    • Windows 7 or higher
    • macOS 10.7 or higher

    The screen of the device must have a resolution of at least 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 pixels vertically.

    To participate in our online-discussion area you will need both a microphone and speakers/headphones. 

    Our Skills for OU study website has further information including computing skills for study, computer security, acquiring a computer and Microsoft software offers for students. 

    If you have a disability

    Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future.

    You may find Day 2 of the residential school tiring, when sessions begin at 09:00 and end at approximately 21:00. There is a 15-minute break in the morning and afternoon, 45 minutes for lunch and an hour for dinner.

    If you have particular study requirements please tell us as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Find out more about our services for disabled students.