Where to draw the line

You may remember I told you about the slightly annoying man in my OU tutor group, well he is the provocation for this post.  We'll call him Derek.

Not only does he like the sound of his own voice, but on Saturday he kept coming back to one paragraph on one page of the course book that had irritated him and not illustrated the point clearly for him; we all agreed that it was a bit of an odd example, but then the rest of us had moved on.  I can imagine him reading it over and over again thinking "what a ridiculous example, I don't get it, what does it mean? I don't get it, what a ridiculous example... {repeat to fade}".

I fear he is going to become my Big Irritation.

We have an online forum for our tutor group, which is great because not all of the groups do apparently. Those who don't have to wade through reams of posts on the general DSE212 course forum - honestly, who has the time or mental energy? At there moment there are only about 4 of us who have used our tutor group forum but I hope more will join in the discussions.

So, Derek has just appeared on the group forum asking stuff about the first essay, things which really he shouldn't need to ask because the material is right there in the course book, and seriously isn't rocket science.  And now he is directly asking me questions (because I let slip I'd already written it) to which I would have liked to answer "Are you seriously asking me that??" but managed to appeal to my more literate and polite side for a reply.

So this made me think about the whole 'students working together' thing. And I accept that I may think differently to others, because I am a self-professed Lone Worker, though I suspect this might change as things get more complicated in my course-work over the next few years!   Mostly, in both studying and at work, I like to try and work to figure things out myself and only ask for help if I get completely stuck.

Yes I agree of course that students gain from discussing subjects amongst themselves and teasing out the points and arguments etc., and I appreciate that other people work differently to me; but at what point do you say "Listen mate, you get on with your essay and I'll get on with mine, ok?  I'm not going to help you write it."