Distance Education (1 Viewer)

[White Rabbit]

I took a year off between school and Uni quite enjoyed working (and the money). I started Uni this year and while I love the social life, I the work and I miss the money and I want to go back to working, however I want my degree too.


Does anyone study through distance education? What's it like? Would you recommend it?

 

[LeftrightOut]

I am doing a Masters and GradDip through distance education at the same time. First semester last year I rocked in 8 subjects Passes to Distinctions, Second Semester I got through 5 failed 3. I'm redoing one subject this semester and will redo 2 next semester. This is while working "full time" and being around 400kms from both Universities.

For distance education you need to ask yourself:
- Do you want it bad enough?
- Do you know the subject area already?
- Do you want it bad enough?
- Will you have access to the Internet or whatever you need? Like if you do a science subject you got a lab?
- Do you want it bad enough?
- How are you with an out of uni lifestyle? Do you have clingy people in your life who might take time away from studying?
- Do you want it bad enough?
- Also do you know the secrets of the externalhood, those that know the secrets find things very easy. Same as those internals who "get the system" and work it to their advantage.

But lastly you need to want it bad enough to have the motivation, otherwise you will just get bored with it, put assignments off to last minute and fail. Second semester I didn't want it bad enough, now i'm just suffering through the last few subjects again, I could have passed easily I just ended up not wanting it bad enough. Next year I might want another Masters bad enough but right now i'm slightly burnt out and will just finish these 2 off.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

You could always study part time on campus if that is an option with your degree.... I think it would be quite possible to work full time and study part time if you were committed.

I reckon distance ed would be difficult... so isolated from other students and tutors etc.

 

[White Rabbit]

I was thinking about part time - it just means I'll have to wait 6 years for my degree. I'm considering applying for work with Orange Base hospital, or even Dubbo Base. I'd love to stay in Bathurst, but the Base hospital is horrible. Orange would be my first choice however - which means I'd move to Orange and transfer to Orange Campus.

I'm going to wait till the end of the year no matter what I do, and I'll talk to my lectures. Thanks for your help though!

 

[+Po1ntDeXt3r+]

i kno a friend doing a double at different unis..
med
and
business..

hes stressin

 

[noneother]

I doubt he would need both, the med should suffice

 

[rific]

I'm doing my degree at Newcastle Uni, but am doing two subjects to complete a minor specialisation sequence through Open Universities Australia (www.open.edu.au) which coordinates 7 unis from across Australia, you can do either a full degree through one of the uni's or do what I'm doing and tack on a couple credit points to a 'normal' degree.

Getting organised can be hard - right now I should be studying for a 35% exam tomorrow morning and I'm 2 or 3 weeks behind in the readings, but that aside, I like the freedom of studying when I want to, and doing it this way, I still have access to the newcastle uni law library, but they do organise to mail out books from a uni library (which I hear is pretty efficient).

The social side is a bit different, although the uni I'm doing mine through (Griffith, Qld) does have online discussion boards for the specific classes and OUA has online forums as well, for the specific classes and for distance ed students in general.

Last thing, OUA and the unis it represents runs most classes at least twice a year, and some are available more times than that - instead of 2 semesters they run 4 study periods, so you can stretch study out over an entire year if you're worried about doing uni and work at the same time.