School, in the most conventional sense of the word, is not for everyone. At least, that’s the argument I put forward to my mother when I was 15 and wanted to be home-schooled. While I failed to win the argument at the time, there’s no doubt that distance learning can be a highly positive and rewarding educational experience. Despite this, it is a challenging learning model if you’ve been through the traditional school and university system like I have – because it is so incredibly different. In the 21st century, this means trading the classroom for a desk and a computer screen, paper books and course notes for downloadable ebooks and pdfs and tutorials for forum discussions. While it’s a lot to get your head around, it’s an increasingly popular learning model and with the flexibility and convenience it offers, this is not surprising.
Distance learning has its challenges, but with the right approach you can make it easier. Image Credit: Liubov
If you’re reading this you’ve probably already decided to take the leap and enroll in a distance learning course to broaden your skills base. Congratulations! And now for some shameless self-promotion: if you haven’t already signed up for a course, check out the Quirk Certificate Course in eMarketing, presented by Getsmarter. Whatever course you’re doing - though I do hope it’s ours :) - here are some tips to help you make a success of your course.
1. Set goals
Any half-baked self help book worth its salt will tell you that setting goals is an important step on the road to success. When you’re undertaking a distance learning course the principle is no different. Without some idea of what you’re trying to achieve, how do you plan to achieve it? The objectives you set should cover long term outcomes (I will use the knowledge from my eMarketing course to improve conversion on my website to 25% by the end of the year) as well as short term ones (I will get 80% for the course) and they should be specific. This process of goal setting will give you a measure against which to benchmark your success and will let you know whether you need to put your nose to the grindstone or whether you can ease up a little.
2. Set up a study schedule
Without the discipline of regular classes and the accountability that results from having to answer to your teacher in person staying motivated can be difficult. It’s all too easy to put off the work you have to do with the belief that you can catch up at a later stage of the game. Deciding in advance how you’re going to fit your course work and studying in with the rest of your commitments is critical. It’s unlikely that you’ll benefit from the course if you’re rushing through your work on the last possible day.
The solution here is to divide the work you need to cover and the assignments you have to complete into manageable blocks. Reward yourself once each block is complete if it’s an extra motivational boost that you’re after. Once you have your calendar planned, try to stick to it as closely as possible; even if you don’t manage to stick to it rigorously all the time. Guilt can be an excellent motivator and knowing you have defaulted on your commitment to yourself will make you more likely to catch up the work you didn’t do.
3. Find practical applications for what you are learning
Applying what you are learning to situations in your own life can be very helpful in consolidating your knowledge and for deriving the most value from your course. If you’re learning about PPC, set up a campaign for your products or services with a small budget and track its progress. For Social Media, make sure you are running active social networking profiles, starting a blog and getting involved in the conversation around your industry. Approaching learning in this hands-on way will ensure that your learning is not only theoretical but that once the course is over, you will have the confidence to use what you learnt. Trying out your skills early on can also help to raise questions that you can refer back to your lecturers or course conveners while they are still at your disposal.
4. Maintain open lines of communication - ask questions
Communication is one of the greater challenges of distance learning education – students can feel quite isolated from their peers and their teachers and this can leave them feeling unsupported when they are struggling with their academic load. The Internet offers up an opportunity for students and their teachers to communicate with one another regularly via Skype, email, instant messenger, forum discussions as well as many other channels. The onus lies with the student to use these channels to keep the lines of communication open. Your teachers are still your teachers, despite the fact that they are in a different city or on a different continent. Keeping in touch will help you feel like you are learning in a supported environment and will encourage you to ask for help where necessary.
5. Sign up with a friend or colleague with whom you can work
Another way to combat the feeling of isolation is to encourage a friend to enroll in the course with you. I don’t mean this in a take-a-friend-with-you-to-the-bathroom kind of way – doing the course needs to benefit both parties. Doing something like this with another person can introduce an additional motivating factor as well as provide you with good support and someone who can relate to your experiences. It can also introduce an element of healthy competition which will push you to work harder and get more out of the course you are doing.
6. Make sure you keep up with the course work
Getting so behind that you feel like you will never catch up is a sure fine way to feel completely overwhelmed by your workload. While it is difficult to remain disciplined, it is necessary to keep up with your work. When it’s time to complete tests or assignments, you will feel prepared rather than panic-stricken and ultimately, you will do better as a result. Try to do a little bit of work each day whether it is looking over new content, revising the previous week or undertaking a practice quiz.
Good luck with your distance learning ventures and if you want to share your thoughts or suggestions for successful distance learning, please feel free to leave a comment. If you want to know more about the Quirk Certificate Course in eMarketing, please contact Christina at Getsmarter.
I am replying to this post as well as the http://www.quirk.biz/resources/article/4438/distance-learning article. I have studied through both the real world and distance universities. Studying distance learning is harder, and requires realistic expectations most importantly. It is often considered as a soft option, but in fact it takes a lot of commitment. The good institutions provide platforms for you to meet people and exchange notes and ideas on your course, something which can give you the same feeling that you are part of a class as if you were in a real lecture room. With the growth of the internet I think it is important to emphasis that there are so many options for students to create the class associate feelings. Skype, chats, forums, etc.
One of the most important benefits which you mentioned, but I would like to emphasise again is that you can study while working. Students of distance learning should be encouraged to find work if they are not already, in the field which they are studying, so that anything that is learnt can be applied immediately. This is something which traditional universities cant really offer, other than through practicals, which most students dont take seriously. This is very valuable.
Posted by Chris Carter on 2009/08/12