Hi, I just wondered if anyone here was doing a distance learning course? I'm currently 8 months into an access to nursing course and I've hit a brick wall due being in a difficult place at the moment and also due to not being so great at writing essays lol!
Distance learning needs alot of self dicipline since you create your own deadlines and have to fit work in round everything else, it can be really hard to find the motivation to do coursework after a long day at work!
Would love to hear from anyone else who is learning at home, maybe we could give eachother a bit of encouragement like the uni students thread?
Lost x
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
I'm starting an OU degree soon. In criminology and psychological studies. I am also planning on doing some OU short courses in physics, but not until I have a few of the degree moduels done - and am in a better financial situration lol
Wow, that sounds pretty impressive! I had a look at some OU stuff and they look like a really good provider, they just didn't provide the course I wanted lol. Hope it all goes well for you.
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
well I was meant to be going to a uni uni, but can't afford the tutition fees :/ (second degree) so the OU seemed like the perfect fix - cheaper and can work while doing it lol
nursing sounds really interesting. I'd be rubbish at it though lol, not much of a people person
I don't do distance education anymore but I did it over two years a few years back completing my year 12. I found it helpful to a written plan out for each day, breaking it down into smaller parts does help. Also don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Take care
"Recovery is something that you have to work
on every single day and it's
something that doesn't
get a day off."
Hi Sax, that wasn't a pointless post, it's good to know that there are others out there doing the distance learning thing. It's not so great when motivation is a problem, but thats what prompted me to start this thread, I'm having some real troubles with my work today (the functions of the nervous system and endocrine system) I know what the functions are, I just can't get it onto paper, or screen as it is in this case!
CrazyKat, I think thats what I need to start doing. I can be so lazy about it sometimes, convincing myself I've earnt a break when I haven't even done anything!
Shadow-Light, It is pretty interesting, I've only just started the sciencey stuff though, so it's going to get harder! I'm just hoping once I've completed the access course I'll be able to afford to go to uni, the nursing degree is free but I'd have to quit working and the bursary you get is quite small, but if I don't try it'll do my head in!
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
I like sciency stuff lol. My first degree was in neuro-physiology, though in that basically had to learn about the entire body in the first few years... The nervous system is fun though :D - or I may just be a freak lol. I found the renal syem and the cardi-vascular system the hardest, hated them so much.
uni is so expensive, and so time consuming too living on £3000 a year seriously sucks... which is part of the reason I am hoping that the OU won't be quiet as stressful as I can have a job to earn money
I quite like the sound of neurophysiology, I bet that was hard work!, I've got a bit of a personal interest in neurology, being epileptic, I'd like to become a specialist epilepsy nurse in the future. I find the nervous system fascinating too, but not when I'm writing essays on it lol!!
You're right about uni being time consuming, also with the OU I bet you save a load of money and time just from not travelling!
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
I do my degree by distance learning and hate it, but it's not offered any other way (long story).
I feel like all I do is spend all day on the computer wondering what the hell i'm meant to be doing and then finding so much other distractions (RYL, facebook etc).
Even as the stone of the fruit must break
that its heart may stand in the sun,
so must you know pain.
There are only two ways in which one can live their life. One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is.
Thats what I was doing yesterday Effervescence, it's the whole reason I created this thread, because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing! Saying that I'm not doing a degree, that must take alot of hard work!
I think thats the worst thing about distance learning, while my tutor is only an email away and there is a forum, you still have to wait for a reply and in the meantime you get nothing done. It's frustrating when you have limited time to do coursework anyway.
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
I am doing my Masters with the OU and a random computer course as well!
I do struggle with it sometimes especially when I am not doing so well mentally but with extensions and the like i have managed to pass the modules I have done so far.
When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have! We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty. ~Woody Allen
Is a chocolate muffin loving glitter ball
I'm on my third distance learning course. They're equivalent to A Levels and take me a year.
I currently take Media Studies and don't have a forum option to chat to other students.
Media studies is fascinating, I did a whole two weeks before I dropped out (was in a bad place, it wasn't that I didn't like it!) Having a forum is quite handy when you don't want to send an email, alot of the time I can just find the answer I need on there, sometimes though it can be a little frustrating, because the advice on the forum isn't always right so you've got to sort through the good and bad advice, might have been easier just to email the tutor lol!
Quote:
Originally Posted by effervescence
Yeah they say that but in reality take ages to reply and if you try and ring they never answer the bloody phone. Very frustrating.
Mine usually answers emails within 24 hours, though having said that I don't email very much, but now I've got to the harder work I'm going to need to do it more often, I can see it getting quite annoying. My tutor phones once a week, I can't ring him, I waited all evening for a call last night and didn't get one which pissed me off and then I checked my deleted emails and found one saying there would be no calls this week
Quote:
Originally Posted by random.swirls
I am doing my Masters with the OU and a random computer course as well!
I do struggle with it sometimes especially when I am not doing so well mentally but with extensions and the like i have managed to pass the modules I have done so far.
It's good that you manage to get on OK, it can be really difficult sometimes can't it? I've nearly quit the course a couple of times when I've been feeling low, but I waited a long time to start the course and I know I'd regret quitting.
So with the OU, do you have deadlines for work etc? I think that would be better for me as I don't have any deadlines for the modules apart from june/january moderation so I just plod along at my own pace which sometimes means I'll do nothing for a week, which isn't very disciplined.
I got a fair bit of research done last night though, still got loads more tonight though, I hate research lol
Hold your breath, count to ten, fall apart, start again...
Eugh, I couldn't cope without deadlines... I'd end up getting scared of handing it in late (even though there wasn;t a date) and would write the whole thing in 2 days just to make sure it was sent off in time...
Then again back at uni I was one of those annyoing people would wrote essays and things the weekend after they were set so I was always the first to hand them in
I am doing my Masters with the OU and a random computer course as well!
I do struggle with it sometimes especially when I am not doing so well mentally but with extensions and the like i have managed to pass the modules I have done so far.
^This. I have found the OU to be very accommodating of my mental health difficulties. In my experience [the OU]they want students to succeed and will do what they can to facilitate that.
Yeap, with the OU you have regular deadlines for assignments throughout the duration of your course. Space between them etc depends on course level/length etc.
lost-in-nowhere, sounds like you're making good progress with your research. My revision's not going too well.
Last edited by Foxtrot Oscar : 10-06-2011 at 05:58 PM.
Reason: missed a bit
Media studies is fascinating, I did a whole two weeks before I dropped out (was in a bad place, it wasn't that I didn't like it!) Having a forum is quite handy when you don't want to send an email, alot of the time I can just find the answer I need on there, sometimes though it can be a little frustrating, because the advice on the forum isn't always right so you've got to sort through the good and bad advice, might have been easier just to email the tutor lol!
I'm interested, I'm just finding it difficult at the moment. Lol. Yeah, I've never used forums as a way of finding out details but just as a way of getting to know other people on the same course.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saxtothemax!
Who are you doing media studies with? That sounds really interesting.
living on £3000 a year seriously sucks... which is part of the reason I am hoping that the OU won't be quiet as stressful as I can have a job to earn money
