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In need of some information!
Off Topic » In need of some information! (Posts 1 to 7 of 7)
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- CommentAuthorStavroula
- CommentTimeJun 24th 2008
Most of you know that I had a dramatic experience a few years ago with a postgraduate course...sometimes is not so easy not to be the teacher's pet if I may paraphrase Sting a bit.After 2 and a half years I decided that now is the proper time for me to make things right a give another chance to myself.
After some internet research I found a long distance course at the University of Ulster in Ireland which interests me a lot and they accepted my initial application and now they wait for my final answer.I wanted to ask you two things guys:has anyone ever taken a long distance course to tell me a bit how it is?An most of all, do you know anything about Ulster University?Thanks in advance!
Whatever you gaze rests on,do not use your vision, but the eyes of your soul...She knows better... -
- CommentAuthorMartijn
- CommentTimeJun 24th 2008
A long-distance post-graduate course... you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
I know absolutely nothing about the University of Ulster, so no help from me there, I'm afraid, but I know that doing any kind of course takes a shitload of discipline.
Doing a post graduate course doubles that need for discipline.
Doing it long distance (through mail and home work I would presume) increases it tenfold.
If you're up for that you have my respect and very best wishes!
My experience with long distance courses is piss poor, but then discipline was never my strong suit.
Thing is that at the end of the day nobody cares about what you're doing: there's little to no contact with your fellow students and your tutors are just names on a screen.
You deliver material, you get graded or commented on, that's it.
Very little room and possibility for debate or discussion, or indeed any exchange of thoughts.
It's a very hard, very lonely experience that in my opinion takes a lot of courage and power to get through. If you are happy, willing and able to handle that, again, you have my deepest respect.
I admire you greatly for taking this step.'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn -
- CommentAuthorFalkirkBairn
- CommentTimeJun 25th 2008
I don't know anything about the University of Ulster so I can't help you there. But I do have some (limited) experience of "long-distance learning". Many years ago, once I moved down to England I found myself becoming even more "patriotic" for all things Scottish so I decided to do a correspondence course - trying to learn Gaelic.
Maybe it was the subject matter but I didn't last too long on that course. Because this language is so much reliant on being spoken, and because the only interaction with someone speaking the language was on a cassette tape it wasn't a very good environment to learn anything. You buy the book and the tapes, you are meant to send in assignments every few weeks and get feedback and then, sometime in the future, there's probably some get-together where you get to try out your learnt language.
Many people here in the UK succeed with these long-distance courses with the Open University, especially people who are learning later in life who already have a settled life. But I think that the subject matter I chose was just too difficult for me to do. I've had great success going a "proper" degree course in Glasgow, attending lectures, etc and writing up notes, studying, etc. But, as Martijn said, there's so much discipline required.
I'm sure that you'd succeed in the chosen subject you have gone for, but I just wanted to pass on my experience for what it's worth and I'd say that going in with a solid idea of what is in store could be half the battle to success.The views expressed in this post are entirely my own and do not reflect the opinions of maintitles.net, or for that matter, anyone else. http://www.racksandtags.com/falkirkbairn -
- CommentAuthorBregje
- CommentTimeJun 26th 2008
I have no experience with a long distance course yet, although an e-learning year is coming up for me in two years. But the work I did this year was all alone by myself, no colleagues, no coaching, no feedback, nothing and it was horrible. (I did find some solutions in the end though, but that was after finding out how horribly wrong things were going of course...)
You could try to find out who else is going to take the course and contact them to ask who would be interested in becoming a study-buddy (hehe, don't know a better word). If you have a partner who is in the exact same situation you can exchange experiences, arrange times or deadlines, work together, give feedback and support, inspire and motivate eachother. Maybe that doesn't seem neccessary at first, but it will pay off, simply because you're not alone and there's someone who knows exactly what you're dealing with. Besides, it can be fun as well!
Good luck! -
- CommentAuthorBregje
- CommentTimeJun 26th 2008
FalkirkBairn wrote
I'd say that going in with a solid idea of what is in store could be half the battle to success.
That's true.
And to prevent it from happening that at one point you don't know anymore what exactly you're doing and why, it can be useful to fall back on someone else. Someone who helps you remind who you are and why you started the course in the first place. This may sound rather 'psychotherapeutic', but intrinsic motivation is the most important drive I guess! -
- CommentAuthorStavroula
- CommentTimeJun 26th 2008 edited
Thank you all very much for your advice and feedback!I trully appreciated!The truth is I'm really confused about what to do.Finishing a postgraduate course is really important to me mostly for psychological reasons.It's my chance to prove to myself that last time it wasn't my fault,something that I know is true,but you I need to do it in order to completly believe it.The thing is that because of my job I cannot leave Greece to persue a course in Britain as I would really like to do.My chances for a post in Greece are zero since the only one that exists on literature is the one they failed me from...
I have the support I need from the people around me and there is one who is definately won't let me forget why I'm doing this.He helped me stand on my feet again after the previous "disaster".I will have to give it a lot of thought trully.For the time being I'm waiting to see in which part of Greece I'm going to be send.After that I will decide on what to do.
Thanks again fot the advice.It really helps!Whatever you gaze rests on,do not use your vision, but the eyes of your soul...She knows better... -
- CommentAuthorAnthony
- CommentTimeJun 26th 2008 edited
Edit: Posted in wrong post....
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