First, I admit I shouldn't be the one posting this message. I am going to talk about a third party: my 19 years old son. He is still in high school in my home country (Uruguay) and he is in what would be 11th grade. I live in Austria and he decided he wants to come to live with us after all. And there are options: either he does two more years to graduate from High School being as demotivated as ever (he is the "creative" type, high IQ kid with tons of memory for trivia and that performs very poorly in school and had to repeat two years) or he can enter to one of the Open universities in Europe But.. since he does not know German, he needs to do that by distance learning. Now my question: what does it take to succeed in doing "distance learning"? I have other questions as well (as "will he be sorry later he did not do it the traditional way?") but I plan to do a consultation with Dr. Bears team anyway, so I would be happy if you would have comments for me on the guessing of whether a young man with little motivation for study but that wants to have a university degree could make it with for instance the UK Open University... I will be very thankful for your views! (and as relief for my anxiety, are there successful distance learners out there that hated studying too? I sort of have the idea that you have to love to read, and write to succedd in DL...) ------------------ Maria
Anyway,to my knowledge,there is no German-speaking university with open access. Normal intelligence and much motivation. Why am I under the impression that you already knows the answer? Don't forget that the UK Open University is demanding. Maybe he should try to get his secondary school leaving certificate at first.There is a strong correlation between the capability to earn an Abitur for example and the capability to study at a worthy university. "Are there successful distance learners out there that hated studying too? " Maybe.An employee,for example,forced to acquire computer skills by his employer. On the other hand the desire to learn seems to be required if you want to study at a distance for a degree from a highly regarded university. Ulrich
Maria, I thought I’d offer some observations based on personal struggles with classroom learning and experiences with distance learning. Use or disregard as you see fit. Possibly a bit like your son, I had little interest in high school and my grades were all over the map. I completed it in the required time (only had to take three classes my last semester and spent most of my time at the beach). My SAT scores were in the top 1 percent in the U.S., so I went to college , was bored to tears, and dropped as many classes as I completed. My early college transcripts make me look like a schizophrenic – one semester I’m on the honor roll, next semester I’m on probation for dropping classes late, then back on the honor roll. My problem was one of motivation. I ended up entering the work world and a decade passed before I returned to school to complete my degree via distance courses. But here’s the downside: the distance courses required MORE motivation than did the on-campus courses I took as a youth. In my opinion and experience, comparing distance courses with on-campus equivalents: academic difficulty is similar; you can progress more quickly in distance course; test prep is harder with distance courses (no more late-night study groups); and distance courses avoid the class bore who wants to discuss his/her personal life during class time. But a big drawback to distance learning is that most lack the daily/weekly structure provided by traditional courses where you have to be in class at a certain time and a set portion of material is covered. Successful learners make up for this by tapping into their own drive and motivation, but it takes diligence and hard work. Even as an older adult, I sometimes found myself slipping into bad study habits, falling behind in my own study schedule and having to give myself a bit of a motivational tune-up to keep my studies on track. Only you (and he) can answer the question of whether your son has the motivation that will be needed to complete challenging distance courses. Looking back, I don’t think I would have done it when I was 20.
My humble opinion to follow--take it for what it's worth... Three factors make for an exceptionally good distance learner: 1. Self-discipline. 2. A general love of reading. 3. The ability to become interested in almost anything. It sounds as if your son already has #2 and #3; if he doesn't have #1, it could be him, or it could be his teachers and his classmates. I've known many a trivia-loving underachiever in my time (one, who passed away earlier this year, was for all intents and purposes my undergraduate mentor), and most of them lack self-discipline simply because they have no compelling reason to develop it. There's really only one way to know whether he's going to be into this: Show him the study packet and ask him. If he gets excited and proactive, all is well. Good luck. Peace, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net
One more thing... I very seldom studied as such--not at the undergraduate level, and not at the graduate level (not even for residential courses). When most people say "study," they mean "go over a text over and over until you memorize all of the important stuff, so you can regurgitate it later." In my experience, this approach is usually a waste of time (the only two exceptions I've found: foreign languages and mathematical formulae). Knowledge that isn't absorbed organically will be lost, and it's hard to absorb knowledge organically when the objective is to blandly memorize key points. Now, people are going to dispute the above paragraph, and that's their right; I'm only giving you my opinion. But I've completed two distance learning programs (a regionally accredited B.A. and a regionally accredited M.A.) with this attitude, and passed three graduate level residential courses on top of that (scoring A-grades in two of them), so it's absolutely possible to do well in distance learning programs without going near a memorize-and-regurgitate approach. But I would say it's almost impossible to do well in distance learning if one hates to read. Hope this helps. Peace, ------------------ Tom Head www.tomhead.net
