I love correspondence courses.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by dlady, Apr 12, 2012.

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  1. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Man, in the early days of DL it was really just using email and the internet to facilitate a quicker correspondence course than printing and putting your assignments in the mail, waiting two weeks, and getting your grade back. That was awesome because it was a self-directed learning style where you were still appropriately challenged around the materials.

    Now-a-days, it seems to me an online course has become very complicated and convoluted. I think that a shame.
     
  2. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    What do you mean "complicated and convoluted"?
     
  3. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    Depends on where you take your courses I'd imagine, but I've observed that in some rare cases students have complained about not being able to find assignments in some classes online because they weren't labeled accordingly, or they were buried in multiple links.
     
  4. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Yes, my daughter experienced that kind of confusion with the online English courses at Empire State. The assignments were spread out all over the course-ware and it drove her nuts looking for all the things she had to do.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Hi Dave. How's things going with your new venture?
     
  6. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    I took a "paper & ink" correspondence course many years ago, and really enjoyed the experience. Online is much quicker and convenient, but I do agree that there was a certain charm to the old correspondence courses.

    Do some schools still offer them, or is everything online now?
     
  7. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I've considered taking an old school correspondence course, I'm pretty sure BYU still offers the choice. I also think the Learner dot org grad credits are still correspondence style. My DL courses have been all over the map. Literally, even at the same institution I've found little consistency. My love affair with HES DL is beyond the honeymoon phase as well. Nothing is perfect....but at least I'm not driving anywhere, so that's still a win.
     
  8. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I took a Shakespeare class from OSU (I think) and an Astronomy class at IU and they there paper and pencil/mail in. I think I enjoyed them more because I was not in a hurry when I took them.
     
  9. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    I was in the BLS correspondence dl program at University of Iowa (pre online) for several years. I really loved it. Simple, got plenty of notes from my teachers, and enjoyed the structure of going to the post office and waiting for the return news!!!!!

    Abner :smile:
     
  10. TonyM

    TonyM Member

    Agreed!

    Correspondence courses have some great advantages. The biggest is that they are self-paced so you're not under pressure and juggling. Online courses often follow the traditional semester schedule, which makes it harder to juggle, and takes away the flexibility an adult needs. Work and family have to come first, after all! I always enjoyed working through the study guide and taking my standard 2 exams at the local library. In my experience, online courses these days have a lot more gloss but less substance and flexibility than the old correspondence courses. Their major added features are some hyperlinks, an automatic gradebook and the discussion boards which aren't usually worth all the expense. I'd like to see more courses that follow the old self-paced model, even if it is just in electronic form.

    Tony
     
  11. ryoder

    ryoder New Member

    NCU is basically a correspondence school. The "semester" begins the first monday after you sign up for the class and your assignments are all listed in order on the activities tab of your course page. There are 8 assignments which you complete in order and submit for a grade. You have up to 8 weeks to complete all 8 assignments and each is due at the end of each week. As long as you take one course at a time, the pace is doable for an adult learner with a full time job.
    I finish most of my courses within about 5 weeks, depending on my familiarity with the material and what is happening in my life. Over Christmas I finished a course in 7 weeks, my longest ever course length.
    NCU has no group projects except for some discussion board postings in the first course in the degree sequence.
     
  12. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Yes this is part of it, the 'technology' has gotten in between the student and the materials. Especially for courses managed by individual instructor over long periods of time. In the correct attempt to provide as much information as possible the courses sometimes are a maze of links, and for a new student it is hard to find everything, especially since the course layouts can be different from instructor to instructor.
     
  13. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Yep. For example when I look at the way my local community college lays out there courses, it takes me a couple classes just to show the students how to find and use everything, they tend to get pretty frustrated.
     
  14. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Very well and everything is on track. In about 3 years it will be pretty cool because anyone watching over all this time will go wow, that's pretty cool. However between then and now mum is the word. :)
     
  15. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    I think charm is the right word. I miss it when it was you, the material, and whatever schedule you set for yourself. I remember about 15 years ago I was working with a guy who had been in the Navy and earned an associates degree via correspondence while he was at sea. I have always really respected that he was able to do that. One course I took at HUX about 2 years ago was still this way, you sent in two copies of the assignment and got one back with comments.
     
  16. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    I know in the DETC regs they still have provisions for it, it is called 'traditional correspondence'. I think a challenge becomes that so many schools are becoming financial aid eligible, which brings a monster set of rules on how the courses have to be setup that pretty much ends traditional styles of learning like correspondence. Things like attendance, documenting interactions, adherence to time tracking, all push things away from this model.
     
  17. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Shakespeare and astronomy. Now I understand your writing style and world views better... :)
     
  18. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    I think that's right, somehow when an instructor is staring at a piece of paper they seem to write more and worry about the feedback more. Plus it is easier to circle and comment on a piece of paper than trying to use word to insert notes, save the file, upload it, and so on..
     
  19. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    I agree and I like how you put it, glossy shiny flashy but little substance, where the older model really only had a focus on the materials and assignments. Plus you never had to log in each week to post on a course forum to show you attended the course that week..
     
  20. dlady

    dlady Active Member

    Agreed and part of why I really liked their program.
     

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