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Monday 28 May 2012

What is distance learning?

Distance learning is not a totally easy concept. The OU model is quite different from the model at the University where I am studying for my MA. The OU provided all materials (all top-quality reference books), apart from a few commercially available books which they asked you to buy from the start. So you could sit at home and get on with it.

I have been a bit shocked by the University model - probably because I'm naive, but they should probably spell it out a bit more, because I can't be the only one. The materials are different for each taught module - sometimes there is audio and sometimes not. It even differs within a module. What we get is a set of slides or lecturer's notes so there is no indexing for later use. They are obviously recycyled from other courses because they make references to material we have not actually seen.  And they expect you to have access to an academic library. Not impossible, but not easy either, and not what I was expecting. But they are very vague about what the references to all these extra materials is supposed to achieve. I expected it for the dissertation but not for the taught modules.

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