Studying anything, anywhere
There have always been correspondence courses but they tended to stick to fairly pedestrian topics in years gone by.
Nowadays, we call them distance learning and the technology used to deliver the courses has changed dramatically. What’s perhaps even more dramatic is the range and level of courses routinely on offer though.
Probably the best example of that is the Open University which offers pretty much as full a range of courses as you’d expect in a normal university. As well as the typical distance learning topics in the arts, they offer full-scale science degrees, languages and even law. In fact, the only thing that they don’t offer formally is a medicine programme but even in that area they’ve so many courses falling under headings such as biology, chemistry and health-care that it can only be a matter of time before they do even that.
Many years ago they broadcast their programmes at horrendous hours from around midnight to 2am and from 5am to 7am but thankfully first video tapes and now DVDs have moved the learning experience into more normal times. At the moment, they’re in the process of revising and moving lots of course material onto DVD-ROM and just about all of their courses come with Internet interaction these days.
Flexibility is the name of the game with them and in addition to letting you assemble your very own degree programme from any of the modules they offer, there’s no time limit on how long you get to complete your degree (which can be taken as a full-time version in three years or up to 12 years part-time). Of course, in addition to the personalised degrees, you can also aim for the standard varieties eg in physics, modern languages, or whatever.
One current downside of the new versions of the various courses is that many now require a computer and Internet access so you can’t take your books under your arm and head off for the Congo as you could years ago (although, with satellite downloads perhaps you can). Still, it is quite amazing to be able to study at your own pace (more or less) and pretty much where-ever you want.
Also considerably changed is the age profile of the students. Although the minimum age used to be 21, in the latest prospectus it highlights one very bright girl who was only 14 when she started her degree. Typically though the majority of students on courses runs from perhaps 30-ish to 50-ish although with very significant numbers of those over 60 (and some over 80!) in some courses.
Are the courses hard? On the whole they seem to be around the level of normal university courses so they’re not easy. However, the ability to space out your studies over a number of years means that it feels easier to achieve a degree and, usually, you’ll pick up several other qualifications along the way.
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