For many students studying at a traditional “bricks and mortar” university campus is just not possible due to location, cost, professional and personal commitments. For these students studying by eLearning is an obvious solution to overcome these problems.

eLearning has many advantages to traditional campus based education. It does not rely on you being able to attend campus to listen to lectures, hand in assignments or participate in tutorials. For students in rural locations studying in a secure web based learning environment means they can access their learning materials wherever they may be, whether that’s at home, at work or out on the farm with a laptop and a mobile connection! Web based learning has opened up educational opportunities to everyone on the planet, it means you can study in the UK without leaving your own country, can continue your education while working full time and choose the best possible course from a worldwide range of providers.

What should you look for in an eLearning course?

When trying to decide which eLearning course to apply for, you should consider the same factors as you would for a traditional based course (1-5) but also a few extras unique to eLearning (6-10):

1. The type of course you wish to study
2. The reputation of the institution/faculty/school/staff offering the course
3. Course content and structure
4. The cost of the course
5. Professional recognition (where applicable)
6. The reputation of the institution for eLearning
7. Accessibility of online resources e.g. ebooks and journals
8. Security, accessibility and stability of the eLearning platform
9. Support available for eLearning students
10. IT hardware/software requirements

Accepting a place on an eLarning course without considering these factors may result in you having to go to a local library to get your books and journals, using up precious free time. You may find you have to buy further hardware and/or software once you start the course, because you didn’t check this at the start. Ensuring that your eLearning course is with a reputable University with an established eLearning infrastructure will save you time and stress because they will have support systems in place to assist you throughout your studies.

Time Management

Studying a course by eLearning is not an easy option, and in some cases students can find it can be more difficult to balance the requirements of online study with a full time job and personal life. However, good time management and a determination to succeed can make this easier. Each eLarning programme will have different study requirements, some may require ten hours a week, while others will need twenty or even more in order to read lectures, participate in discussions and complete assignments. Its important when considering an eLearning course to be able to identify time in your week which you can dedicate to online study – David Pulis from Malta has just completed an MSc Biomedical Sciences by elearning at the University of Ulster and he advises that “The most important things to have at the beginning of this course are eagerness to learn, full backing from your family and friends and great will-power. This course is not to be taken lightly, but after all, it leads to a Masters degree!”

Author:

Abbie McKenna
Institute of Lifelong Learning
University of Ulster

Web: www.campusone.ulster.ac.uki/intergrad
Email: campusone_information@ulster.ac.uk