Tuesday, 22 February 2011

New Year, New Chance

Last year, several weeks after I had started my first paper I quit.

Yea I know, real good stamina I have.

However as much as I can make excuses for it I can still admit that I am not a distant learner. I get frustrated very easily and found the course provider very annoying.
Nowadays everything is done by internet.
I don't have too much trouble with that, hey, I am a switched on 40 year old, I love computers, well as long as they do what I want them to do and do it how I want it to be done!
However sometimes websites are not as easy to understand as the provider likes to think they are.
I had many a day of study where I was sat in my study tearing my hair out, screaming blue murder and actually throwing things across the room.
My language was not pretty and my frustration levels were rising way too much, surprised I didn't jump off a cliff!
Unfortunately, when I get frustrated I cry. So many a tear was shead and not much work was written.

But then it is difficult to write work when you can't find the resources.
And of course back to the beginning, everything is now on line.
I felt that this whole course was just me and my computer. Absolutely no one to turn too, no one to ask for help, even the help desk wanted you to email them with the problem, which didn't help when you needed the simple answer now so you could carry on, not wait 4 hours for them to get back to you. Don't they realise that some people have limited time to do their study, not just when it suits them!

I did go and see the course tutor, who apologized for somethings and accepted my postponment until this year.

However we are now in 2011 and this course provider has decided to run with internet even more than last year. To them I am a distant learner, so therefore that means DISTANT, as in away from them, not needing them, do it all yourself, teach yourself, just read it from a book and you will be fine, by yourself!
Fine, but it helps if in the first week I can actually log onto their website. Week 1 of study disappeared already due to no access.
We are now in week 2, already I am having trouble getting into the library online. I can't find the course material online as it has not been loaded under my log in due to, possibly, the problems from last week when they didn't want to activate my log in!
So I have now been doing this paper for 9 days and already I have cursed at the screen about the course provider. Again I had to ring 6 times before I could get to talk to someone on the help desk and not send an email and at the end of it they put me through to the person I should have thought to go to in the first place!

Now I know with any study there is a fair amount of behind the scenes work you have to do yourself, but I find going to lectures very helpful, I get stuff out of them and usually find all my questions get answered from them. I find there is access to people to talk to and I have a better understanding of what I am writing.

So Rotorua here I come. Every Wednesday for now, will change to a Thursday very shortly, I am going to be driving over and do my day of study in the library on campus. It will still be just me and my computer and shelves beyond shelves of books but hopefully something will come from it all.

If not then I am seriously going to have to rethink life a little!

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