Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

What is diferent about online study? 7 
you have to walk past several other teaching rooms. I was a little 
hot and bothered as I entered the lecture theatre. I had rushed to 
get there from the other side of the campus following a meeting 
that had over-run. It’s an uphill walk to the building and then a 
long walk down the corridor. I walked into the lecture theatre a 
couple of minutes after the lecture should have started. I apolo-
gised to the students as I set up the lecture slides I needed. Ten 
I noticed that instead of the 60 students I was expecting there 
were only about 30 present. “Where is everyone else?” I asked. It 
turned out that they had been called to an urgent revision session 
for another module they were studying. Exams were coming up 
for that module, and the only time available for their revision ses-
sion clashed with my lecture. I thought for a moment about what 
I could do. After all, it was not the students’ fault for missing the 
lesson. “Here’s what I suggest”, I said to the class. “What if we can-
cel today’s lecture and I record it? Tat way, everyone will be able 
to watch it, and the students who are not here will not miss out”. 
Te students who were in the lecture theatre thought it was a 
great idea. I joked with them, suggesting it meant they could get to 
the student union bar an hour earlier. But one of them suggested 
another reason. He said, “Actually, many of us prefer recorded lec-
tures”. I asked him to explain why. As he told me, there were plen-
ty of nods of agreement from around the room. Te student said 
that recorded lectures can be paused while notes are made or to 
look up defnitions. “I can’t pause you in the lecture theatre when 
you are in full stride”, he said. “And if I look something up, I will 
have missed what you were saying. Tat doesn’t happen with re-
corded lectures”. He went on to add that the recorded lecture can 
be left unfnished, to be completed at another more convenient 
time. Another advantage of recorded lectures was the ease with 
which good notes can be made. In class, with a lecturer chatting 
away, students can fnd it tough to take efective notes. Tey can 
get back to their room and fnd it hard to decipher their scrawl or 
scratch their heads about what their “shorthand” actually meant. 
Tere is no need for rapid writing of notes or fancy shorthand 
systems with online recorded lectures. Instead, the notes can be 
taken while the lecture is paused. Tat means the notes can be 
more extensive and make more sense. 

---