Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

QUICK TIP: You are more capable with technology than you 
think. Dive in and have a go and you will do fne. If you think you 
are no good with technology it becomes a self-fulflling prophecy. 

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12 Getting ready for online study 
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STUDYING ONLINE IS LONELY 
Ever since I started teaching at the Open University, back in 1999, 
I have been telling students they need to be more like “traditional” 
university students. Te students have looked at me blankly when 
I say that. After all, they chose to study at the Open University 
because they do not want to go and join a bunch of students on 
campus. Plus, they want the fexibility of learning at a distance. 
So, when I am met with those blank looks, I explain what I mean. 
Much of the learning in a campus-based university does not hap-
pen in the lecture theatre or the library. It occurs in the cofee 
shop, on the lawns, or in the student union bar. Students at tra-
ditional universities spend a great deal of time together. Indeed, 
they spend much more time talking with each other about their 
studies than they do in “contact time” with lecturers. 
In the UK – along with many other countries – a degree is made 
up of “credits”. You have to get 360 credit points to gain an honours 
degree. Each module or course is allocated a number of credits. 
Typically, a module at a British university is 20 credits. Each credit 
requires 10 hours of study. So, a 20-credit course is the equivalent 
of 200 hours of study. However, the vast majority of that time is 
“self-directed” learning or “guided” learning. Only about 30 hours 
of the 200 is spent with lecturers. For the remaining 170 hours, a 
student is “on their own”. Some of that time will be “guided” learn-
ing, where the lecturer has suggested specifc chapters of books 
to read, for instance. But most of it is down to the student to fnd 
out for themselves what they need to know and learn. Central to 
this “self-directed” learning is talking with other students. Meet-
ing each other over cofee or chatting over an evening drink in 
the bar is where a lot of discussion takes place between students. 
Tis leads them to think, to look things up later, and helps them 
analyse the topics. 
Distance learning students, such as those I teach at the Open Uni-
versity, do not have the possibility of meeting each other casually 
over a beer in the union building. As a result, anyone studying 

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