Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Preparing for online study 23 
certainly wasn’t on campus in the rather dreary weather we were 
experiencing at the time ...! “I am in Dubai”, he said. He had 
worked out that with a cheap fight and a good deal on Airbnb, 
he could cancel his student accommodation, spend time in the 
sunshine, study and save money. 
Many online students who study at a distance do something sim-
ilar. Tey go of to a part of the world they enjoy or want to visit 
and hook up their laptop wherever they are. Some students study 
while constantly travelling. Te travel blogger, Megan Jerrard, has 
pictures on her blog of her completing a thesis in a tent in the 
Australian outback, doing research in Costa Rica, and writing an 
assignment at the side of a swimming pool in Florida. Meanwhile, 
Projects Abroad has launched “Backpack University”. Projects 
Abroad is the world’s largest organisation that arranges inter-
national volunteering and internships, amongst other activities. 
“Backpack University” combines a variety of travel options with 
studying online at the same time. 
For most students, though, the decision will be about which room 
in the family home to use as their study. For others, they might 
want to leave their parents and set up a shared house with their 
mates, so they can recreate the social experience they might have 
had by studying at a traditional university. Some students, of 
course, will be in student accommodation at a traditional univer-
sity because they will be doing “hybrid” learning with some online 
and some face-to-face, such as being in a fipped classroom. Ulti-
mately, it means there are plenty of choices as to where to study. 
QUICK TIP:Think carefully about the places you can study and 
choose a “top three” which you might alternate depending on 
the circumstances. 
Tere are two factors when selecting a place to study which are 
worthy of considering. Te frst is just how much privacy you can 
get. Studying requires thinking, and most people need somewhere 

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