Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Part II 
Studying online 

---

---

3 
Reading 
online 
It doesn’t matter whether you are studying on campus or in your 
bedroom at a distance; you will be doing a great deal of reading. 
Every module for a degree course is calculated in “credit units”. 
Tere are 360 credit units for a degree in the UK. Most other 
countries have similar concepts, though the calculation of credit 
units may be diferent. Each unit is equivalent to one hour of work 
each week. Hence a typical 20 unit module is 20 hours of study. Of 
that, around four hours will be “contact time” – that’s lectures and 
seminars with academic staf. So that leaves 16 hours each week 
for a 20 unit module in which you have to study yourself. Some 
of that time will be researching, thinking, making notes, and go-
ing back over the information to consolidate what you have been 
learning. Tat is reckoned to be about half of the hours you have 
to yourself. Tat means, on a 20 unit module, you are left with 
eight hours which is reading time. Typically, you are expected to 
do two hours of reading for every hour of lectures or seminars. 
Sometimes this will be “guided reading”, where your lecturer will 
have set specifc chapters to read. However, you will also be ex-
pected to do some “self-directed” reading, where you fnd relevant 
material independently, without any guidance from the lecturer. 
Some modules will have more guided reading than self-directed 
DOI: 10.4324/9781003259695-5 

---

46 Studying online 
reading, but other modules might be entirely dependent upon you 
fnding material to read. Either way, there is a lot of reading to do. 
Over the course of a year for a degree, you will do 120 credit units. 
Generally, you can expect to be studying three modules simulta-
neously, though it will depend upon the credits applied to each 
individual module. Typically, with three simultaneous 20 credit 
modules, each having around eight hours of reading a week, it 
means you will be expected to do a total of 24 hours of reading 
each week. If you are not careful, you will get “boggle-eyed” and 
exhausted. 
 
HOW WE READ 
Getting to know how we read can help you study better. Tat’s 
because you will be able to take into account what your brain and 
body are doing when you read. You can then adapt to ensure you 
don’t overexert yourself with the vast amount of reading that a 
university degree requires. When you learned to read, you were 
taught how to read and what to do so that you could understand 
the material. But when we are at junior school learning how to 
read, we are not taught anything about what our brain or body is 
doing. It means we only really know half the story about reading. 
Many people get tired when reading, they fnd it difcult to con-
centrate, and they get bored quickly. Tat’s because they are not 
accommodating to deal with the body’s reaction to reading. Un-
derstanding how we read can help alleviate many of the problems 
associated with reading. Remember, in a typical study week, you 
will spend around half of each day just reading. It is the most im-
portant activity for any degree student, so it is worthwhile spend-
ing some time trying to understand what you will be doing.