Online/Distance Learning

[RikuoAmero]

So peeps, I'm gonna get back into education, but first a little background. I got a Leaving Certificate in 2007 (for completing secondary school, or high school for US-ians) and since then, I've been working full time in a grocery store, first checkouts, then EPOS (price checker) then back to checkouts (because I was so awesome in EPOS that the boss just had to move me). I was hoping to start college in '07 (can't remember what the course was, but it was computer-related) but neither of my parents had saved so much as a single cent towards my studies. In '09, I was kicked out of the house and disowned, so since then, I've been stuck at that job. The pay is...meh, its €13.12/hour ($17.53) and I usually come out with between €350-400 a week ($467-534), depending on how many hours I do (typically its between €380-390). I pay rent, which luckily for me includes gas and electricity, €600/month, and I also pay the internet bill (mainly because I'm the only one who uses it and I prefer it to be in my control).

So basically, I make enough at my job to live somewhat comfortably...however, I obviously cannot do this forever. I have always dreamed of getting a college degree.

 

Over the past couple of days, I've been looking at online/distance learning courses. I basically am hoping someone here can tell me how their own experience went. I will of course be talking to as many people as possible IRL, but I thought I'd throw this up here to get an idea

My questions are as follows:

1) Generally, how much work is involved, especially with having a full time job? Would it be on the order of 2-4 hours a night?

2) Generally, is there a stigma among employers against people who get degrees this way? Or would they only ever see "Batchelor's Degree, Computer Science" on my CV for example, and not need to know the method I used?

3) Do these courses typically require extended work in the field? For example, would I have to quit my job at the grocery store and work in Dell for a while? Does unpaid volunteer work count? (I'm thinking of asking various local schools if I can help out with teaching IT at primary/secondary level for free)

 

So to summarize, I'm looking to get a feel for how online learning works. I'd especially love to hear your own experiences, so I can understand. Thanks in advance!

[† Anras Rune]

Well. Most online distance learning is for purely theoretical courses, and this generally reflects in employers notions of your degree. If they discover it then they might not be too happy if you are doing something like that, but I doubt most will care.

 

The time involved, especially for a computer course, is quite large. I'm not sure how deadlines and the projects would work with distance learning, but you'd definitely need a decent amount of time. Specifics depend however. My university says we need to do the 6 hours in school plus 6 hours at home per subject, yet I doubt anyone really does that...lol.

 

Now, here is the tricky bit. Most IT uni courses do not actually require field work unless there is going to be a masters involved, in which case you can't distance learn that as you need to be relatively nearby to the Uni for practical project management and the likes. But some courses, are these in my experience in looking around, offer internships during the course to companies (normally software companies you've never heard of or computer hardware stores etc). As far as I've seen, these positions are generally non paying, or minimum wage positions and they count towards extra credit.

 

Although, all in all, if you really want to go for it you should. I mean, there really ain't nothing major stopping you. A a degree is pretty much necessary in the higher echelons of employment these days...figures. 

[ZeroPenguins]

I don't have personal experience but I do know a few people who does external study. For example my dad does it for his master degree. The workload all depends on how many units are you taking on each semester and various on each course you are doing. I know a few things for sure is that they won't know that you studied externally, as when you graduate everyone gets the same degree in the end. Most of the time you don't need work experience as grades are more important if you want to find work, work experience just makes you look more hire-able.

[† Anras Rune]

I don't have personal experience but I do know a few people who does external study. For example my dad does it for his master degree. The workload all depends on how many units are you taking on each semester and various on each course you are doing. I know a few things for sure is that they won't know that you studied externally, as when you graduate everyone gets the same degree in the end. Most of the time you don't need work experience as grades are more important if you want to find work, work experience just makes you look more hire-able.

This is essentially what I was trying to say. I mean, depending on the units your course has, you could be looking at a fricking huge time sink (like my Programming unit is, ack!) or something that literally takes 15 minutes to finish and is too simple for its own good. Most courses you'll find are balanced in this sense but I'm not sure how they would structure the more practical units of any given course. Like my aforementioned Programming unit. It requires you too learn a programming language (duh...lol) and use it in a practical sense to solve different problems and such. What it that would mean is that you'd almost definitely need a way to contact the course lecturers or tutors too ask for advice and help. I imagine there is a way to contact these people of course but again I do not have experience in distance learning so I really can't help much more in this subject. Sorry...

[ZeroPenguins]

^Yeah I realised that after I posted, no one posted yet when I opened this thread.

[RikuoAmero]

I don't have personal experience but I do know a few people who does external study. For example my dad does it for his master degree. The workload all depends on how many units are you taking on each semester and various on each course you are doing. I know a few things for sure is that they won't know that you studied externally, as when you graduate everyone gets the same degree in the end. Most of the time you don't need work experience as grades are more important if you want to find work, work experience just makes you look more hire-able.

This is essentially what I was trying to say. I mean, depending on the units your course has, you could be looking at a fricking huge time sink (like my Programming unit is, ack!) or something that literally takes 15 minutes to finish and is too simple for its own good. Most courses you'll find are balanced in this sense but I'm not sure how they would structure the more practical units of any given course. Like my aforementioned Programming unit. It requires you too learn a programming language (duh...lol) and use it in a practical sense to solve different problems and such. What it that would mean is that you'd almost definitely need a way to contact the course lecturers or tutors too ask for advice and help. I imagine there is a way to contact these people of course but again I do not have experience in distance learning so I really can't help much more in this subject. Sorry...

Well one school in Ireland is doing its online courses this way

 

http://connect.itsligo.ie/p82846232/