Mark W Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Just wondering if anyone here has done any distance learning/open university type course? I've got no idea what it'd be like to do, so if anyone here has any experiences at any level with it it'd be good to hear from you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 (edited) Any level, eh? My dad did it, he did a degree and then later a master's degree, the exam kind rather than the research kind. If you're doing it whilst working full time it takes longer than your ordinary uni course. The distance part works, or at least worked, by them sending you a pile of books and I think attending a lecture every so often, every few months. And you have exams which are sat in some Novotel-type place near to you. During dad's master's, they were encouraging some kind of internet conferencing stuff as well, I should imagine there will be more of this nowadays. Edit: I say 'if you're doing whilst working full time it takes longer', well, that's obvious but I don't know if there's an option to do it over a shorter time if you're able to study more of the day. Edited October 15, 2011 by Revolver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam-Griffin Posted October 15, 2011 Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Anything in particular you're wanting to know? I'm training to become a teacher at the OU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2011 Basically, I've currently got a degree in photography, and I want to sort of add to that by getting some kind of graphic design orientated qualification. It's something I've been interested in since before I ended up doing my photography degree, but I'm basically running out of time to really commit to doing anything about it. I don't particularly want to leave my job to be able to do it, so a part time/distance learning setup would be best, but I wasn't really too sure what to expect and how it'd really work. Having seen how dick my photography degree was in terms of real help towards doing things photography based I'm sort of wary as to how useful it'd be to get a 'real' qualification in graphic design, but at the same time I know if I try to teach myself more about it I'll end up losing motivation and bitching out. I don't necessarily want to move into the graphic design industry but it'd be good to be able to have 'the tools' to be able to do what I want to do with words, images and stuff like that. It is all stuff I could probably teach myself, but I think having the extra incentive of being part of a group doing it might help, plus I found that having similar minded people to bounce ideas off was reasonably useful at uni. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish-Finger-er Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 sorry to thread hijack, but on a similar vein, revolver, when you said exam based, does this mean i could theoretically walk in, sit an exam (or 4) maybe write a 8000 word project, and have a degree/other qualification. only asking, because ive currently got mediocre qualifications if i wanted to move outside my industry (basically i got 12 a-c's at gcse, then went and pissed around at college for a year because i was waiting for a job i wanted, got 2 c's, a d, and an x at as level. and now have level 2,3 and 4 nvq's, and a HNC in vehicle mechanics) I could of obtained higher qualifications,but dont particularly see it getting me any further. I ask about exams, because i generally ace exams(I.e was scoring 95% on final exams, when the next highest pass rate was like 72%) without revising,now I realise at that level i'd have to revise a fair bit, but I honestly reckon with a couple of weeks reading I could pass an A level maths exam or the like(given that my mums got a bunch of past papers ive browsed through before). I'd quite happily sit exams all day, but the main bit putting me off doing say a OU course in engineering, is the assumption that id spend 3 years of my life reading books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revolver Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I can't remember if there was any coursework or not. Yeah, in theory you could just go to the exams and bust out your knowledge. It's up to you how much you study really. I don't know whether you have to take exams set at certain times or whether you can do them sooner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonsieurMonkey Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 Seeing as you said Engineering I'll talk about that. The level of Maths in Engineering, is pretty hard. I dunno if an OU Engi course follows a similar syllabus to the degrees at my Uni, but shit like Hydraulics, and working out the pressure of something going into a pipe and whatever. It's tricky. I suppose it depends whether or not you just want a degree, or you want a good degree. I know a guy who scraped through first year without doing a lot of work until exams came around. (Like a few weeks reading) But that wouldn't work in 2nd and 3rd year, and even if it did, you'd be coming out with shitty score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish-Finger-er Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 Seeing as you said Engineering I'll talk about that. The level of Maths in Engineering, is pretty hard. I dunno if an OU Engi course follows a similar syllabus to the degrees at my Uni, but shit like Hydraulics, and working out the pressure of something going into a pipe and whatever. It's tricky. I suppose it depends whether or not you just want a degree, or you want a good degree. I know a guy who scraped through first year without doing a lot of work until exams came around. (Like a few weeks reading) But that wouldn't work in 2nd and 3rd year, and even if it did, you'd be coming out with shitty score. Yea, I understand what your saying, and no disrespect to anyone doing the degree. But the way ive always seen maths is, if you can remember the formula you can do it. and i've got a freakily good memory (i.e I think nothing of remembering reg numbers, mobile phone numbers, pretty complex wiring diagrams, 12 digit part numbers etc,all without trying to remember them). And I'd quite happily do a bit more than some basic reading on the subject,its just always been that I dont fancy loads of projects/the like, I really dont work well, unless im under pressure. what I'd want degree wise, im not really sure, I guess its the fact that without going back to square one, I'm never going to advance much further in my industry than I already am. but if i was to switch to another industry (for example going onto oil rigs as a diesel engineer/diesel fitter) if I had an engineering degree proving I had knowledge/the ability to learn past being a master technician in a garage, then i'd have much more chance of moving further up the ladder. not that I intend to leave my current job anytime soon, but never knowing how long a job will last, I wouldnt want to go to a regular garage given the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 Yea, I understand what your saying, and no disrespect to anyone doing the degree. But the way ive always seen maths is, if you can remember the formula you can do it. No disrespect received, provided you won't take any when I return with a "I wish that was the case" I have a shit memory after an accident a few years back (don't get hit by cars, kids...), but even without taking that into account there's a huge deal more to it, at least at degree level, than just being able to remember formulas. Even if that was the extent of it you'd be looking at literally hundreds of formulae, many very similar with slight tweaks, before you even get to the fact that the alphabets we use only have 26/20 etc symbols each and so have to be repeated for various things to make life worse! It should all be open book really, like it would be "in the real world", so there is an element of being able to recall stuff but yeah, unfortunately that's the easy bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simpson Posted October 18, 2011 Report Share Posted October 18, 2011 Have you fully tried to actually get a job in the industry and moved on from there? Once your in the door your in. Case and point Joe Maher no higher level qualifications getting head hunted to go work in Dubai and do studio shoots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted October 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2011 I really hate standard photography stuff so it wasn't really 'direct' photography I wanted to get amongst. I've done bits of freelance stuff here and there, but yeah, it's other stuff that interests me more which I why I was sort of looking into the graphics side of things more. I think Joe's boyish good luck and winning smile help him out quite a bit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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