Staying in Residence

Well, here I am in residence at Carleton University in Ottawa.

I can not IMAGINE actually living in one of these units for a whole school year... the room I'm in is meant for two people -- I've got it to myself though, thank goodness. Two very uncomfortable beds, 2 desks, 1 closet with 2 standing open shelves in it - room for maybe at MOST 10 hangers between the shelves.

There are 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms off of a main sitting room ...no kitchen facilities at all.

No privacy and OMG it's loud. The lock on the main door to the suite is loud, and every time it is opened or closed it demands attention. The toilets' flush is short lived but VERY loud ...and you can hear pretty much everything that is said in every room anywhere near yours - both within the suite and through the walls from others.

I cannot IMAGINE having 8 people in this one unit - maybe some of the other rooms are actual singles? Haven't met any of my suite-mates yet, or seen any of the other rooms...but yikes!

Another plus to being a nontraditional student - we rarely find ourselves living in residence!

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Online courses

philly5113 asked: I might try an internet course, they cost less. Any thoughts on this?

I've taken online courses from two universities.

Taking them through my own undergrad university was easiest - their courses automatically counted towards my degree without any hoop-jumping at all, which was nice. They also came with deadlines and due dates - so it was significantly easier for me to manage my time and get things done over the course of the semester rather than working in fits and starts and then having a big rush to finish at the end of the six months time allowance I was given from the other university.

Taking courses through a different university, Athabasca U, involved a whole lot of hoop-jumping to make sure that credits would apply towards my degree. I had to get a Letter of Permission, which turned into a process that lasted WAY too long. That was in no way Athabasca's fault, though - it was the people I was dealing with at my end that were a pain in the posterior.

Athabasca U gives you up to six months to complete everything required for each course - no due dates, and no one cares if you actually get it done or not. So completing those required quite a bit more self discipline - and in one case, when I had a car accident during the week my final exam was booked, an extension (more hoop-jumping).

The one thing that ALL of the Internet based courses I have taken have shared is that although I was assigned a prof/tutor, there was next to no interaction with them. When I emailed with a specific question, the turnaround time was BRUTAL .... in far too many cases, it was in excess of two weeks. The turnaround time for marking was also far slower than I find tolerable - I absolutely and positively DETEST it when I don't have assignment #1 back until after #2 or #3 are back. It may be though, that I just wasn't lucky - surely not all online profs are that slow? I hope?!

When I teach online courses (Ha!) I will be very sure to email each student early in the course, and follow up with a how's it going partway through. And, of course, I will answer their emails and get their work back to them within a reasonable period of time.

I suspect that courses that have an interactive online component would suit me better.

I don't regret having taken any of the courses I did - nor the money I spent - but there are a lot of things that could have been done much, much better.

Have you taken (or taught) any online courses? How did they work for you? Philly and I would love to know.

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Advantages of being a nontraditional student

I said in yesterday's post, Being a nontraditional student sucks? that I would post some of what I see as advantages of being a nontraditional student. So - here is a list:

1. As a nontraditional student, we tend to have a lot more life experience on which to draw. We have usually read more, had more experience dealing with businesses and with people, and have work experience that can go a long way to helping us to be able to apply what we are learning to what we already know. Assimulation is always easier than accomodation - and so we nontraditional students get to learn the easier way a lot more.
2. Nontraditional students are generally more disciplined (we have to be!) and professors like us because of it.
3. Nontraditional students are also usually closer in age to the professors, which can make for better relationships with them - especially important when it comes to reference letters and recommendations for scholarships.
   
4. Being able to better understand how our professors think makes it far easier to pick up on important clues about what they are looking for in essays and exams.
   
5. Nontraditional students understand the importance of the investment we are making in our education, and are more likely to take it seriously - again, a tendency that in my experience is often highly valued in an academic environment.
6. Nontraditional students are better at juggling than other students are - so we are typically less inclined to go into total meltdown at the midterm and end of every semester... not that we don't - but we usually manage to get through those stressful periods better than some.
   
7. Nontraditional students have connections that can help to support us while we are in school and also help us to get jobs when we are done.

Like my tag line says ....Nontraditional, mature, returning students ....no matter what you call us, we are a determined and resourceful bunch.

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