Currently, young people are striving for more convenient living conditions that the Internet provides. Virtual shops, online consultations with doctors and even distance higher education! Feedback from students and graduates, advantages and disadvantages, wishes and cautions - all this is collected in this article.
The fact is that there are many who want to study without leaving home, but each such person has fears and doubts. Let's understand what distance learning is, what pitfalls and advantages it has. Information is given on the basis of various sources, which provide real reviews, discussions of students and experienced students.
What is distance education
To get started, let's get acquainted with the concept of "distance higher education", since for sure many of you just want to know what it is. Imagine a student who was told: "Do not come to the university, I will provide all the lectures and assignments, as well as a list of literature, by e-mail." Probably, modern full-time students, as well as evening and correspondence students, at least once faced with a situation where the teacher could not attend in person, but gave the homework via computer.
Distance education in this case occurs at a distance constantly. Often, students come only for state examinations and diploma defense. All the rest of the time you need to study at home (at an insignificant distance from the educational institution), at least in another point of the globe.
How do teachers and students communicate
Distance learning occurs in the following ways:
- The teacher sends the student a list of literature, a plan and a series of lectures, as well as assignments by e-mail.
- The university opens a personal account on the site for the student, gives a username and password to enter. On the internal server, the student must download all the material provided.
- The lecturer provides a link to abstracts and a list of references.
- Training takes place online, that is, webinars are created.
It’s worth talking about the last way the teacher and student interact, since not everyone knows what a webinar is. Surely many of you talked on Skype, in instant messengers using a microphone and a webcam. In this case, you can both see, talk, and chat. The webinar looks about the same. The only differences are that:
- the teacher does not see or hear a single student, but he can observe who arrived to study (usually a list of participants is displayed on the right), and also, if he wants to get an answer from students to his question, he can read the answers from everyone in general chatting;
- Arrival at the webinar is only possible at a strictly scheduled time.
Something like this may look at distance higher education. Universities should strive to ensure that the servers run smoothly and have advanced functions for students, for example, the ability to check the term paper for uniqueness, download the cover sheet form, send the work to the teacher through a special form, see your grades, rating and so on.
Are real universities
You can sometimes hear questions on the Internet in forums and in communities: are real universities or are they virtual? Remember: there are no virtual institutions! Paperwork, tuition, admission - all this must exist in reality, that is, the university / academy must be truly existing.
Often, higher education remotely reviews are quite critical in terms of the fact that the money paid for their studies, but did not issue a diploma. And it is impossible to understand whether a real university or is it just a kind of unaccredited center. Therefore, dear friends, if you firmly decided to study remotely, but the institution is not familiar to you, then first visit it.
Single center
There are unified centers of distance education (abbreviated as ECCE). Reviews about them vary. But most often negative. The fact is that when signing an agreement, many are lazy or hesitate to read absolutely everything. In addition, there may be dubious points, in which case people often take for granted. Therefore, it is advisable to get acquainted with a single center or university in person, ask students (if possible), try to find graduates in order to ask if they have successfully obtained education and a diploma.
In addition, a single center may be fake, that is, the owner of the site has nothing to do with these universities. Therefore, you should carefully study the information.
And most importantly, in order to get a truly honest and worthy education, it is recommended to visit the selection committee of the university that interests you. It is better that it be an accredited state university.
Who is suitable for
Interested in this type of training most often:
- employed in production;
- moms on maternity leave;
- disabled people;
- compatriots living in other countries;
- rural youth without the opportunity to regularly travel to sessions, as well as those who do not want to live in dormitories and rented apartments;
- the poor.
For those who can’t even go to distance learning, distance learning will be available. Higher education in this case is considered complete, as in the correspondence form.
How to submit documents
On the Internet you can often find a tempting offer, for example: “You do not need to come with documents! You can leave a request here. We contact you, specify all the details, and you enter the university. ” Do not fall for such tricks of scammers! Unified centers of higher distance education can offer such “admission” methods, reviews of which can only be found negative.
It is not worth considering that not a single ECSD works honestly. This is actually not the case. Indeed, most often it is proposed to leave your full name and contact details on the application form. But all the necessary documents must be brought to the university personally. In this case, the following documents (copies) should be:
- passport (person and registration) or birth certificate (if not 18 years old);
- document on previous education, including a grading insert;
- photo 3x4 cm;
- certificate of change of surname (if the diploma and passport is different).
Remember that no real and serious university will accept documents remotely!
Reviews of students and graduates
Now let's talk about distance higher education in state universities. The reviews of real students and graduates are mixed. Each in its own way sees both the pros and cons. Someone likes that the teacher gives assignments by e-mail, and someone likes to ask questions on the topic of study, and there are a lot of them, but they can’t get an answer right away.
As for getting education as such, each student expects something different: someone just needs a diploma, and someone wants to seriously learn and become a competent specialist. Often, expectations are not met, so let's analyze in detail all the nuances below.
The advantages of distance education
Among the happy students who entered the distance learning, you can find positive reviews. Let's get acquainted with them:
- no need to go to lectures and sessions, spend time and money;
- you can study in your free time from other matters;
- no need to get extra and off-topic information from the lecturer;
- knowledge can be gained much more than full-time and evening education;
- the training time is much shorter, you can become a specialist in 2-3 years.
As you can see, getting a higher education remotely is a profitable business.
Disadvantages of learning remotely
Despite such excellent advantages, one should take into account the disadvantages that can significantly affect further postgraduate activities:
- there are no laboratory and practical classes;
- teachers can answer questions using the Internet for a very long time (given their employment and the large number of distance students);
- you have to train your willpower to start studying;
- there is no way to talk with classmates to disassemble the material together.
Distance higher education implies only a computer or laptop, as well as uninterrupted Internet access. In case of difficulties in the course of completing tasks, you will have to act on your own or ask for help from those who know the discipline (subject) well.
Therefore, almost all students and graduates of this form of study strongly recommend taking a serious approach to study, since tests, examinations and diploma protection will be held in the same way as in full-time, evening and correspondence forms of training. You should not wait for concessions and concessions from the examiners and the commission.
Second or first higher
Increasingly, people tend to get more than one higher education. So, many once in their youth entered the wrong profession, but they missed time to study, or there is no desire to sit at the same desk with the young generation. At the moment, there is a chance to catch up, get a second higher education remotely. Universities do not reject applications from those who already have higher education. On the contrary, there are even those who receive it for the third or even fourth, or fifth time.
As for the first higher, you can choose distance learning in the event that a person has at least a secondary specialized education, and also works in the field that is close to the specialty in which he wants to study.
Retraining Online
Those who already have a secondary specialized or higher education, it is completely optional to go to college or university and study for five to six years to get new knowledge with the right to work in the specialty.
Retraining on the basis of higher education remotely is the dream of everyone who wants to change their profession to the one they like. In addition, it is completely optional to spend money and time on getting new knowledge. Distance learning is a total of not more than one year, and the number of training hours is about 700-900.
About universities
Above, we discussed possible fraud on the part of sites that call themselves single centers for distance learning. In addition, there are universities that also accept documents on the official website, send receipts for payment for a semester or year. Unfortunately, many students were left without diplomas due to the fact that the university is not accredited. There is another minus: the “crusts” can give out, but they will not be of a state standard.
In order not to get into such a nuisance, you need to check the accreditation number, see if the state university or not, and then accurately determine with a higher education remotely. Student reviews on the Internet can be either real or false. Therefore, you should seriously approach the choice on your own or with the help of people who are experienced in this matter.
Difficult or easy to learn (student opinions)
First of all, you need to understand that no one will force them to do tasks on time. The student must allocate time himself, and questions may arise when solving problems or completing coursework. Often this applies to technical and economic specialties. Therefore, distance learning in engineering professions is suitable for those who already have their first higher technical education.
It is easy to learn from a distance, usually in the humanities, such as law, sociology, political science. It is only necessary, in order not to be mistaken, to choose higher education remotely at a state university.
In general, if you are responsible for studying, then there will be nothing complicated.
Cost of education
It seems to many that the cost of distance education is much lower than at the "correspondence", but this is not always the case. In this case, the student saves money on travel and accommodation (if the university is far from the place of residence).
In addition, the cost depends on the following factors:
- the geographical position of the university;
- hours and training periods;
- specialty;
- assigned qualifications.
There is a significant plus in that a person who lives in a big city and does not have a lot of funds to enter a prestigious specialty can choose a university for distance learning in another city. Moreover, he must come there only to submit documents and to protect / obtain a diploma.
To act or not? General conclusions
Perhaps after reading the article you will have a dilemma: is it worth getting a higher education remotely, after all, not everyone has positive reviews. In fact, much depends on the students themselves. Suppose, if you have the first specialty in the humanities, and now you want to go to a civil engineer, then it is better to abandon the idea. Remember the school education in mathematics, physics and chemistry: without the help of a teacher it is almost impossible to understand how to solve certain problems. Often you have to ask repeatedly until it becomes clear. So it is with engineering sciences. Therefore, technical specialties are suitable for those who are already familiar with many disciplines that need to be studied on a distance learning form. On the contrary, after an engineering specialty, you can no doubt enter the humanitarian.
And in conclusion, we again touch upon the topic of a single center of higher distance education. Student reviews show that it is better to submit documents only in person to the selected university, and not via the Internet. This way you will protect yourself from fraud. We wish you good luck in choosing distance learning!