How to live like an on-campus student if you’re off-campus
First published at Hijacked on 11 June 2015.
One of the joys of distance education is the ability to consume knowledge without the pesky commute to campus, the laborious and maze-like job of finding parking, and the risk of damaging your eyes from bad lecture slides. But distance education also has its cons: no face-to-face contact, no sense of community or belongingness, no on-campus social groups, and no late-night study and binging on junk food in 24-hour computer rooms. That doesn’t mean a distance education student can’t recreate the pluses of on-campus university life, however. As Bruce Lee once said, “Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”
So if you’re one of these off-campus students, there are ways to still experience the uni life of your on-campus brethren — without the on-campus baggage.
Social media: digital natives’ weapon of choice
Let’s get the first and obvious one out of the way: social media study groups and communities. They’re free, easy to access, and allow students to interact and learn in more personalised and casual ways. Indeed, a 2015 study by McGraw-Hill Education found that more than 70 per cent of students feel the technology they used to study should be tailored as social feeds. As well as learning about the course content, you can share study tips and invite professors if you think their digital literacy skills get the nod of approval.
Read the full article at Hijacked.
