OT : Paging those with distance learning experience (OU)

NP - glad to be of assistance. To be honest though, the comments from
yourself, Simon and a few others leaves me wondering about the state
of higher education - they appear to offer learning, but have omitted
to teach you /how/ to learn.

Good luck.

 

I'd got myself totally bogged down with this one and couldn't see the
wood for the trees (or the ponds for the Typha latifolia in this
case). I don't usually have a problem writing reports or essays, but
the end of my tether had been well and truly reached.

But is it the place of the HE establishment to teach people how to
learn or should students (particularly those just out of sixth form)
be bringing a certain level of competence to learn with them? From
what I've seen of the work of some of the younger members of my
cohort, schools don't seem to be doing a particularly good job of
preparing students for HE.

As the majority of school leavers seem to go to uni these day (instead
of a very select few when I was at school), one would imagine that
sixth forms should really be demanding much higher levels of
competence in both written and oral communications. They should also
be encouraging students to make use of a much wider variety of
sources, not just Wikipedia, and teaching them how to reference them
correctly.

At Northampton we have a Centre for Academic Practice that offers
advice and guidance on writing skills, IT, maths, you name it. We are
also fortunate that the lecturers in my department are always happy to
offer advice and support with assessed work and provide useful
comments and guidance notes on completed work; rarely are we left
wondering why we got a particular garde. However, whether a student
chooses to learn from the comments is a different matter. Sadly it
seems that many of my cohort don't and they continue to turn in poor
work with the same errors and omissions.

The opportunities to learn how to learn are there, you just have to
take them.

Got a B for it which puts the final grade for that module at a B+, so
not entirely unhappy with it (I didn't really expect to be able to
repeat last year's straight A grades this year).

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holdonagoddamnminute...are you telling me that they *are* recommending
students to use Wikipedia as a reference? If so, that's very
dangerous, as the sort of people who update Wikipedia are students.

cool.

 

At uni most definately no. It's occasionally a reasonable starting
point for info but, as I'm sure you know, should never be used as a
reliable source to quote from. There does however seem to be a huge
reliance on it by students coming from school, which would certainly
suggest that teaching staff consider it an acceptable source
(worrying). We still have people in the second year who insist on
using it and reference it ... despite being told again and again not
to. It's not as if we don't have access to huge quantities of quality
primary research material.

The lack of understanding regarding plagiarism and the need for and
importance of correct referencing of primary and secondary sources is
also dreadful and imo should be addressed in school rather than
leaving it until the kids get to uni. It's not as though it's
difficult to grasp for heaven's sake! Maybe I'm a bit of referencing
nazi, I'm already encouraging my 10 year old to cite sources
correctly, especially when using the internet (which they seem to be
encouraged to do so far more than using books).

<grins> happy bunny.

--
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I think it was always thus.

Uni is surely about learning how to learn, how to source information and
analyse it? Well, at least a bachelor's degree (and I suppose also
masters degrees these days.)

 

It's all over for this year now (well, apart from all the work I need
to do on my dissertation over the summer). What course are you doing?

Having spoken with a few teachers whilst trying to decide whether to
go into teaching or not (I'm not), it seems that this is indeed the
case. Apparently it's very much a case of ticking boxes to meet
learning outcomes with very little emphasis on developing good
learning skills. I'm sure someone will be along to refute that in due
course.

Having read some of the work submitted by my younger colleagues it
wouldn't surprise me; many of them seem to have an incredibly tenuous
grasp of spelling and grammar.

If what happens with my son is any indication of the way in which
English is taught, then I hold little hope of any improvement in the
standards of literacy in this country. His spelling mistakes are
(mostly) marked in his exercise books, but it seems that there is
little effort to encourage the child to correct them. I would, but as
I only get to see his exercise book once in a blue moon (homework is
usually done on worksheets) it's difficult to provide a consistent
check on his progress.

Similarly on my course.

Indeed, it seems that there are very few individuals that have the
focus to really take advantage of what uni has to offer besides
getting wrecked every night.

BSc in Biological Conservation and Physical Geography (major/minor)
.... hard work but very rewarding

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You and me both.

No effort is made, because it not seen as fault that should be
penalised. In my day (sets lamp swinging) we lost a mark for every
punctuation, spelling or grammatical error, and marks were also deducted
if the work was untidy.

Again, you and me both.

As a language, English is evolving all the time - new words, phrases,
colloquialisms, and words change their meanings. All this is good. I
like this sort of thing.

'm not sure that it's a good thing, though, when language changes to
reflect the ignorance of those who speak it, and their reduced
vocabulary

Once again, we come back to George Orwell and 1984.

 

Quite possibly. However, my lecturers despair at the standard of
written work produced by many undergrads.

Yes, in essence I agree, uni provides you with the tools to seek the
knowledge you require.

I've found that the way in which I approach a problem has changed in
my two short years in HE and I am now better at extracting and
analysing data than I was previously. The difference is that I
*could* extract and analyse data previously, unlike many of the
younger undergrads. Now whether this is due to my great age, life
experience or just the type of person I am, I don't know.

Looking back to my dim and distant school days, I can't honestly say
that standards in education were any better then, but I do remember
having to correct spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

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That's my single regret about university. Not that I got wrecked
_every_ night but that I didn't make full use of the place when I was
there. That and not getting as good a degree as I know I'm capable
of.

 

Ah, you think it's deliberate?

Don't forget, insisting on speaking is elitist. We don't do that in
edukaishon.

 

I'd agree, I think my time in the workplace has been of benefit in
preparing me for uni. I also did an Access course prior to going to
uni which really helped give me an edge when it came to writing
academically.

I suspect that is the root of the difference between the 'mature'
student and the late-teen.

I'm doing my degree because I have a clear purpose for which I wish to
use it. I find it very difficult not to put all my effort into a
piece of work and whilst this produces excellent grades, it does mean
that things can get a little tense at Chez Pixie.

--
Elly - a Pixie who hates having a cold
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elly at garagepixies dot co dot uk