Study with a degree of dash
TERTIARY students are increasingly combining faceto-face and online learning in a bid to fast-track their qualification.
Students can slash up to a year off their study if they top up their on-campus learning with online offerings, says Open Universities Australia chief executive Stuart Elmslie.
“(How much someone fasttracks their learning) would depend on your level of commitment, your motivation, sometimes your aptitude and also the circumstances of your broader environment and how accommodating that is,” Mr Elmslie says.
“But we have got examples where students have been able to shave a year off a four-year degree.
“Many students have an appetite to accelerate their study and get on with their career. We want them to know there are options available to do that and … it’s something we are seeing more people doing.”
Mr Elmslie says on-campus students wanting to speed up their studies often enrol in online subjects during the summer semester, also called semester three — the period between December and February when universities typically are on break.
“Summer is a great bit of downtime in terms of your oncampus university world,” he says.
“It’s also a great time to do some (online study) without it overlapping (with on-campus study time).”
He says other students choose to study online in conjunction with their on- campus commitments, giving them a “greater-than-average study load”.
For students who start their university study mid-year or need to repeat a subject, online study means they can pick up online subjects that are required as part of their qualification but may not be offered on campus all year round, Mr Elmslie says.
Chisholm Institute’s Jane McLennan says vocational education students cannot take on additional subjects to speed their studies but there are still avenues available for those wanting to get ahead.
“Through the Recognition of Prior Learning process, we can recognise the skills that some individuals already have and can provide credit for those,” McLennan says.
“In terms of online offerings, there are a few providers that offer pure (fully) online options — quite often they are more likely to be a blended offering (of online and on-campus) study.”
Meron Ranganui-Sparrow, 25, turned to online study for the remaining subject of her psychology degree after discovering it would not be offered on campus until the following semester, which would have added a further six months to her studies.
“I really needed to finish (the degree) in that semester because I had already planned a holiday away for three months and it would mean I would have had to come back to uni just for that one subject,” she says.
“Doing it online was fine. I’m not the kind of person that could do a full degree online, but having one subject to do wasn’t a problem.”