Study Tips from online students - #2 Importance of support

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• Ask for help

  What students said:

  When I speak to the Open Universities people they help me straight away.

  There’s a lot more help and a lot more services than I thought we be available to me and I think I’ve coped with it a lot better than I thought I would.

  You’ve got to keep up with it and you’ve got to be organised but it’s not as hard in the regard that there’s assistance there and you’ve just got to look for it.

  I thought I’d be under some stress but it hasn’t been too bad because I find that Open Universities is very helpful.

  When I need to find something out and I can’t find it out just by looking on the website, then I’ll call them and ask them about it and they actually help me.

  If I hadn’t had that support, you know, I think I would have dropped out because things were just so helter skelter here.

  When you’re with Open Universities, you know, they email you a lot, they give you a lot of information about smart thinking and you have your study buddy so you always feel like you can at least try and get in contact with somebody who’s in the same boat as you.

• Talk to your tutor

  What students said:

  My tutor, she was wonderful. She gave incredible feedback. I said I could follow her feedback and each time it would get better. You know, I’d achieve a higher mark and I ended up getting 93%.

  I didn’t think I’d get as much support as you actually do get. The way the tutors help you and the information that you get online sent to you, it seems to be enough to get you through the units.

  The tutors are fantastic. They talk non-stop which is just brilliant, you know, there’s so much to learn from them.

• Ask other students

  What students said:

  It’s a lot more social and friendly than I was expecting, I’m not as alone as I thought I’d be.

  There’s been nothing that either other students, lecturers or, you know, at this point, student advisers haven’t been able to help me with.

  I think that with time and being able to bounce off other students or the lecturers, there’s always been an avenue of help if you really need it.

  I think we probably know just by talking about it we sort of encourage each other, how they’re going and talk about exams and different bits and pieces or how we’re going so yes, in a funny sort of a way it’s sort of like a bit of encouragement you know.

• Get involved

  What students said:

  I got into private Facebook groups.

  We really used the discussion board and there was a lot of interaction and a couple of the students that were students in the fine arts were really helpful. I think without that, and without a couple of the lecturers along the way that were supportive, then it would have been so much harder to get through.

  In every unit that I’ve done so far the students in that unit have set up a Facebook page it does help sometimes when things get very frustrating or you can’t understand and it helps to know the other people who are having difficulties as well

  I’m always involved in the discussion boards, weekly. I’m very interested in being in those.

  When I was involved in the Facebook groups, then it was regular conversations with other people in the class, which is good.

• Family & friends can help too

  What students said:

  I have created for myself now a very good support network even if they’re not always physically there, I do, I always have people I can call pretty much any time, day or night.

  I usually just come home and spend an hour or so a night doing whatever needs to be done; readings, tutorials, whatever so normally I just share what I’m doing with my wife and just talk about it. She’s always interested to know what I’m up to.

  My boss is pretty relaxed and I think he understands that I am doing it to further myself, and further my current job.

  My wife – she’ll sort of do the housework and cook tea while I’m studying sort of thing. That’s definitely helpful.

  Because my Mum knows how much pressure I put on myself she’s told me, “All you need is a pass.” I’m really grateful for being reminded, whatever happens, it’s not the end of the world. I can allow myself to fall apart once in a while.

  People can see that it is something that can be done. So yes, I think that they’re accepting of it and my husband certainly is accepting of it. That’s why they do give me the space to do this and they don't really quibble when I say “I’ve got to study” or “I’ve got an assignment to finish. I can’t do that”. So they’re quite okay with that.

  He say’s “I knew you could do it. I knew you could do it”. Sometimes when it gets really, really hard, you know, the pressure’s building, he says, “No, you can do it. You can do it”.