Self-Paced Studies – Overcoming the Limitations of TraditionalClassroom-Based Education

Children often complain of being forced to do their assignments and study their lessons at home. If you are a parent of schoolchildren, you would have gone through hours of frustration and would need anger management sessions to contain yourself as you fail to make your children study their lessons on their own. They may not have acquired yet the value of self discipline and we can just hope they will soon do.  We expect adults to do better and already know the value and benefits of self-paced studies.

As adults, we are supposed to know why we want to study and learn.  We will have our own personal learning objectives that guide our learning activities in a given period or semester of studies. And as busy adults who work and study at the same time, we cannot take this responsibility lightly.  We have to learn how to make self-paces studies efficient and productive, for it is there where our success rest.  We must have the discipline, determination and strength to accomplish the learning objectives that we have set for ourselves.

Self-paced studies can be a real challenge to those who were brought up in the traditional or conventional educational system where every class is led by a teacher and each student is supposed to study the prescribed lesson for the day, do their assignments, and hand in their work at the designated time.  Indeed, the challenge exists for both teachers and students. Students are constrained to follow all the dictates of the teacher, who herself is just following a predetermined lesson plan. There is little room for flexibility and creativity.  Self-paced studies on the other hand is a total overhauling of the traditional system where a student can set his or her own pace independently of from any kind of prerequisites, except that the coursework has to be finished and submitted as agreed. This type of learning can be applied to almost all subject matters or courses.  It can be adapted to different educational environment but it is most effective where creativity and freedom of expression is permitted and encouraged. It could be as simple as reading a book on your own time to acquire information about a subject matter, listening to an audio book or watching a video presentation, and completing the accompanying exercises. It could also involve computer-assisted learning where you use or interact with a computer application to learn about the topic.

Teachers in traditional classroom-based education often forget the individual student who fails to cope with the rest of the class.  At the same time, students who are more intelligent may become frustrated and bored with the lessons prepared by the teacher.  This may not be the ideal learning environment but this is what has been happening for a long time now.  This is an inefficient, less productive way to learn.  In self-paced studies, these limitations are avoided because students learn when they need to and when they are ready.  There will be no students who will become bored or students who will be overwhelmed by concepts they fail to appreciate. They are not dependent on the teacher who has his or her own agenda for teaching.  Many students are actually more motivated to learn when they know they are in control of their own knowledge acquisition process. Each student invests in his or her own future and is allowed to participate and go through the learning process; they are responsible for achieving their own learning objectives.

Teachers will still be there but they are there mostly to act as facilitators or guides only. However, in self-paced studies, teachers have the opportunity to focus on less capable students and provide them with more attention and assistance.

Self-paced Studies: Working Around Your Schedule

A lot of people are looking into taking up advanced courses. They may want to go on a short course due to the demands of their job or purely out of self-satisfaction. They may need it for their current job or they may want to take up another course because they want to switch fields. Whatever the reason, a lot of people want to take up educational courses at some point in their lives. Everyone wants to learn something new; however, in most cases, they are not able to due to their busy and hectic schedules.

This is most evident for those in the working class since they know that they can get a better chance for a promotion if they have advanced courses under their belts. However, precisely because they are working that they find it almost impossible to take up something—even a short course—since their busy schedules would not allow them the free time to go sit in class and do all of the necessary requirements. Fortunately, there is a very viable solution to solve this problem and that is by taking self-paced studies.

These study courses are perfect for those who have little to no time since they can work at their own pace and submit the requirements when they have the time. Furthermore, it is quite easy to find colleges or institutions that offer these kinds of courses. One of the best places to look for these courses would be online. Once you search for them, you will discover that there are actually quite a number of online schools that offer various courses that can be done at your own pace. Most of them are online courses with modules that will allow you to work at your own pace. Also, the requirements are mostly exercises that you need to answer and submit making them perfect for those who have no time to go to a school just to get another degree.

Another advantage is that there are quite a number of courses that they offer. And since they are online, there is no minimum number of students needed for the class to start; all of your so-called classmates are also online students. However, this is a big disadvantage since you will have no classmates to directly interact with. If there are things you do not understand, you won’t be able to ask any classmates about it. And since all of you work at your own paces, there is no guarantee that all of you are on the same page of the class syllabus.

Fortunately, there are forums which help address this problem. This means that the chances of asking for help is not entirely zero, but there are less possibilities and options for cooperative learning. However, if this is more of your style, then self-paced studies are really perfect for you. You also do not have to worry about the quality of learning you will receive since most of these online courses have high quality content and some are even sponsored by big and reputable schools, colleges, or universities.

So if you are in need of a way to get an extra degree or would simply want to learn something new and exciting, then these self-paced, online study courses is perfect for you. It doesn’t matter if you have a busy schedule or an erratic work pace since you can easily avail of these services online. Having a busy work life is no longer a hindrance if you really need to study; this can be solved easily by simply going online and checking out all the available options for you.

The Benefits and Disadvantages of Self-Paced Studies

For people who are currently working or considered to be homemakers of the family, self-paced studies is a great option. There are so many known benefits attributed to learning online but just the same, too much freedom can also cause a few disadvantages on its own. This is why it really helps to prepare ahead of time should you be interested to get into online self-paced studies and here are some of the pros and cons that you may want to consider:

The Benefits

Among the main benefits of self-paced studies is scheduling your own time. Before you even start a course, you are given the opportunity to actually choose which schedule would fit you best. You can also access the training modules anytime you need to, so reviewing can be easily done and you can also apply it directly with your current job.

For example, if you are taking an online course to learn Photoshop, the lessons can be immediately applied to what you are doing on a daily basis since the notes are easily retrievable online.

Projects are also easier to do, not to mention cheaper. Because your instructors work depending on your pace, they know that when they set a deadline you can readily fulfill that. You no longer have to worry about bringing your projects all the way to school because you simply have to send them online.

Access to self-paced studies are also available anywhere, regardless of platform. It doesn’t matter whether you are learning from home, the office, using UNIX, or MAC, the important thing is you are logged online and ready to begin your lessons. Because of this ease of access, you can be sure that your courses would be finished as agreed since cancellations rarely happen.

The Disadvantages

Much of self-paced studies mean you have to rely on your own to finish your course. There are discussion boards but for the most part, you are really left to your own device to learn more about your lessons. This is why you have to setup a room and time where you can be free to take up the lessons without distractions.

Assessment and feedback may also be limited. Of course, face to face interactions would be little to none at all. So if you want to clear things up with your instructor you really have to be an active participant and ask about it. This is also why it is important to take advantage of the discussion boards because that would be the best place to get some clarifications with your fellow students and instructor rolling.

You also need to make sure that your computer is updated before you take on an online class. This is because particular software programs would have to be used and the system requirements of your computer must be compatible with the modules you have to receive and download. If you have no experience with computers, you might want to brush up on those skills or have someone teach you to use the computer to navigate your lessons properly.

Knowing the benefits and disadvantages of self-paced studies would allow you to evaluate if this is for you or not. It is important to also evaluate the institution and the course program before you enroll in an online degree so you would know what you need to fix before you enroll.