Posted by admin on July 1, 2009 under Education | 
There are a great number of benefits to online learning.
Students enjoy the convenience of learning at a pace and time of their own choosing.
This has given students a way to not be restricted to a traditional learning environment, and has the benefit of choosing the place of learning.
Distance learning is ‘anytime, anyplace’ education.
Distance learning also allows access to a wealth of additional resources beyond the standard textbooks and papers. Students generally use the internet for resources, this can now include access to experts and tutors or other students located in a different part of the country.
There are some disadvantages, such as hardware availability, internet connectivity or even computer competency. Some students will not have full access to all the training materials availably in these cases, either by having an out of date computer that cant support video or other applications used.
Distance learning is primarily completed solely by the individuals alone.
Posted by admin on April 7, 2009 under Distance Learning |
The history of Distance Learning
My maths teacher at school knew all about distance learning – he was always asking me what planet I was on during his lessons. He must have taught me something though because some years later I got my Psychology degree, including a fair bit of statistical work, through home study with the Open University (OU) – more about that later.
But the history of distance learning goes back a lot further than the OU and over the centuries it’s opened doors for some very interesting and inspiring people.
Early distance learning by correspondence
Distance learning can be traced back as far as the first century when the Apostle Paul instructed the early Christian churches from afar, including a period when he was under house arrest in Rome.
For many centuries home learning courses were all correspondence courses – written lessons sent through the post to students. Pennsylvania State University was one of the first to deliver organised home study courses in 1886. A typical correspondence course, the university communicated with its students by US Mail – the most advanced form of communication available to it at that time.
Home study in the 1960’s
Probably the most influential period for the development of distance learning was in the 60’s when the Prime Minister at the time, Harold Wilson, approved the setting up of the ‘University of the Air’ which later became the Open University.
The new University was set up to allow people of all ages and abilities to study at home for degree level courses using TV and Radio broadcasts to deliver the teaching. As time went on these home study courses used more paper based teaching materials and today learning with the OU is much more computer/internet based.
One of the most famous of all students of distance learning in the 60s was Nelson Mandela. When imprisoned on Robben Island, Mandela took home study courses offered by the University of South Africa to help him deal with his incarceration.
A firm believer in the power of education to help people make changes in their lives, Mandela refers to Education as “the great engine of personal development” in his autobiography. (p.194 – Great Walk to Freedom)
Distance Learning courses today
With over 200,000 students taking distance learning courses with the OU at any one time, the success of this kind of study is clear. The main differences today are the huge range of home study courses available and the increasing numbers of people choosing to study through home learning.
College based courses continue to attract their fair share of students, but the flexibility offered by distance learning courses and the fact that they are often more affordable, means that this form of home study is likely to continue to develop further alongside the rapid developments taking place in technology.
IT Training courses through home study
Just as growth in the development of IT and telecommunications influences the expansion of distance learning, so the demand for IT training courses has increased.
Now many home learning colleges offer a huge range of IT courses and the numbers of students across the globe taking up opportunities for IT home study is testament to the success of distance learning today.
Posted by admin on April 5, 2009 under Distance Learning |
Want a new career? Look at home study options
Now that financial uncertainties are spreading across the globe, more and more people are looking to home learning courses for the most convenient and affordable route to a more secure and lucrative career.
And these days, with the increasing availability of distance learning courses, you’re as likely to be studying propped up in bed with your laptop as sat at a desk in a traditional classroom. So learning new skills and gaining better qualifications has never been more flexible.
Home study options
With distance learning courses available in a diverse range of topics from accounting to zoology, it’s important to make the right decisions about which home study courses to take.
When it comes to career decisions, your choice of distance learning courses will depend upon whether you’re looking to progress in your current area of work or looking for a fresh start in a new career.
IT training for career progress
Computer skills are always going to be highly valued by employers no matter what kind of work you do, so IT training courses you can study at home are always worth considering.
There are IT home study courses for learning the ins and outs of word processing, spreadsheets and databases as well as more complex courses in both hardware and software development.
So whether you’re working in a clerical position for a local authority or as a technician in an IT company, you could be using your free time to study at home and learn the skills you need to secure your current position and work towards promotion in your chosen field.
As well as IT courses, you can also find career specific home learning courses available in accounting, horticulture, languages, law, psychology and many more.
Just try a google search for “Distance learning courses in …” and add your area of work to see what the options are.
Distance learning for career progress – next steps…
- Research the skills and qualifications you might need for career progress
- Ask your human resources manager about possible financial support for training
- Search online for suitable home learning college courses
- Found the right course? Check the course provider is accredited and offering recognised qualifications
Home study courses for a fresh start
If you’re considering a new career, it’s important to make sure that it’s a viable option for you. Research job vacancies online and in work specific journals and consider talking with someone already employed in the area of work you’re considering.
Whatever career you’re considering, it’s likely that there is a home study course that can help you gain the knowledge, skills and qualifications you need to achieve a successful career change. Again, do your homework and research all the possibilities.
The advantages of home study are that you can organise your learning to fit in with other commitments, work at your own pace and you won’t be limited by courses only available near to where you live.
Careers and home study – next steps:
- Thoroughly research all your career options – make sure you have the motivation and potential to succeed and check that there are job opportunities available
- Talk to people who are already pursuing the career you’re most interested in
- Search for suitable distance learning courses
- Make sure they’re offering exactly what you need, including accredited qualifications
Remember you can take home study courses on offer from anywhere in the world but it’s vital that you check that any qualification based courses offered are accredited and recognised in the country where you work.
Posted by admin on April 2, 2009 under Distance Learning |
Top 4 reasons why IT home study can help you through the recession…
As this looming recession spreads gloomy employment prospects across the world, thousands face redundancy and a lack of promotion opportunities as employers batten down the hatches in their attempts to ride out the storm.
Wise individuals are looking for ways to improve their chances in these difficult times and many are realising the benefits of gaining and improving their computer skills through IT training courses.
IT training can help anyone who is unemployed following a recession driven redundancy or worried about current and future job security.
And although IT courses can be studied through home learning, college or private tuition, there are many reasons why learning IT through study at home is the best option for many.
1. IT training courses teach employable skills
Studying IT at home can help you gain the skills and qualifications you need to be more secure in your current position as well as opening doors to promotions, new career options and business ventures.
And these days IT training has never been easier to access. There are distance learning courses available across all areas, to suit all levels of ability – from basic word processing to the complexities of programming.
2. IT Home study lets you take control
People choose IT home study courses because of their flexibility. You can learn at the level that’s right for you, organise your IT training around other demands on your time and enjoy learning in the comfort of your own home.
Distance learning courses allow learners to study at a pace that’s right for them – some people need longer to grasp the essentials before moving onto the next stage. Taking the time that’s needed to learn at each stage increases the chances of success.
Also, IT courses studied through distance learning means you can study wherever there is access to a computer and the internet. You can work in a library as well as at home, so you can even carry on your studies when away from home for any reason.
People who choose to study IT through home learning courses gain a lot from the amount of one to one support they get – something that isn’t always possible in a classroom full of others. Contact with tutors is usually via instant messaging, email or by phone.
4. There’s no stopping IT
Even at the height of the recession, IT is one sector likely to experience continuing growth. Organisations looking for ways to save money will increasingly recognise the economy, speed and efficiency of using the internet for many aspects of their day to day business.
So, we’re definitely experiencing a recession. What should you do?
It may be tempting to keep your head down and hope to stay safe where you are. Or if you’ve already suffered redundancy, you may be wondering how many daytime programmes you can stomach while you eke out your redundancy payment and search for another, more secure job.
If you’re already feeling the effects of the crunch, why not check out the possibilities of IT training through home study? An investment right now could help you secure a more successful future.
Posted by admin on April 1, 2009 under Education, IT Skills |
Want to achieve IT skills, but don’t want to go to college?
Training and acquiring new skills should be a lifelong process as workplace requirements change and evolve, in line with new legislation, new technology and new work practices. Yet the majority of British workers fail to renew their skills, or acquire new ones, throughout their working lives, often falling behind school leavers, particularly in fast moving fields, such as IT.
With the British government driving new initiatives to encourage more and more workers to train, unskilled workers who are already falling behind in today’s technological world will find it more and more difficult to retain work or to advance their careers.
The IT industry in particular continues to demand more and more engineers, software technicians, website designers and IT competent office workers, so the need for sound and comprehensive IT training is growing ahead of virtually any other field.
One of the greatest drawbacks for those considering career advancement or a mid-career change, is an inherent reluctance to go back to full time study. The reluctance to go back into the classroom alongside other, much younger students, compounded by the need to continue to work, to generate an income to support family and personal commitments.
Studying IT courses at home provide those who need to `earn while they learn’ or who are reluctant to go back to college, with a way of training for new IT skills in their own time, at their own pace.
Home study IT courses lend themselves perfectly to distance learning. E-mail communication gives students far more of an interface with the home study college and the tutors. Most home study organisations will have an Intranet system where students can download updates of their course material, find out about other students’ achievements and get a wider perspective of their studies.
New training methods, such as computer based e-learning, from DVD’s, virtual reality scenarios and methods such as Live Internet Training, create an interactive environment, that gives students far more of an interface with the home study college, regardless of distance or locality.
Naturally, studying computing at home requires discipline. Unlike college, the onus is on the student to keep pace with the course work. The more committed the student, the sooner the target of achieving industry recognised qualifications can be realised.
The great advantage of home study is its flexibility. Students study at their own pace, in their own time, around existing job, family and personal commitments.
Hundreds of thousands of people who may have left school without a qualification, or who’ve found themselves in dead end jobs, are turning to home study. With the British government outlining plans for Britain to compete in the global `skills race’, it’s one way in which everyone can benefit from training, without having to go back to conventional college.
Posted by admin on March 29, 2009 under Distance Learning, Education |
Home study ‘housewives’ take jobs for the boys
Recent reports indicate that more British women than ever are taking up N+ home studyto acquire new skills, to qualify in roles as varied as bookkeeping, web design and PC engineering.
It seems that women of all ages are far more flexible than men, often having to plan their career paths around their families. Either delaying starting a family until their thirties, or having a family young and delaying their careers, or starting afresh in their fifties and studying for careers to take them into retirement.
One of the biggest drawbacks for women in the workplace has been the need to be flexible, to fit either academic study or vocational training around existing work and personal commitments. Juggling childcare is a perennial nightmare for most working mums, contemplating taking on vocational training at college to advance their careers, simply adds to the complexities.
But many women are now discovering that studying at home is the ideal way to advance their careers, or find a way back into the work place.
There are numerous home study courses designed to allow both women and men to study at home and pass industry recognised exams, in subjects such as in bookkeeping, Microsoft Office or web design. All of which can be fitted around existing work or family commitments.
Take 45 year old mother of one, Catherine Cutts from Worksop, for example. Catherine studied the SkillsTrain Bookkeeping course and became the country’s top achieving student in the June 2007 International Association of Bookkeepers (IAB) examinations with a 96%, A+ pass.
Already fitting a part time job in an accounts office around her commitments as a mother of an active 9 year old son, she said “I decided to go back to studying because I wanted an accounting qualification, mainly to prove to myself that I could do it. But I couldn’t have contemplated going back to college, because of my age and because of my existing family commitments.
Studying from home already really helped with my career and with my confidence because I’ve been able to take on a client’s accounts and payroll in the evenings, which allows me to fit two jobs around school hours”.
Catherine’s experience is typical of many women who perhaps didn’t have the confidence to study for a qualification in their teens or twenties and ended up in jobs which didn’t realize their true potential and which needed to be fitted around personal commitments.
Another major factor deterring women from realizing their potential is the speed at which technology advances. Just a couple of years out of the office and IT skills can become totally out of date. But it’s often just the perception that `everyone else knows more’ that deters many women from returning to the office.
IT home study courses in office administration and Microsoft Office can bring home study students not just up to the level of their colleagues, but often give them skills that will open new career paths and move into careers in what were once typically male dominated subjects such as web design, by studying for the CIW (Certified Internet Webmaster) exam.
Regardless of their age or family circumstances the emergence of a new generation of home study courses, which use blends of book based theory and new PC based `e-learning’ and techniques such as interactive, Live Internet Training, is allowing women the flexibility to study at home and achieve qualifications that will open the door to completely new careers and a new way of life.
Posted by admin on March 23, 2009 under Education, IT Courses |
IT-phobics go back to school, without ever leaving home
It’s easy to be IT-phobic when everyone 5 years old and upwards, appears to be adept at the internet, e-mailing, social networking, even shopping at their favourite supermarket without leaving the comfort of their own homes. Yet it’s so easy to have been among one of the many tens of thousands who were left behind when the IT revolution overtook the world during the past 25 years.
Stay at home mums who had babies and families in the 1980s and 1990s find themselves left high and dry when it comes to IT. Designers who were used to the old `cut and paste’ system suddenly found their scalpels and spray glue had replaced by computers. Secretaries who were adept at word processors, can now be foxed by word processing, book-keepers who enjoyed their long-hand, double entry ledgers are faced with strange and impersonal looking on-screen spreadsheets.
A lack of IT skills can be just as embarrassing as admitting to a hygiene or health problem! Yet it’s even easier to do something about it, without even leaving the comfort of your own home.
Not surprisingly one of the world’s most successful companies, Microsoft, is behind one of the most successful ways of getting people back into work place technology, with its `Microsoft Office Professional (MOS)’ qualification. A qualification that can actually be studied in the privacy of a student’s own home, without others checking how long it takes to achieve each stage of the course and with absolutely no pressure to keep up with classmates.
Taking a home study computer networking course will train and equip even the most IT-phobic with all of the office computer skills necessary to streamline returning to the automated office or understanding the automated family. It gives trainees competency in using the suite of Microsoft office products that include Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It sounds impossible, but the course takes students right back to basics, from a simple introduction to computers and computing, right through the hands-on skills used in offices and homes today.
This is typical of the many practical and vocational IT qualifications that are available for home study, many of which are backed by the big players in today’s IT industry. Those looking to get into a more technical IT environment will find courses for PC engineers, web designers and programmers, while bookkeepers can get right up to date with the International Association of Bookkeepers computerised accounting exams, by training on a home study course tailored to achieve those qualifications.
Home study computer courses require little more than a PC, the ability to read and understand the requirements of the coursework and a huge amount of commitment. No-one is there to nag you to hand in your homework! You can study in your own pace and at your own time, without constantly having someone look over your shoulder to see how you’re getting on.
Most home computer courses work on a series of marked assignments, conveyed between the distance learning organisation and the student via a combination of the postal system, e-mail and the internet. Tutors have students studying in numerous locations, most of whom will never ever meet each other, though e-learning and Live Internet Training all provide greater interaction between students and home study colleges these days than in times past.
So there are ways to shake off IT phobia without ever leaving home and home study is one way in which even the most technologically inept students can catch up with their children or grandchildren.
Posted by admin on March 20, 2009 under Distance Learning, Education |
Gaining IT skills through home study
IT skills are now an essential requirement for most jobs and very much in demand by employers, so taking even basic ecommerce training courses can definitely boost your job prospects.
Although there are a number of ways to study IT courses, including distance learning, college courses and personal tuition; choosing to study at home is probably the best option if you are employed or have little time to spare.
A big advantage of distance learning courses is that they allow you to work though your IT training at your own pace. This means you can plan your home study according to the time you have available and to suit your lifestyle.
There are plenty of IT training courses on offer via distance learning on the internet. Just make sure you choose a reputable company that offers IT home study courses that match your level of ability.
How do IT home study courses work?
Once you’ve registered with an IT training provider, you will receive a pack of learning materials and be given additional materials to download as you work through all the stages of your home learning.
Course providers will also assign a personal tutor to you who will assess your work and provide all the advice and support you need via email or phone. And as you progress you’ll be given a variety of assignments to complete, which your tutor will assess and return to you with helpful feedback and advice.
At the end of your course, you will receive a certificate and have a recognised qualification which you can add to your CV to impress current and future employers.
Common questions about IT and home study courses
Here are answers to some of the questions commonly asked about home learning and IT courses:
Q: What sort of IT courses can I take?
There are a wide range of IT courses available so there’s lots of choice. Whether you’re simply looking to improve your skills with Microsoft Office or wanting to become an IT professional, you will be able to find a course to suit you.
Q: Do I need to have any prior skills or qualifications?
No. The college you sign up with should give you all the help you need to find the right IT course at a suitable level for you. The main thing is to have an interest in IT and the desire to succeed.
Q: What will happen if I fall behind with my home learning?
Courses are organised in such a way that you can work at your own pace, so if you need to slow down during a busy patch that’s no problem.
The important thing is to try to keep some momentum going and not stop altogether because sometimes it can be hard to get going again.
Finding out more about distance learning courses
If you have any further questions about how to study at home to gain new IT skills, most IT training providers will be happy to answer them for you and you can always do some research online to find out more.
Posted by admin on March 18, 2009 under Internet Services, Outsourced Services |
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Posted by admin on under Distance Learning, Education |
The benefits of home learning
The Prime Minister has said that the future of British businesses will rely on a skilled workforce. So, if you want job security in these tough economic times, it’s hugely important to make sure you have the up-to-date skills that employers value.
You may be thinking, “How can I? I can’t afford to take time out from work to study.”
“Study at home with a home learning college,” is the answer. Distance learning courses offer a simple way to combine your existing commitments with flexible home learning, allowing you to study at home in comfort, in your own time and at your own pace.
Why study at home?
Distance learning is not only convenient – home learning students absorb and retain information from study at home far better than in a classroom environment. In a study conducted at California State University, students on distance learning courses achieved significantly higher test scores (Schutte, J. G., 1996).
With distance learning courses there are no barriers. You can study anywhere with access to the Internet. People all over the world of all ages have used home learning courses to help them achieve advancement in lucrative careers such as bookkeeping and IT.
Training with home learning courses can help you make a successful career change. Distance learning provides access to recognised qualifications in a great variety of industries; qualifications that open doors to interesting, well-paid careers.
Finding a home learning college
Your home study is an investment in yourself, so an important task is to choose a competent, industry recognised home learning college.
A good home learning college will provide:
- distance learning courses leading to industry accredited qualifications
- full support from experienced tutors on all home study courses
- assessment of your abilities and guidance on appropriate home study courses
- comprehensive and carefully structured course work.
The best colleges also give students access to the latest technologies, such as live Internet training.
IT training courses
A wide range of people have found taking IT courses to be a fascinating, life-changing experience.
Like to problem solve? Become a computer engineer through IT home study. Creative? Why not try a web design course and start your own small business?
Courses range from the basic, brushing up your MS Office skills before a return to work, to advanced IT courses in programming and computer networking courses.
Even with no previous experience, IT home study can help you move into this exciting field. And if you already work in IT, training courses on more advanced subjects can help you move up the ladder. As many employers are actively seeking out employees with up-to-date IT skills and qualifications, accredited IT training courses offer an ideal way to get ahead.
The wonderful advantage of taking IT courses through distance learning, which applies to all home learning courses, is that the time and length of your course fits your needs and not the needs of a college. When you study at home with a good home learning college, you learn as best suits you, and you succeed.
