I have found many negatives and many positives about off campus learning. The positives for me relate to the ability to study in a time that is convenient for me. Living in a remote rural location it would be virtually impossible to attend uni in the traditional manner, so off campus learning is my only option.
The negatives have mostly been about isolation from other students and lecturers and tutors. It is very hard to study in isolation from others, with only access to the Monash Portal and Blackboard as your virtual lecture theatre. I have found some lecturers are very good with the technology (eg talking into their microphones) and others aren't, which makes it very difficult to listen to lectures when the audio is bad. I agree, it would be great if we could have video content of the lectures too. I have learnt early on that it is important to regularly check the Portal and Blackboard, you can find out a lot of things from other student posts without having to put your own up. I have also learnt to read the material carefully and answer the question precisely. Again, because we can't just quickly check with another student on something, you can find you work a long time in isolation going down the wrong path before you discover your error. Big time wasters.
Another thing has been the library and getting books. We are disadvantaged because we have the books for the same amount of time as an on campus student, but it takes maybe a week or more to get them, and we don't have the luxury of going through the book before we get it to see if it suits our purposes. So when it finally turns up, and it's not exactly what we wanted, we have to post it back, and cover the expense. I'll be happy when you can download chapters of books online rather than have to wait for books to arrive. I know this techology is available, perhaps we'll get it here soon.
Anyway, it's not all negative or all positive, but I tend to think there is more positive than negative. I guess if I didn't I wouldn't still be here.
