Studying Successfully at a

Distance
The Distance Learning Community
• There is now an estimated 175,000 distance learning
students in the UK alone, with around one in six studying
on postgraduate level courses.

• The first completely accessible degree level courses in

Britain started in the early 1970s (The Open University),
although the University of London had offered some
‘correspondence’ degree level courses dating back to the
1950s.

• Since then a large body of research evidence has

gathered on the factors that lead to success among
distance learning students.
 Research
• A recent research paper Forrester, Motteram,
Parkinson and Slaouti (2004)
summarised the factors that contribute to the
academic success of distance learning students,
and also highlighted some of the problem areas.

• Other work, (particularly Mills and Tait 1996,

and Simpson 2002, has presented advice on
strategies for distance learning students to help
them succeed with their studies.
 Foundations for Success
The following elements and factors are foundation
stones for success as a distance learner:

Managing time: keeping in balance all your paid work,

study, family and leisure needs
• Good access to sources of knowledge to support your
learning
• Regular communication between tutors and students and
opportunities to meet other learners
• Feedback on progress: reassurance that you are making
good progress, and/or advice on how to improve
• Emotional support: from partner, families, employers and
other students
• Learning support: from the institution; help and advice on
effective learning strategies
 Time Management: the big issue
• Lack of time has been cited by 40% of
distance learning students as their
principal study problem;

• Lack of time, for example, was cited, for

example, by 60% of Open University
students, who left their courses before
completion, as the main reason for them
ending their studies ( WYHECGP 2004).
 Time Management Issues for Students

Three Big Time

Management Issues for
Students

PERFECTIONISM
PROCRASTINATION POOR PLANNING:
Trying to get things
Putting off starting until Problems with planning
perfect: causes tasks to
the last minute ahead & balancing tasks
stack up
 Time Management
Discussion:

What time management strategies work

for you?
 Juggling with Time
Successful distance learning students have
learned to cope with conflicting demands on
their time by adopting one or more approaches
from a:

to managing time.
• De-commitment: identifying things that don’t
really need doing and abandoning these
• Deferment: putting things off until after exams or
assignments have been completed
• Downgrading: doing things to a less than
‘perfect’ standard
• Delegation: asking others to do things that
hitherto have been your responsibility
 …Plus 1?
• The 4-Ds relate to a state of mind (intrinsic)
about time

• However, there is another important (extrinsic):

the ‘plus 1’ element to time management

• This is about the Importance of allocating

available time to prioritising tasks, and the
need for a daily and weekly schedule or
overview of study tasks and targets.
 Planning and Prioritisation
Strategies

• The research suggests that successful

distance learning students develop a
range of effective intrinsic and extrinsic
strategies for managing their time.

• Here are some examples:

 Changing Attitude to Time
(intrinsic)

It would appear that successful students,

consciously or unconsciously, adopt a SMART
approach to learning:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable/Agreed
• Realistic/Resourced
• Timed
 SMART Approach
• Specific: successful distance learners usually have a
weekly study plan, with specific learning topics allocated
to particular study slots
• Measurable: they test themselves (or asked others to)
test them on what they read/learned
• Agreed: they negotiate with partners/spouses about a
study timetable – and keep to it
• Realistic: they set targets for themselves that stretch
them intellectually, but which are also realistic and
achievable
• Timed: they stop at the end of a pre-arranged study time
slot. The evidence suggests that studying in short bursts
of up to an hour, followed by a short break, is more
effective than reading/studying for long unbroken
stretches of time
Extrinsic Approaches to Managing
Time

The successful distance learning students

had adopted a range of extrinsic time
management strategies that worked for
them.

Here are a few examples:

 1. Prioritisation Worksheet
PRIORITY

Important

Pending
2. Gantt Charts & Task Timelines
Weekly Scheduler (downloaded from
Microsoft Office)
Task Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
             

             

             

             

             

             

             

             
 Four Tips for Managing Time
1. Start with the unpleasant tasks first – get them out
of the way early.
2. Set yourself a schedule for reading: allocate a
particular reading topic to a pre-set time slot
3. Set yourself a short time limit for reading: 50-60
minutes tends to be the maximum time most people
can read before their concentration slips. At the end of
the set time, stop and take a break.
4. Keep your working area clear of clutter: a Wall
Street Journal report suggested that a typical US
Executive wastes 5 hours a week looking for
misfiled/mislaid items! (Lindley 2006).
 You can seek help from
• Your tutors
• Course Director
• Administrative Staff
• Effective Learning Service (ELS) at Bradford:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/management/extern
al/resourceseffectivelearningservice.php
• 50% of all e-mail enquiries to the ELS are from
distance and part-time learners, so don’t be
afraid to use the Service
 References
• Forrester, G. et al (2004) ‘Going the distance: students’
experiences of induction to distance learning in higher
education’. Paper presented at British Educational
Research Association Annual Conference, University of
Manchester, 16-18 September 2004.
• Lindley, D. (2006) Managing Household Paper Flow.
From Online Organising.Com. Available at
http://www.onlineorganizing.com/NewslettersArticle.asp?
newsletter=go&article=489 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2006].
• Mills, R. & Tait, A. (Eds.) (1996) Supporting the Learner
is Open and Distance Learning. London: Pitman.
• Simpson, O. (2000) Supporting Students in Open and
Distance Learning. London: Kogan Page Ltd.
• WYHECGP: West Yorkshire Collaborative Guidance
Project (2004). Part-time Study in Higher Education.
Leeds: The Open University.