A 4th year Political Science student, Greg Dunn, began his studies at UBC more than 20 years ago. Recently, he registered for three distance education courses to finish his degree. Being away from school for such a long time made the transition to academics difficult, but with the level of support offered by peers in his online courses, Greg quickly adapted. He was pleasantly surprised at the level of interaction within the courses as he has found that they were “structured towards engaging the students as much as possible.” Greg finds that the online courses provide a “valuable alternative” to classroom learning, and gave him the opportunity to increase his breath of knowledge and understanding.
Coming back to university, Greg found it interesting to “see what analysis has been done since the end of the Cold War.” With that in mind, he signed up for HIST 432: International Relations of The Great Powers in the 20th Century. “The long-held sacred crows of political thought – who “won” the Cuba Missile crisis, why the USSR collapsed – that were in vogue when I first went to UBC during the late 80s and early 90s had changed considerably due to the new evidence available,” explains Greg. In HIST 432, Greg found that he now had “access to information previously unavailable, such as the Russian Presidential archives,” and he was able to apply this new found knowledge to individual work and group assignments. The group assignments helped foster his analytical skills, which he applied directly to bi-weekly assignments and term papers.
In addition to HIST 432, Greg also took FREN 348: French Literature in Translation I and FREN 349: French Literature in Translation II. FREN 348 and 349 chronicle French literature from medieval times, through to the French Revolution, and up to the Modern Era. Although both courses are conducted in English, and literary works are analyzed through the English translations, students can opt to read the texts in French. Greg found the readings to be “highly entertaining” and “enlightening,” and they “made [him] appreciate how rich and diverse the culture of France is.” In addition, the two courses made him realize that “many of the ideas that shape our lives come from the writings of these French authors.”
Greg sees the key strength in distance education to be the flexibility that it offers students in terms of personal time allocation. He notes that “with online courses you can adapt the workload to fit your schedule whereas with courses on campus you are forced to adapt your schedule to accommodate the class.” Greg feels that for students with families and/or careers, taking online distance education courses is the way to go.
Greg feels that his distance courses helped to “make [him] a more attractive prospect for future employers.” By taking the online courses, he feels that it “shows your current employer that you are ready for further career advancement.” The courses helped him to hone his skills in “time management, critical thinking, communication and writing,” key skills that are useful in the workforce. Overall, Greg is very pleased with his decision to take distance education courses in order to complete his degree he started some 20 years ago. He notes, “online courses are so easy to use that I wish I had done them sooner.”