Home Study courses - has anyone done one?

[purplemac]

I'm trying to motivate myself to do something! I did a GCSE in fine art, 3 yrs ago and loved it but I'm really rusty (lazy!!) and can't seem to get back in to painting even though I really want to.

I can't do any night school courses right now because of family stuff and have been looking at the courses that you can do at home - OCA and London Art College being my favourite two to look at.

Has anyone done one? Was it hard to complete at home on your own? I'm a bit worried that I'll 'get lonely' with it because one of the things that kept us all going AND trying things that you wouldn't normally do, was the other people on the course.

Debbie:confused:

[Caroleecrafts]

Yes I have done home study courses but found it difficult to motivate myself as always distractions. If you go to a class you meet other students and normally do the course work, very easy on your own to put off and a course that should be a year ends up taking 5 years. Not me! but has been known to happen.

What do you actually want to do a course in? and why?

[sherrielinda]

I did 2 OU courses for IT & found it very hard work, they recommended about 5 hrs a week & I think I was doing that both on saturdays & sundays not counting the 3 or 4 hrs nearly every day. It's very time consuming but I suppose it depends on what subject you're doing. As it was an IT course it was all online but there were always people in the forum for you to talk to & get help from. Saying all that it was nice to get the 2 passes at the end of the courses.

[purplemac]

Yes I have done home study courses but found it difficult to motivate myself as always distractions. If you go to a class you meet other students and normally do the course work, very easy on your own to put off and a course that should be a year ends up taking 5 years. Not me! but has been known to happen.

What do you actually want to do a course in? and why?


It's the motivation bit that's stopping me! I want to do an art course to re learn what I seem to have forgotten. I got a grade B gcse, 3 yrs ago, but in the past couple of years, I seem to have forgotten everything! (I had another baby in between, I blame him!)

One of the courses I've been looking at was a sci fi and fantasy art course which has really caught my interest. I've never done anything like that before and thought that the fact it was completely different than anything else I'd done, I might finish it.

Debbie

[Caroleecrafts]

Debbie I think to do something new would be good, I did my o' and a' level, as it was back in my day, in Art & Design got an A in each but must admit that most of what I covered has been long forgotten. New ideas come about and learning something new is often the best way to go. The Sci-Fi art sounds good and very appropriate for the current era of sci-fi etc. good luck with whatever you do.

[purplemac]

Thank you!! I've almost decided! The course I'd like to do is a leisure course so there's no exam at the end. That's what I like about the London college one over the OCA one, the OCA can lead to a degree after six or so courses but I'm not sure I'm ready for that sort of committment.

Well done to you both for passing your courses! That's the best encouragement!!

Debbie

[xrheax]

I did a course once, a few in fact, a few years ago. Ours was childcare though, a bit different to what you are looking at. Ours was done at home, in a group format. Because we live about 35 miles away from the college, a tutor used to come up every fortnight and help us with any questions, take away our essays for marking etc, so we had added support. I did really enjoy it though. Learning around the children was great too, I could do it all when they were in bed.

Learning something new is always great fun, I would say go for it!

[staceyjlew]

I did my A-Levels by home study as we were based overseas, used the National Extension College - very good. I loved studying on my own, but then I am one of those who loves to study and research etc.. I am always coming up with projects to research to keep myself busy
.

Motivation was no problem, because I loved the subjects and saw it as another hobby really.

Good luck with the course if you decide to do it.

Stacey