Student Life – Social learning

For me, before I started distance learning,

I thought that the experience

would be quite a solitary experience,

with me just sitting in front of a computer

and a few books.

It's been far from that.

It's kind of exceeded my expectations.

I work with students virtually

on a daily basis:

both digitally, via social media,

the online tutor group,

video conferencing;

and also through kind of

social media channels,

maybe WhatsApp, and different groups that

we kind of set up to support each other.

With my - I suppose - work,

and academic, and kind of hobbies

and interests, being together

as a family, you would perceive as

being quite a challenge. But,

I think I've managed to

actually establish a pretty strong

work-life balance: I definitely value

family time.

What we tend to do

is make certain sections of our week,

where we spend time together and

dedicate time together as a family.

So, my academic journey has

not been as mapped out as most people.

A couple of years before

I started my GCSEs,

I suffered from an illness,

when I was younger.

Actually, towards my GCSEs,

I was home tutored

and didn't come out with a full,

massive array of qualifications.

So, I kind of left school,

but I didn't go into the university

progression.

When, later on in life,

I actually started working in the civil service,

I got to a pretty

good position, but I needed to try

and improve my academic qualifications.

So, I did my degree:

BA Honours in leadership management.

And I was fortunate enough,

through the degree,

to kind of pass with a first-class honours

and actually get an International

Student of the Year award

for my academic achievements, which

has fostered my academic journey into

the masters, and it's something that

has been a transformational,

life-changing experience.

To work with students located

across the world has been

-has been brilliant and I've developed

a network of people and even friends.

I'll give you an example where

I've been working

recently, collaboratively, with another student:

we've been able to

bring up a document, share

it on the screen, and actually

work on that document live.

Time zones is a challenge:

trying to work out a time

that's most convenient for everybody.

We've got around those challenges

by setting clear roles,

clear expectations, clear timelines.

I think if you take the time to

make sure you've got the latest

software and programs to support it,

you can transform your experience

as a distance learner.

Personally, I've decided,

over the years, to transfer

all of my work into the cloud.

The greater advantage that

gives is I'm able to access it from

any device at any location.

I could be kind of travelling

out and about and I could

be updating stuff from my mobile.

It gives you complete versatility

on any device

and I think that's been

a big advantage for me.

And I think from the kind of

network of contacts

I've had from studying

with distance learning,

I have actually developed

some lasting relationships;

that I can see myself kind of

having that network

many years later, even when

I finish studying.

When I first started studying on a degree,

I would work Monday to Friday.

I would come home, I would

do the family kind of life,

and then I would just sit in front

of my computer

five nights a week.

And then as I finished that

and started my master's, I realised the

importance of my health.

So, for me, running gave me

that opportunity to focus on my health,

and then from that I've managed to

build that up into

longer-distance running.

Go the distance.