learning at home‐‐a personal experience

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] On: 04 October 2014, At: 18:13 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Innovations in Education & Training International Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riie19 Learning at Home‐‐A Personal Experience Robert G. Perks & Nicholas Longman Published online: 09 Jul 2006. To cite this article: Robert G. Perks & Nicholas Longman (1985) Learning at Home‐‐A Personal Experience, Innovations in Education & Training International, 22:4, 351-353 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1355800850220410 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and- conditions

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign]On: 04 October 2014, At: 18:13Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Innovations in Education & TrainingInternationalPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riie19

Learning at Home‐‐A Personal ExperienceRobert G. Perks & Nicholas LongmanPublished online: 09 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Robert G. Perks & Nicholas Longman (1985) Learning at Home‐‐A PersonalExperience, Innovations in Education & Training International, 22:4, 351-353

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1355800850220410

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, ouragents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to theaccuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions andviews expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and arenot the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should notbe relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information.Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands,costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arisingdirectly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

OPINION

Learning at Home — A Personal Experience

Robert G. PerksNicholas Longman

Abstract: The following are two short contributions on just what it is like to be on the receiving end in learning athome. Both were studying at home for their Institute of Personnel Management qualifications.

One viewWriting this paper evokes that most dominantconcern which accompanied me throughout myrecently completed correspondence course — thatof not being at all sure what was expected orrequired of me.

The course itself, leading to membership of theInstitute of Personnel Management, was of moder-ate difficulty, and would appear to rank equallyalongside the qualifying courses of the othermore eminent professional bodies. Like mostdistance learning students, I suspect, my choiceof mode of study was forced on me by othercircumstances (chiefly work commitments), al-though I am now firmly in favour of study bycorrespondence. Nevertheless, there do seem to besome serious drawbacks to learning by corres-pondence, whether by the more traditional meansor through using videos and computer-basedtechniques.

Despite the excellent notes for guidance, hintsfor study, etc., which are sent to the new student,most of the course was dominated by a sense ofunease at not knowing what was expected interms of quantity or quality required. Duringthe regular residential weekends which punctuatedthe course, these doubts were confirmed by otherstudents. Strangely, however, meeting otherstudents did not always help to put my mind atrest as to whether I was proceeding along theright lines. For example, the amount of timespent on study clearly varied enormously amongstudents. Some students were alarmed to find thatthey put in less hours than others, while those,like myself, who seemed to have put in a greaterthan average number of hours, began to suspectthat either we were less bright than the otherstudents to be spending so long on each subjectarea, or that we were doing an unnecessaryamount of work.

If students showed reticence about the number ofhours of study they managed, they were under-standably even more non-committal about thequality of work they had been submitting and thegrades obtained. Again this leads to a sense ofunease which is not evident in the normal collegeor university setting, where students are apt tocompare grades or comments on work com-pleted. For example, the degree of self-satisfactionin achieving a *B+' for a piece of work dependslargely on whether other students are mostlyobtaining 'As' or 'Cs' Similarly, the commentswritten by distance tutors are difficult to evalu-ate. It was not until relatively late in my courseof study that I spoke to someone who knew oneof my course tutors. From then on I began to takehis caustic comments on my work less seriouslyand realized how helpful it would have been tohave actually met him.

It would seem, therefore, that a certain degree ofself-confidence is essential to distance learning.However, the need to organize one's own workand to have the self-confidence to proceed intoareas where guidelines are incomplete or ambigu-ous seems to be an experience which is oftremendous relevance to working in personnelmanagement.

As with different approaches to management itmay not be helpful to offer a prescriptive formulafor a successful approach to distance learning.My own method of study was heavily influencedby a former student I met, who had rigidly ad-hered to a strict timetable of intense study, andhad passed his examinations at the first attempt.Thus I began by drawing up a programme of study(approximately 12 hours per week) which couldthen only be altered to accommodate matters oflife or death! Building a social and family lifearound my study seemed to be easier than doingthings the other way round, and gradually led toother people regarding my 'absences' for study

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352 PLET, 22, 4 - Learning at Home

as being as unalterable as my departure to myeveryday job.

Such a rigid approach may not, of course, benecessary, and it would only be fair to say that Ihave frequent doubts as to whether the incon-venience and strain on my wife was necessarysimply in order to pass a series of examinations.However, in my own, admittedly limited, experi-ence I cannot recall anyone successfully com-pleting a distance learning course without thiskind of rigid study programme.

Similarly, I suspect that the actual methods ofstudy and the use of different media are highlyindividual questions. Throughout my course Ireligiously read all the notes prepared by thetutors, even those which seemed out of date!I then made 'notes of the notes', which Ipersonally found to be the easiest way of retainingsome of the information. However, when facedwith pages of 'essential' reading from the variousrecommended textbooks I found it impossible toconcentrate sufficiently to absorb any signifi-cant amount of information. From the essentialreading list provided I doubt if I read more than adozen fairly short extracts. (Perhaps, as an aside,it may be worth remembering that a few wellchosen quotations from an eminent author stillseem capable of providing the general impressionthat one is well acquainted with his entire works!)From a practical point of view, I was initiallyalarmed to find that, despite having access to amajor city library, less than half the recommendedbooks were available for reference. Combined withthe prohibitive cost of books, this difficulty mayrepresent a substantial problem for students oncourses where few, if any, books are provided.

No use at all was made of videos or computer-based learning on my somewhat 'traditional'correspondence course, which makes it difficultfor me to comment on their likely value. AlthoughI have no idea of the extent of video ownershipor computer access, I would be concerned that asignificant proportion of potential studentswould not have these facilities available to them.Given the sacrifices, both personal and financial,that families make in order that one of theirnumber can study, the added burden of video orcomputer-based study may prove a deterrent,or at least reduce the flexibility which is anessential element of distance learning.

Again, though, I should emphasize that I am awarethat preferences for certain methods or media areonly personal. The key would seem to be to findan effective means of absorbing information,whether it be through making notes, reading text-books or sitting at a computer terminal, and thenuse it to build up a programme of solid learning.

Finally, I would add that despite the various diffi-culties entailed in distance learning, the sense ofachievement in successfully completing my coursewas far deeper than for any college-based courseI had undertaken earlier. This may partly be areflection of the fact that few people feel able tocommence a correspondence course, and evenfewer go on to complete one. The greater satis-faction, however, seems to lie in the fact that theprogramme of learning is organized, to a largedegree, by the student, that success or failurecannot be blamed on teachers or fellow students,and that, most important, the discipline andmotivation for learning have been entirely gener-ated by oneself.

Robert G. Perks

Another viewThe NALGO correspondence course for stages 2and 3 of the professional qualification of theInstitute of Personnel Management enabledstudents to pursue their studies through distancelearning. Experience of the course and its content,which included five residential skills developmentcourses, on reflection provides for the followingcomments which are made without prejudice.

The most important factor with regard to distancelearning must be without question that of timeand the amount of time that an individual candevote to his studies over a period and in total,with the many commitments both at home and atwork that inevitably impinge on an individual'sability to maximize learning. In consequence it isessential that all study material, regardless of themedia used, should be designed to facilitatelearning during those periods that the studentmakes available, and that there are minimuminterruptions or distractions (obviously the timeand location for study are important consider-ations but most mature students with familyresponsibilities can seldom if ever retreat com-pletely, even into the inner sanctum!).

An example can be taken from the course; thethree subjects of Employee Relations, EmployeeDevelopment and Employee Resourcing, althoughdesigned by their respective tutors to satisfy theoverall requirements regarding content and struc-ture, nevertheless reflected the individual styles oflearning supported by the tutors. This, therefore,made it difficult, when changing from one styleor one subject to another, to assimilate fully theinformation into a base of knowledge.

Furthermore, tutors had their own ideas on theplace and importance of supplementary reading.This was reflected in the content and structure ofthe lessons, i.e. fully comprehensive lecture noteswith background reading to follow up and reinforce

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A Personal Experience 353

points made during the lesson compared withpartial notes interspersed with references totextbooks/articles that required reading beforerecommencing the lesson. The latter was the leastpreferred style, impeding rather than promotingeffective learning.

One of the claims of the course in its publicitywas that the student would not be required topurchase numerous textbooks as the relevantextracts would be reproduced within the courseas supplementary booklets for further reading.The style that included reference to textbooks wascontrary to this overall aim. In addition, thebreaks in concentration by physically locatingrelevant chapters/books, that is if they wereavailable in the first place, and the possibility ofdistractions or interruptions meant that this stylecould only be successful with a certain amountof preplanning. This, in essence, meant readingthrough the next night's proposed lesson identi-fying the references and ensuring these wereavailable: a duplication of resources if all wentwell, a postponement of study if the referenceshad to be requested, or annoyance if the articles/chapters had been read previously or were on asubject that the reader was well familiar with.

Distance learning by its very nature means a lackof interpersonal contact with other students andwith tutors, and it is therefore more difficult tograsp complex or theoretical concepts that oftenrequire a forum for discussion and debate. TheNALGO course did not make adequate compen-sation for this except on the residentials and thewritten test assignments (albeit one-sided); itwould therefore have been useful to have hadthese lessons on cassette with the tutor's ownemphasis highlighted by voice intonation, therebyputting what may have appeared an abstractsubject into conversational mode — a form ofmedia most readily available in the home. Analternative form of media could involve the useof electronic mail, for example British Telecom'sDialcom Services provided by Telecom Gold,particularly where tutors/students have accessto a terminal, telephone and modem.

An area of critical importance in distance learning,particularly where the course is ultimately con-cerned with examination success, is that of targetsand deadlines. The only true deadlines set on thecourse were those required as an integral part of

the professional qualification, i.e. three writtenassignments and three skills development exercises.With hindsight this lack of compulsion, despiteultimate successes in examinations, was a seriousomission from the course.

Targets and deadlines are important because of thevery nature of distance learning, with its emphasison learning circumstances best suited to theindividual. All students when learning at homemust be:

— patient, for when they start a session of learningand have to abandon it at an inopportune time,

— resolute, to maintain personal targets of studyto the best of their ability, and

— committed, to achieving the successful con-clusion of their studies and to their self-development/personal advancement.

However, even where a student has the desiredattributes, the imposition of formal targets anddeadlines can only serve to reinforce and maintainthe pace of learning. All students learning at homeare aware of the demands on their time, and of theresults of another 'tomorrow' decision being made,i.e. a mad rush at examination time with anattempt to cram into a fortnight what shouldhave been learned over two years.

Nicholas Longman

Biographical notesRobert Perks works as a senior personnel andmanagement services officer with the SolihullMetropolitan Borough Council. He began studying,by correspondence, for the Institute of PersonnelManagement examinations in 1980 and passedthem in 1984.

Nicholas Longman works as a senior organizationand methods officer for the Merseyside PassengerTransport Executive. He studied, by corres-pondence, for Stage 2 of the Diploma in PersonnelManagement and is currently undertaking Stage 3of the IPM professional education scheme.

Addresses for correspondence: Robert G. Perks,10 Cryers Oak Close, Blossomfields Estate, Monks-path Hall Road, Solihull, West Midlands.

Nicholas Longman, 4 Firswood Road, Lathom,Nr Ormskirk, Lancashire WN8 8UP.

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