Athabasca University

[Guest Elaine I]

Has anyone taken a degree or a significant number of courses through Athabasca University? I will be taking a year of full-time non-degree studies next year (since I don't have enough FT years), and am trying to decide between U of T and Athabasca (both have been deemed acceptable by Western, the school in question).

 

Essentially, I see advantages and disadvantages for both. I like the fact that Athabasca would give me the flexibility to continue to work full time through the year without having to work a modified schedule. (I'm a paramedic who works shift work.) However, I'm a bit concerned that all of the courses are by distance education. I'd value the input of anyone has taken some of them before. How well are the courses structured? With the necessary effort, are just as high of marks achievable in the courses, even though they are by correspondence? Obviously, I need to maintain an A average.

 

Any advice that you may have is extremely welcome and appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Elaine

[Guest Lorae]

I've taken a few courses through Athabasca.

 

Overall I found I was able to maintain the grades I wanted. However I found that Athabasca courses took me a lot longer. I think the reason for this was that I was scheduling my courses around my life (working) rather than scheduling work around my courses (like when you have to attend a set class at a certain time). For me, it was far too easy to pay the $75 for an extension.... so I was *not* completing the courses in a 4 month period like at a formal university.

 

The courses themselves were well organized and you always have access to a tutor (your "teacher"). If you are able to learn by reading a lot on your own (rather than in formal lecture style) then you should be able to keep your grades up.

 

An important thing to note though: some course have labs that are only available in Alberta. Make sure you check into that before committing to a course.

 

good luck

[Guest byjude]

I took one course from Athabasca, and a few DE courses from other universities that also offer them in addition to campus courses.

 

It may have been the course (which was generally pretty dry to begin with) but the style of Athabasca courses didn't really suit me. Even though I would prefer to read the book than go to the lecture (unless of course, it's an engaging professor or someone who teaches to my learning style, which is usually 20% of the time) I didn't like the format of this course. It seemed basically like you just worked your way through the text, completed assignments, and then wrote the final. You had the benefit of a personal tutor who approved whether or not you were ready to write the final, but it was generally like any other TA.

 

Athabasca doesn't seem to do too much of the multiple choice examining, which is a great testing style for me. Most DE courses I took seemed to have a lot more emphasis on essays or (at schools other than Athabasca) online discussion. So, this is an important feature to consider.

 

I guess it depends on your learning style. If you like the physical interaction, the preset schedule and the order of deadlines, then Athabasca may not be for you. You can telephone your tutor which is handy, but generally you set your own deadlines (unlike other schools which offer DE courses but have set deadlines for assignments). If you like the flexibility not only of study times but also assignment times (which can be handy if you're trying to coordinate working full time AND studying full time) it could be an advantage.

 

I guess the other disadvantage of Athabasca (esp compared to U of T) is that the selection of courses is not as great. Granted, there are a number of interesting courses, but often these tend to be focused in certain areas (especially arts and social sciences, as well as business-related courses) so if these aren't areas you want to focus on, you're limited in courses beyond the basic levels.

 

You could always do a hybrid version of study - I would check, but I can't see why it wouldn't be equivalent for you to take 5.0 full courses from a combination of courses at U of T or Athabasca or other DE universities, to combine the best of both worlds. Except you'd lose the benefits of being a full-time student at any given university (eg, gym, dental, etc)..

 

If you're still open-minded, you might not have to limit your choices to these for full-time study. Other traditional unviersities offer a substantial number of DE courses (especially during fall-winter) that you could enrol in any one of those schools as a full-time student exclusively by distance ed. Selection again is not huge but the selection of courses tends to be different from athabasca - not necess better, depending on your tastes, but different. Worth checking out. (eg, I know Guelph offers a lot of courses, Waterloo, Queen's, Laurier.. etc etc).

 

Also some schools vary on what materials they provide with the course. Guelph seems to put a lot of work into these gorgeous course manuals that are basically the "lecture material". At Athabasca (not sure how this relates for every course but) the course I took consisted of a textbook and assignments. No course notes, no website, etc.

 

Final analysis? It really depends on your tastes.

[Guest marbledust]

Just a few comments:

 

Actually Athabasca offers tons of courses in just about anything that you can imagine. It is a distance learning based university, with a wide range of both undergrad and graduate degrees. If you are interested in something, Athabasca will probably have a course that will meet your needs.

 

While it is true that you need to be very motivated and get through most of the material on your own, each course has an instructor who can be contracted by telephone or email. A lot of these instructors teach at other post-secondary institutions, have PhDs, etc, so it's more than having a "tutor". From my experience, the instructors can be very helpful, but like the courses themselves, you need to put effort in maintaining a relationship with them by keeping in contact, asking questions, just like you would with a "normal" instructor. I took 5 courses through Athabasca and was very happy with the instructors. My downfall was that was extremely hard to be motivated doing the courses by myself. It can be easy to let things slide.

 

The other danger, already mentioned by Lorae, with Athabasca's courses in my experience was that you could just pay to get an extension if you weren't done on time - which sounds great, but really, in my experience, isn't a wise thing to do. I am someone who needs firm deadlines with consequences, ie an F, if I don't get done on time. Athabasca doesn't work that way, unless you are on a student loan - then you are not allowed extensions as far as I know.

 

Another thing, although possibly not relevant to anybody here, is that Athabasca has begun offering an on-site BA degree at Mount Royal College in Calgary. It's good because it gives students interested in Athabasca courses one more option. I have no idea if they will ever offer science courses there though...

[Guest Elaine I]

Thank you to all of you for your insight!

Elaine

[Guest Nops]

Hey Elaine,

 

I have taken 7 or 8 courses from Athabasca in the last decade. I dropped the first three cuz it was too much with work (bit off more than I could chew, then I had some professional courses from work come up ahead of schedule . . . ).

 

To make a long story short, you can get high marks, but you really have to be structured. You're basically reading a text on your own, and have to be able to absorb it enough to know it for the exams.

 

Outside of Alberta it is more difficult to book exams and labs, but they have invigilators around the country that will monitor exams for you (at an extra cost to you seperate from the course itself).

 

I'm taking a physics course right now to meet my entrance requirements for U of A (which rejected me about two weeks after I started the course - BOO!!!!). Talk about lack of motivation to finish it . . . . :\

 

PS - How are applications going -- did you put any in this year? I'm shooting 50% for interviews (Dal and Queen's) with rejections from Calgary and U of A and still waiting to hear from Ottawa.

[Guest Elaine I]

Hi Nops,

 

Thanks for the information! Did you find that the Athabasca courses were heavier than on-campus courses at other universities?

 

Essentially, I have to take 5.0 courses next year if I want to apply to Western (which I do). Yes, I will still be working full time. Either I go to U of T and work a modified schedule (basically nights and weekends), or I take the courses through Athabasca and work my regular schedule, doing school work on my days off. Both options will have me hopping for eight months, but it can't be busier than I am this year, taking 7.0 courses, working full time and getting ready to write the MCAT in April!

 

I'm glad to hear that you were successful in getting a couple of interviews! I hope they go well for you! No, I didn't apply this year, as I haven't written the MCAT yet. I'm applying for September 2005.

 

Thanks again for your help!

Elaine

[Guest Nops]

Elaine,

 

Having done both, I would say it is easier to take the classroom courses. Honestly. Especially if you want to take more than one or two at a time. Your schedule is set, and it is usually pretty apparent what you need to know for exams, etc.

 

My $.02, anyway.

 

Good luck with it.

 

B