Opinions of Distance Education subject while studying at school

[nath]

Hello,
I need some opinions/advice.
I'm in yr 11 and am completeing
bus man, economics, english, gen maths, accounting and vce vet subject(all units 1,2)
Now I have 2 problems being 1. The school is not offering economics units 3,4 2. The school has a policy in year12 where you can only do 5subjects

I disagree with only being able to do 5 subjects as vce vet i spend 3-4hours a week at tafe (which i enjoy) with no homework or exams what soever, to add a bonus vce vet 3,4 finishs around august. (it would be stupid to drop it as its a bonus for doing nothing)

I want to do a 6th subject not to be disadvantaged as i am aiming at a high score
The school is a public school and do not wish to get involved with my problems, after telling them I want to pick up another subject (6th) subject for year 12 they told me Its impossible as it is their policy.
When I asked her if I could do economics through out of school they basically told me I would be incapable and that it is a stupid idea (after my current economic teacher told me it would be a great idea to do) she then ended the conversation by walking off.

I was wondering what you all think I do??
My current plan is to try and set up a meeting with the co-ordinator, where I will bring information and points to the table about why I think its a good idea, hopefully changing her mind..
Before I do this does anyone have any experience with distance education while still at school?? I have been told while doing a subject like eco through distance education I will need to get a tutor.
Is it possible to get a high score(40plus) through distance ed?
Are things explained as well?
How does it all work??
If anyone has done this could you please tell me your experiences with the distance ed?

Thanks.
(yes i have searched and didnt find any relevant info)

[icedark]

Alrighty, I started the year off doing year 12 IT Applications via distance education.
With IT you got a big stack of work at the beginning of the semester for Unit 3, and you had to submit tasks (like classwork) back to your teacher at the end of each week. You complete your sacs at school on specific dates.
You got your teachers email address and phone number, so you can call them/contact them at any time for queries.

You really have to rely upon a lot of self motivation. Personally, my distance ed teacher frankly didn't care when I called him asking whether I should continue or not, and was really slow at returning questions/work. I felt that I'd perform better with regular contact with a more positive teacher, so I chose to do media at school instead, and looking back on it I'm glad I made this decision.

I think if you think you can really motivate yourself to do the work, then go for it. A 40+ would be possible for sure. My co-ordinator at school said students who do distance ed subjects seem to perform better than ones who do normal subjects at school. A tutor would also help a lot I imagine, along with making a timetable to do your distance ed work, and make sure you stick to this every week. The only real danger is falling behind, which would be hard come sacs/exam time.

My personal experience wasn't good.. but don't let that put you off. I've heard most distance ed teachers are really committed and willing to help.. anyway good luck with the decision!

[nath]

icedark thanks heaps for the detailed reply, much appreciated!
if you didnt understand something did you actually call the teacher? did he/she help?
did you go to a public/private school? the distance ed centre told me that public schools prefer students not to undertake the courses as they loose a large amount of funding??

Do you just get a textbook and questoins? or do they actually do like lesson plans with notes etc like in school??

[icedark]

icedark thanks heaps for the detailed reply, much appreciated!
if you didnt understand something did you actually call the teacher? did he/she help?
did you go to a public/private school? the distance ed centre told me that public schools prefer students not to undertake the courses as they loose a large amount of funding??

Do you just get a textbook and questoins? or do they actually do like lesson plans with notes etc like in school??

I actually emailed the teacher when I needed help with the work, he got back to me but took about a week or so.. I guess I could have called, but didn't cause it wasn't really urgent.

I went to a pretty big public school, and they didn't seem to mind about it, didn't really hear anything about funding or the cost of it :S I think I had to pay $75 a semester or something like that?

The course required me to get a textbook, and the work I got was 'lesson plans' - sorta just lengthy notes with a different topic like 'Week 1: Intro to Databases', like you'd do in class. There was references to the textbook within these notes, and there was also questions at the end of the week, which you had to answer and return. I think some of them were questions from the textbook, some were made up by the teacher.

[jess3254]

Here's a link to some samples of how the course book is structured:
http://www.distance.vic.edu.au/subschools/ss1112.htm#subjects


Economics, unit 3, week 1:
http://www.distance.vic.edu.au/subschools/vcesubjectinfo/swf/ec03301.swf

[jess3254]

This is an explanation I wrote on how distance ed works and the pros and cons for someone else a while back:

"I did Distance Education. (I'm tired, so I may not provide you with a very clear description lol).
Every semester, you will receive a workbook for each subject (in conjunction with an external text book). Every week, you have to submit a week's worth of work (for each subject), in which you will complete varying amounts of reading, questions, essays etc.

You can view examples of how distance ed booklets are set out for each subject here:
http://www.distance.vic.edu.au/subschools/ss1112.htm#subjects (probably more useful than my explanation.)

I did Distance Ed whilst I was sick, so obviously my experiences are going to be different to an individual who's able to attend full time school and is doing one subject through DECV.

Pros of DECV:
-Can work at your own pace. If you don’t understand a concept, you can sit there and read over it until you get it (which you can’t really do in classes.)
-DECV booklets have extensive information in them, and all your class notes are right in front of you (good for people who'd rather read than listen to someone.)
-Some of the teachers can be absolutely fantastic.
-The course is structured well
-Good if you are organised.
-I felt like I was achieving and learning a lot through DECV.

Cons of DECV:
-No class discussion.
-Not good for people who aren't very organised.
-The amount of work can be huge and stressful. 
-A detached way of learning.
-According to my friends, if you are doing DECV + normal school, your DECV subject can fall through the cracks. A lot of my friends have had to drop their DECV subject because they were busy with their school subjects.
-No class time to work."

link to other thread: http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,4828.0.html

here's another thread with people's opinions on DECV: http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,195.0.html


Like every school, some teachers at DECV are better than others. I haven't done any business studies through DECV, thus I will be unable to provide you with useful information regarding your potential teachers. Some of my teachers responded quickly to my e-mails and phone calls, and were brilliant at providing explanations and assisting me with revision, but some weren't. I personally found the course books were set out well and contained a wealth of good information.

It is entirely possible to obtain a 40+ study score through DECV if you put the effort in. However, as I said in the post I wrote to someone else, you have to be highly motivated and organised to do well in DECV. YOU MUST STAY ON TOP OF THE WORK LOAD! I've heard it's easy to fall through the cracks when you are doing DECV in conjunction with regular school. Conversely, I wasn't very organised prior to undertaking DECV, however, I slowly acquired really good organisational skills and actually found undertaking DECV to be a highly positive experience.

I think getting a tutor for economics if you choose to do it through DECV would be a good idea, however it is definitely not necessary, provided you are given sufficient support by teachers.