Originally Published 30th September 2011
I chose to study my MBA by what Warwick call "Distance Learning". Thanks to the Open University we're all well familiar with the idea in the UK, but only those who've done it really understand the practice. Having spent nearly two years in the programme now I can honestly say I think it's a brilliant way to study. Don't get me wrong, going to University in my late-teens/early-twenties was an amazing experience - I learned a lot, about my course, myself, and other people. For me and millions of others it's a part of the growing-up process. A process I don't think I've quite finished yet!
Distance Learning is where your University send you study notes and a few important text books to cover the essentials of the course. You work through these in your spare time - in my case most of the actual reading was done on the train to and from work, but I've had at least one 'holiday' where I just sat and read for days. There are assignments to complete to gauge your progress - if you submit them you get a mark and feedback from a tutor, but they're not part of your final grade. I have to confess, due to lack of time I haven't done any of these yet. Of course, this is pretty limiting, especially for a postgraduate degree, so it's supplemented by face-to-face seminars and entire modules.
As this is a postgraduate degree we're also expected to read beyond the set texts and seek out the original books and articles that have influenced thought on the subjects we study. But how do you do this without access to a University Library? The answer, of course, is the internet. I have access to the full catalogue of the University of Warwick Library online. Through this I can get pdf versions of the vast majority of journals and articles I need. Books are a little trickier though - for practical and copyright reasons. I think the Library posts them out, but I've never used this service so can't comment on how it works.
This works really well when you have a good reference to look up, but not so well when you're trying to find an article your lecturer mentioned in passing, you're not sure how to spell the names, they garbled the title and you don't have a clue which journal it was published in. What about when you don't have any reference at all and you're trying to find something new? Well, we're all children of the information age now, so you probably saw this coming.
Google Scholar has indexed academic journals in electronic form that you can search in exactly the same way you search for a band's tour dates or a diagnosis for that embarrassing rash. They've even digitised millions of books - I'm not sure about the legality of that, but they're Google, so I guess it must be OK? If you tell Google Scholar which university you're at they'll provide links to the appropriate online library so you can download digital copies of articles. Otherwise they link to digital copies provided by other institutions, many of which let you view the abstract for free and download full text for a small fee. Finally, for full books there will often be a link to the digital version on Google Books.
The search results also give you links to the bibliographic references, essential for writing essays, and other articles which have cited the one in your results - useful for extending your reading and finding other articles which support or critique a theory.
So basically, everything you need is out there waiting for you. You're still going to have to put in the hours to read the material, and you still have to think critically and form your own opinions, but hopefully some of this will be helpful. This is the process that I'm starting now for my assessed Human Resources Management module essay. More about that in a future post.
No comments:
Post a Comment