How Do Students Study Remotely Abroad? Sharing the Experience

Distance education bursts into our lives. Many students around the world are taking advantage of this opportunity and studying remotely. It’s a great way to save your main resource – time. I would also like to mention an alternative way to get higher education and save time (read more). And in this article, we will analyze the example of two students and try to understand by their example whether distance learning is suitable for us.

Peter Simons

Studied online at the Sorbonne Bachelor of Plastic Arts.

I spent my first year in Paris, then went on to distance learning. Partly because of money (full-time education is more expensive, and Paris is not a cheap city), partly because I was disappointed in the choice of faculty. But I did not dare to leave the university – I wanted to get the diploma. Online training seemed to be a good option: you get assignments a year ahead, if necessary, you can sign up for a chat with the teachers.

Mastering the material remotely I was given a little more difficult, but especially the difference in the amount of knowledge became noticeable: it decreased without additional lectures and seminars. Everything was formally necessary in the textbook, but further on it depended only on the desire to learn on their own, google or read additional literature.

The first year of removal was taken by me quite easily, there was still a desire to learn, and then the heat went down, began to have problems with time. Without motivation and willpower, no matter how banal it sounds, it is very difficult to get into all the topics and tasks. Personally, I lacked a lively communication with teachers, involvement in teamwork, and just student life.

It’s convenient that with online learning it is possible to combine work and study, but, frankly speaking, in the full-time department I also managed to find a part-time job and remain fully immersed in university life.

Daria Belyaeva

Studying online at the Finance University of the Government of the Russian Federation on a bachelor’s program “Business and Finance”.

I study remotely because I went to the University of Michigan. I need Russian education just in case (to be able to return) – in our country, not everywhere do they accept an American diploma. At first everything seemed scary and incomprehensible, but since this program has been working for quite a while, I decided that everything will be fine.

The main difficulty was that I never studied in Russia and got used to the American education system, but the workload was small and the schedule was flexible. Online classes are held once a week on Saturdays and three pairs by Russian standards. Exams are also taken online.

Teachers can ask questions at seminars or write e-mails, but they do not answer well. Apparently, this is not the most pleasant additional work for them – so it was done by those who had free time.

There are also a lot of problems with the training part: every year the curators change, everything is very confusing.

But I was lucky with my classmates: we help each other with the answers to the exam. All the guys are either older than me and already working, or athletes who are constantly at competitions and training camps. Nobody has a goal to get an excellent education – everyone needs a piece of paper.

Disciplined study was given me hard. Firstly, it’s just laziness, secondly, the big time difference between Moscow and the USA. So it turns out that

Online education

I’m sure the future is in online education: you are not attached to anyone, you are responsible for yourself. There is an opportunity to get deep knowledge and something to jump through, without getting stuck if some subject is not interesting.

This is also a great option for those who are already building a career or going abroad. But I would hardly recommend online education as the first higher education: teachers don’t really want to mess with you, and the quality of education is not so high. But highly specialized online courses are a great idea, they helped me to master programming languages.

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Interesting related article: “What is eLearning?