Studying online is a challenge. You have to be goal-oriented and time-conscious. My goal is to finish my Diploma in Computer Science course at the University of the Philippines Open University or UPOU within a period of fewer than two years.
Distance education is not a traditional form of studying wherein you have to go to school every subject and then have your attendance check, answer questions during recitation time, and hopefully write your correct answers during quizzes, midterm and final exams in written form. The second one is what I hate the most. I would rather answer correctly during written examinations than recite answers.
Distance education is studying on your own at your own pace at your own time at your own place. You have to fulfil requirements without the help of other students in order to pass the subject. Nowadays, they are now including a video presentation of the student by discussing a specific topic or answering a specific question. There is also a group presentation, which is hard to achieve perfectly since most of your group mates are not participative, and there are also missing group mates, that is, they already dropped the subject, so the burden of committing their specific topics will be an additional load to your own topic.
Finishing a course in one of the prestigious university in the Philippines is yet another challenge, another thing, a different story. UPOU or the University of the Philippines Open University is still UP. Finishing a course in UP is still a prestige. It is difficult to study in UP because once you become a UP graduate, you have a stigma that you can be proud of, and UPOU is part of the University of the Philippines system.
I still have one subject left before graduating and then pondering on what Master’s degree will I pursue next in UPOU. I hope that my achievement in my grades which is a once in a lifetime opportunity will continue as I finish my goal of receiving a UPOU degree.