Bachelor of early childhood why did you choose your uni?

[FionaC85]

I am looking at beginning my bachelor of early childhood but at a bit of a loss as to who to study with. Hubby and I are discussing whether or not I should study on campus or online I am currently home with 2 kids ( one new baby and a 4 yr old). He is favoring online but I am not as certain as I would like the class support. Can ask why you chose the institution you are studying with and if you would mind sharing a timetable with me so I can get an idea of what i would be contending with. Thanks

[Lorina]

There are advantages with both online and on campus study so it really depends on what you prefer.

Online study beneficial because everything is done online and it doesn't matter where in the world you are as long as you have internet connection you're good to go. I previously studied online with Curtin Uni. At the beginning of the semester we would be given our assignments that would be due towards the end of the semester. Then each week there would be topics usually based on our assignments that we needed to read up on. There would also be PowerPoint presentations, videos, etc to go along with the topics as well as recommended reading from the text books you need to purchase. Along with each weekly topic you need to participate in a group study forum. So in your group you have like 50 people and you are given a question etc that you need to respond too and you also need to contribute each week to others topics within the group. Your assignments mark is also based upon your involvement in the group forum as well... So, it's quite a lot of work even though you're doing it online...

Not too sure about on campus but I believe that you will need to go to lectures, do group projects etc but the benefits is if you have any doubts you got teachers and you can actually talk to the other students within the class. I'm sure if you chose on campus that they have both full time and part time options so you could probably work around the schedule with your children. The only thing is what happens if you happen to miss classes. Doing it online, all the study material will remain online so you can't miss a class... I'm not sure if all online courses need you to participate in the uni forums etc but this is what they do at Curtin.

Hopefully you find something that suits your needs and your family,

At the end of the day no matter where you are studying you will be working towards the same qualification...

Good luck,

,
L.A

[bunnygirl]

Hi,

I have enrolled with Open universities- through Curtin. Fully online bach of early childhood education (teaching). Im starting in July in their mid yr intake. I work full time as a room leader in centre based care, so I too was looking for a course that would fit in with my life. Swinburne also offer fully online, a lot of the others inc Vic Uni and Deakin are partially online with intensive weekend on campus classroom study, I think its 1 weekend per term.

[suev06]

hi

looking at the same. what made you decide open uni in the end, I did apple deakin and deferred then the bachelor changed again, so now im looking at swinburn, or maybe deakin looking at Latrobe which is at my door step (literally) but the only have the early learning. When deakin says partially online do you still need to go in 2-3 times per week as it states on their web site? did you get any credit for previous study?
Thanks

[burgerbunz]

Hi!
I'm a newbie I study online- I'm doing post grad and chose ACU as it offered a combination Early Childhood/Primary course which appealed to me as I really wanted to work with children going from care to school. Online is tough- you THINK you have heaps of time, but reality is, something always comes up! I enrolled part time and ended up cutting that in half again after the first semester! Two children at home 24/7 means it's always go go go go go- even at 11pm when you think you will get things done. You need to stay motivated, keep up with work- once you start falling behind it is almost impossible to catch up. I think having an online support network really helps- people to swap stories/ideas with, vent occasionally!! I wouldn't swap it for the world, to be home with the kids, studying, but it is so tough. If you are happy to put your own kids in care and attend on campus, I think it would be different- but that just wasn't for us.

Amanda