OPEN UNIVERSITY IS IT WORTH IT?

hello everyone and welcome to my first youtube video finally i'm making a youtube video finally i'm making a youtube i just thought everyone else is doing it why can't i i think everyone thinks like that it's just one of those things where you think you're not good enough or the hell am i gonna film you never know really so here i am i'm doing it and hopefully you're gonna come along with me on this wonderful and exciting and terrifying journey so let's get into it today i want to talk about universities and what i wish i knew before i went and before i chose where i was going to go because if you're anything like me and you may not have wanted to go to university you may have thought you weren't good enough not smart enough please never think like that you are more than capable of going to university if you want to i'm not here to force anyone or tell anyone to go to university this is just my experience what i wish i knew because if i can help anybody who's kind of going through the same emotions or situation that i was going through at the time when i was trying to pick what i wanted to do where i wanted to go if i wanted to go anywhere so i went to a non-traditional university i did at university online i went to open university that is based in milton keynes and i will get into who open university is for but before we do that i need to go and make a cup of coffee so why don't we go do that [Music] [Music] so i have my little list of pros and cons for open university so yeah let's get into it number one it's affordable it's 30 cheaper than going to a more traditional university to go onto a campus because you aren't paying the maintenance to live at your campus if you live at the campus you don't necessarily have to um depending on what university you go to because ou is online i get to study at home in bed which i have done most of the time and i get to stay home and drink as many cups of tea and coffees as i want on top of that i don't have to go and stay and park at a campus parking in the uk does cost quite a bit of money there aren't a lot of free places to park if i had to pay every day to go and park at my campus or the days that i do go to uni it really racks up so it does help that i don't have to do that number two you do get a lot of discounts so for the books and materials and any additional things that you're going to need to study you do get discounts on that although most universities give discounts such as uni days student beans and amazon students number three employers like how open university works because you are required to study on your own do everything on your own plan your time plan your deadlines and once you learn that from the beginning they don't have to teach you that that is something that is quite unique for most online learning platforms you are required to do it on your own there is no one that's going to help you you're either going to do the deadline or you're going to fail so they like that they like that they don't have to teach that number four open university provide many courses these courses were a huge help when i was trying to decide what i wanted to do so i did a bunch of the mini courses there's loads of them they're all on the ou website i'll list them here if you want and you can go and have a look at those yourself so they are free for anybody who wants to give them a go you don't have to be a student you can just make a profile and go and do the free courses and there's a long list there's math design history philosophy music study drama media business they're all on there for free number five you get to study at home which is fantastic when you live in a cold country that is cold 90 of the time and it's raining and it's windy and it's miserable studying in my own bed not having to get changed not having to worry about clothes or makeup i don't have to get into my car in the cold i get to stay in bed and chill out and open my books with all my highlighters and do what i please and the last thing about open university that i think is wonderful because it's from home it is made for people who don't have time to go and sit in a class if you are a mom that wants to study something and you've got little kids or you've got kids in general that you have to be around for all the time it's a great way to part-time study and still be able to do all that to work as well as you plan your own schedule because you get to study on your own time and like any other university you get excellent advice excellent tutoring there are so many more pros that i could mention but those are just a few that i wrote down as i saw from other students so yeah go and have a look at that for my negatives there aren't that many from what i've experienced so number one you don't get to experience student life you know beans on toast the hot noodles the living away from home the experiencing of the lifestyle the parties the student nights you don't get to experience all of that the campuses and for some people that's okay like they don't want that like for me i didn't want that i just wanted to study and get it done and get my qualification and yeah and that's what i'm doing number two you don't always build relationships with other students and or your teacher because you're not going to traditional classes traditional lectures because they're all done online you don't get to build a relationship with other students you don't get to make friends with other students it is possible like for me i do have a group chat with all of the students that are on my course number three teachers are not always prompt when it comes to emailing them i have had in the past a teacher that didn't reply for a whole week when i needed them to reply as soon as possible you are given your tutor's phone number as well as their email address but for me i never felt comfortable just texting my teacher or giving them a call but you don't always get a quick response it's very rare i've only had it maybe a handful of times but all throughout the three years that i've been studying all of my teachers have pretty much been quite prompt but yes you don't always get a quick response before all of your tutorials all of your lectures are going to be online sometimes the system is going to be down there's nothing you can do about that sometimes the internet is just meth sometimes the classes are full so you can't get onto them sometimes the tutors get mixed up on their schedules and they don't show up these are things that you cannot change you just have to deal with them but that is something to keep in mind with ou if you are taking a degree that requires you to take exams you only get two attempts to do that exam if you fail at both you might end up losing all the money that you paid to do the course so bear that in mind if you are going to do a degree that requires you to take an exam and i don't know if other universities and more traditional universities have the same requirement so just check that out beforehand when i spoke about open university to friends colleagues family friends they questioned whether i was actually going to get a qualification it really did bug me that people ask me this yes you do get a qualification so you do get a full qualified degree that you can take into any job afterwards lastly if you are someone who doesn't have the motivation to to study from home then yes go to a more conventional university there's nothing wrong with needing that motivation in class that engagement with the other students and that engagement with your teacher and some people don't want that and i happen to be one of those people i just i hated being in a classroom it just wasn't for me if you are someone who wants to experience student life then i would suggest going to a more conventional university and not studying from home but other than that most of the pros is that you can study from home at your own pace it's cheaper you do get more out of it because you are self being self motivated to do it so you do get a lot more experience being self dependent and self motivated on that topic hello this is just for people who have considered it and worried about it and felt like they wouldn't be good enough to go and don't feel like they wouldn't pass never say that you you can't do something when you can because i told myself that i couldn't and now i'm four months away from finishing and if this video can help anybody that is struggling with that thought with that thought process please take it from me who always thought that she wasn't good enough to be in university to study to do it independently and to almost be finishing and graduating if you had asked me three years ago or four years ago oh um do you think you would do well in university i probably would have said in hell no like i am not made for university but here i am telling you that i'm nearly finished and it's exciting for me it's going to be an exciting new chapter this is an exciting new chapter and i hope that you're going to come with me on this journey the journey of graduating the journey afterwards and the journey of youtube on that note i hope this video has been informative i know it's quite boring for my first video but i hope it's giving you so much more to think about so have a lovely day and if you would like to please subscribe and like this video you don't have to but it would be so wonderful if you did thank you bye oh

Channel: Megan Duffy

Views: 6,586

Keywords: openuniversity, university, first video, firstvideo, study, online, onlineuniversity

Id: 5DV-n-NQUnw

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022