Job Discussion Forums

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

No, I think most distance Masters can be done 100% distant. Some of the ones with a thesis component ask you to come for a month or two to consult with your tutor on your disertation.

Corey · Joined: 05 Jul 2003 Posts: 112 Location: Canada

As someone in a distance MA from a University in Australia I can say two things. First, there are some good, quality MAs available 2) It is not as cheap as it used to be. The Australia dollar has recently skyrocketed and you will pay more than $CAD 1,000 PER COURSE. This means close to or over CAD $9,000 for the MA.

Compare this with some "in-class" masters and it is outrageously expensive. York U in Toronto offers an MA for CAD $2,000.

Good luck

Sherri · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 2:52 am Post subject:

The University of Birmingham requires that you attend one 1-week seminar on site. Because there are a lot of people studying on this course in Japan, they also offer the seminar here so we don't have to travel to the UK. They might offer something in the US--though I doubt it would be in Nebraska! There are plenty of courses that don't have any attendance requirements though.

aquarius · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 12 Location: Europe

Thank you for your helpful replies. It has been difficult finding US MA TEFL/TESOL courses on the net over here in England!
Thanks Aquarius

sprightly · Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 136 Location: England

gord, if the course is advertised as something i can do while working, there's no bloody way i'm spending 30 hrs a week on it.
30 hours work + travel + prep + 30 hrs study = when the heck do i shower?

i just did up my study schedule for this module. not working wkends, i need three days for each chapter, and this allows three weeks to devote to the paper, and one week to mail it to the centre.
i know from the start what my topic is, so i begin with the book that focusses on that topic, working out an outline and sources as i go.

i'm learning the fine art of skimming. just read a 10 page article about the virtues of pre-task planning. now, 6 pages were numbers and charts and graphs and stuff. i skipped that. i'm not an expert on stats, so those things are mostly useless to me.
i read the description of the experiment, the results, and the discussion. saved myself 20 minutes of misery. the more i read, the more i realize that i can skim through quite a bit of this stuff, make some notes, check against the text to see that i'm getting it, and continue.

i panicked on my first paper, thought it was trash--and very nearly got a distinction mark. so i'm not so panicked anymore. n Very Happy

aquarius; this course requires contact (email) with a nearby tutor, and does offer a yearly seminar week. this year, it happened online, so i could watch the lectures online, email questions, and have them answered at the end of the lecture.

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

Sprightly,
I'm just about to start a masters program this July. I've told told that each course involves about 10 hours/week. So I'm taking 2 courses/semester and this will take me 2 years to complete. I can handle 20 hrs/wk (I think) because I have a fairly light teaching load. I'm teaching f/t at a uni in Japan (12 teaching hours/wk), there is no way I could do this with a full teaching schedule in Canada. That is why I'm doing it now. Like you I will do my best to just concentrate on the work at hand and not do everything.

Tamara · Joined: 24 Jul 2004 Posts: 108

Check out SIT MAT TESOL in Brattleboro, VT. They have two formats, one of which is intensive summers while keeping your full time job throughout the year.