BEING INDEPENDENT

As a self-managed learner,you should be able to make the most of your learning experiences to succeed and at the same time,cope with your daily routine.Whether or not you are a working student,you now have greater responsibility towards your programme of study.
When you are an independent learner,you employ some or all of the suggested techniques below:

• Planning and managing the smart way.
• Applying smart time management.
• Motivating yourself.
• Developing Learning Strategies.

BLENDED LEARNING

Blended learning provides you with the best of both worlds,by giving you the high level attention and guidance that can be achieved in the actual classroom,as well as the flexibility and openness of self-paced learning through virtual leaning methods:

• Self-Managed Learning(SML)-requires you to study independenly according to your time availability.Teaching materials provided include specially constructed printed moduls as the source of learning.
• Face to faceInteractions(actual classroom)-are the tutorial sessions that are conducted in actual calssroom by teachers.
• Online Learning Methodologies-use electronic communication tools such as email,blog,website,chat rooms ect.

LEARNING STYLES AND STRATEGIS

ACTIVE AND REFLECTIVE LEARNERS.

1. Active learners tend to retain and understand information best by doing something active with-it:discussing or applying it or explaining it to others.Reflective learners prefer to think about it quietly first.
2. "Let's" try it out and see how it works" is an active learner's phrase;Let think it through first,is the reflective learner's response.
3. Active learners tend to like group work more than reflective learners,who prefer working alone.
4. Sitting through lectures without getting to do anything physical but take notes is hard for both learning types,but particulary hard for active learners.

Everybody is active sometimes and reflective sometimes.Your preferences for one category or the other may be strong,moderate or mild.A balance of the two is desirable.If you always act before reflecting you can jump into things prematurely and get into trouble,while if you spend too much time reflecting you may never grt anything done.