well, it’s not full blown university degree studies, but I got a 6 month course/diploma fully sponsored and jumped on that - while doing still my regular dayjob (course is work related).
twice a week we have 2hr zoom-classes and on saturday 3hrs on premises.
A few random thoughts and observations:
I have a hard(er) time concentrating and following the professors monologue than I did 30+ years before
my experience seems to cross-fire (both consensus and discrepances) with the course material (ahhh … just like that time when X did Z) … which often sidetracks me
in some areas i have more/deeper experiences than the professors … and I need to bite my lip in order to not pipe in and take the floor (I’d hate to be THAT guy)
First quizz today - I did OK’ish (not really great, but better than most) - but also found it hard to concentrate through that 15 min of multiple choice test …
I am noticable (to me) less sharp/concentrated compared to my younger self and had to start over reading the questions (and lenghty mult.choice answers) a couple of time
also, preparing for the quiz by wading through roughly 300 ppt. slides also was challenging (from the concentration pov) - I ended up reading them diagonally (which I am rather good)
I am internally debating if my “decline” in acuity is due to the pudding behind my eyes becoming mushier or if it has to do with the fact that it is all “screen only” and not paper based…
For deep-reading I really hugely prefer paper/books/scripts, where I can underline/highlight/comment on content. I am also a very visual person and learner (i.e. I know the answer to a question was on the top section of a right-hand page, above a pie chart) … that stuff does obv. not work too well on a crappy powerpoint…Same is obv. true for the online-quizz - which I took on my celphone.
I went back to school and got my PhD in my late 40’s and finished in my early 50’s. I was older than pretty much all the students - undergrads and grads - but of course had a lot more life experience. So it was hard to get worked up / intimidated by the professors. In fact, often times the faculty would assume I was a fellow professor, as we’ve got a lot of visiting profs around this big campus.
I was less shy and inhibited compared to when I was an undergrad in my 20s, which sometimes led to slightly embarrassing situations, but nothing terrible.
My biggest issue was just not having the energy level of a 20 or even 30 year old, and the first semester back was quite difficult. Try as I may, I could only get so much prep work completed before starting grad level engineering courses. I was starting kind of “cold,” not having studied this material for 20+ years. My grades that semester were OK but it was my worst semester out of several that followed.
I’ve since graduated and am fortunate enough to teach in this same department. I try really hard to provide a wide variety of assignment types, because not all students approach learning the same way, regardless of age. So, it’s not just lecture notes → homework & exams, but where I can, I bring in team projects, design work (using drawings, simulations and imagination), even term papers in one of my courses. In this latter course, I pay forward the kindness the department showed me–by tolerating me as a student–by helping “older” grad students get over the bumps of the math / physics and programming, having not touched MATLAB in 10+ years. I know their pain.
If you’ll forgive the double-post, I see you talking about learning tools. True, paper & pencil never go out of style, nor do pocket calculators. There have been overhead projectors in one form or another, forever.
We also use paper exams, pretty much as our standard, as students sit and take these exams a few times per semester. We still often allow “crib sheets” in which students fill out front and/or back of a letter-sized sheet with stuff they need for the exam. This too is quite old.
A lot of younger students seem to prefer taking notes on their PC, downloading, say, the PDF of the lecture notes, viewing them on their iPad, then annotating them with a stylus. Mobile phones can make a big difference in terms of information access and the ability to cheat during an exam, so we just say “phones away!” during a test. We can make the exams hard enough so that they can’t easily look up the answer during an exam, whatever they can find is likely to be the same formulas / general approach they would get from their own studying and crib sheets.
YouTube is a great teaching tool; you can usually find just the right short video for many useful topics. Other internet tools for file sharing, editing, etc. are fantastic and we all gratefully use them. I like the toolsets we have these days, they’re really terrific.
Even A.I., it’s starting to become something possibly useful to our teaching mission. (Although it’s not really impressed me yet.)
If I may ask, how long do you intend to take university courses, and what will you be studying?
First, congratulations on taking these first steps. You will not regret it and may even discover some talents and insight into yourself that you may not have thought you possess.
I returned to college as a full-time student when I was 49. I had gone to community college right out of high school, but I was an indifferent student. I got an Associates Degree, got a job, and never looked back.
But later on, when I wanted to change careers, I discovered that every position for which I applied demanded a four-year college degree. So, I swallowed hard and paid to get that B.A. out of my own pocket. I had a great advisor who got me in and out in record time. It was kind of weird at first. I was older than many of my fellow students’ parents, and older than many of my professors. At least two of them commented that I could probably teach the class! (I could have done better than some of them, who were way behind in the most current trends and had actually never worked in the industries they were teaching. I bit my tongue many, many times.)
I will tell you, though, that the first time I sat down for an essay exam with a blank blue book in front of me I thought I had made a terrible mistake! But it was on my dime, and I persevered. I was a much more focused student than I thought I could be. I made the Dean’s List every single semester and graduated with honors. I honestly amazed myself. You will too.
I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m breaking my arm patting myself on the back. My point is that if I could do it, and overcome the same doubts you have, you will be able to do it too. Give yourself a break. You today, at your age, are probably a much different person that you were when you were younger, and as time goes on you will discover that if anything, your ability to focus on a task has not decreased as much as you may think it has, if at all, and perhaps has even increased.
I did a master’s certificate course of study (3 master’s-level classes) at the university I worked for when I was in my 50s, because they would pay for it and I found the course interesting.
It was 100% internet-based and I didn’t have any issues with it - probably because my own work revolved around providing internet-based graduate-level courses to students in the department I worked for. The subject matter was what I had studied for my own undergraduate degree years ago, so I was already familiar with the basic subject matter, though computer technology was only just being introduced at the time I was going to school, so the tech updates were quite interesting to me. The thing I was most amazed about, though, was that the old-school skills that were still needed came right back to me as if it were yesterday. I kind re-learned how well I had been trained in those skills all those years ago.
The funniest part, though, was after I had completed the course work, I saw a job offer in that department and applied for it. They sent me a rejection, with the reason being that I didn’t have the skills to do the job! Which was hilarious, because between what I had been doing all along, combined with the extra stuff I learned in the course, I was more than qualified to do their job. They just didn’t want me. I suspect they had another person they already wanted to hire, so no one else was going to get that job, no matter how qualified they were. I also suspect that person was younger than I was, so they could give that person the job at about half my salary at the time.
So I guess that’s the downside of more education at a later age - if you want it to make you a more desirable employee, you better not expect more money.
A lot of the people I worked with in the graduate-level courses in my department were older people (40+) and had not been in school for a while.
The biggest challenges I saw for them were not the subject matter or the work required to complete the assignments, but the tech challenges with a 100% on-line course. A lot of these folks had ascended to a point in their careers where other people were doing all the tech-related stuff for them. When you are a student, no one is doing all that stuff for you. There was a noticeable difference in tech savviness over time - the younger students were often able to help the older ones with no intervention from me.
I returned to the local community college to take some classes about 25 years ago when I was in my 50s and stuck around for about 12 years. I wasn’t working on any degree plan, because I already had a BA and MA. This was just for fun and intellectual stimulation. There were students of all ages, weighted heavily in the direction of early twenties, but spread out through 30s, 40s, and 50s. However, I was often the oldest student in the room, and usually older than the teacher. I loved it, it was a great experience.
Teachers like “older” students because we have a background of knowledge, show up on time, understand instructions and follow them, pay attention, make eye contact, do our work, and are capable of engaging in discussions.
Of course, all of this was in person. I would have a hard time if the bulk of classes were zoom based. But I hope you do well.
I have a friend that used to teach evening classes at her local community college. She loved the older students for these reasons - a lot of them were paying their own way and had been waiting years to get to the point where they could further their educations, so they took it very seriously.
fwiw: my situation might be different, as I already hold a master’s degree for ~30 years, and I am NOT getting any additional academic degree… (I feel I dont need another degree - but I gladly take the knowledge that goes with it)
It is just some 6 months “diploma” course, so many U.'s offer nowadays, and part of my decision to take it up was getting out of my (intellectual) comfort zone again - which mostly consists of the SDMB - and see how it feels/what it does to me.
W/out too much detail, its a course in the field of social science, so there is very little numbercrunching and STEMish hardship involved one of the main parts seem to be sharing experiences and working together with peers …and surely develop a project together (which I feel fairly confident about)
I just completed a Master’s in Publishing in July. I’m also in my 50s (closer to 60), and it was almost all online with a week-long residency in Colorado at each end.
Loved every minute of it. The cohort was small (15 students), ranging from my age down to middle 20s. I’m lucky in that I don’t have a real day job (I’m a writer) so I had a lot of time to keep up with the coursework, but it wasn’t a lot of reading. Mostly real-world stuff, along with publishing an anthology together as a class and repackaging/publishing a public-domain book as our individual project.
I never really felt like the professors were “professory”–more like they were friends who knew more about this stuff than I did so they could teach me things. It was a great program, and I’m very glad I did it.
The only restriction is available space. You have to enroll in a section that isn’t full. Most classes have multiple sections. You can always go at an unpopular time when the class doesn’t fill.
I have sometimes imagined taking a course, just for the hell of it. One problem is what to take. Probably something in biology. But not an intro and there is no biology on my record, so they probably wouldn’t allow me into an advanced course. Another possibility is statistics, but I’d likely find it boring.
I am an absolute advocate of lifelong learning. University is only one way to do this, with some advantages in terms of recognition, encouragement, socializing and enjoyment. And some disadvantages in terms of cost, inconvenience, bureaucracy and limitations.
Good for you for going back to school. I think you’ll find most of the study skills come back. I found improved focus and similar memory, but also found I sometimes needed to derive some basic stuff I once just knew due to lack of recent use. Also much better global understanding of things, with some diminished knowledge of the specifics in some areas. Probably a wash.
“The guide on the side” instead of 'the sage on the stage." This model works well for older students who have a lot of life and work experience, particularly if those students are encouraged to share those experiences with fellow students. Everyone learns more than they would otherwise.
I’m around the same age and can completely understand this–I was actually just talking to an associate about this last week. While there’s a lot of reference material and documentation I prefer in digital form just to save space, there’s also a lot I prefer on paper. I think it’s mostly tactile memory (or something similar, don’t know what else to call it) for me. I just know “that thing I’m looking for is in this book, right around here somewhere” and I can stick my finger in and find it in short order.
There’s a lot of work documentation I prefer on paper too, hell I’ve probably downloaded certain documents a dozen times because I’d forgotten I had them–whereas the stuff I have printed and placed in file folder… I know I have that stuff and know exactly where it is. (I should point out that much of my work isn’t at a desk… I work in integration for submarine sonar systems, so there’s a lot of moving around the lab and working in awkward places, sometimes lugging the laptop around isn’t idea.)
There are probably many people who work best with all-digital, but this is what works best for me.
Exactly. The main professor for this program is Kevin J. Anderson, who’s a multi-NYT bestselling author with a very successful career in both the traditional and indie realms. What he doesn’t know about publishing is probably not worth knowing. But yet he never projected that kind of “I know more than you do” energy. A few of the students (including me) had several years experience with indie publishing, and he was happy to hear our insights and experiences in the trenches. Everyone’s thoughts and ideas, regardless of their level of experience, were listened to and valued.
I think I’ve been spoiled; I’m not sure I would be happy pursuing another program that was more “academic-y” at this point. I wouldn’t have the patience for the BS. I’ve had a couple of English/writing teachers (though thankfully not for many years) who were seriously sniffing their own you-know-whats, and I couldn’t get away from them fast enough.
one of the main parts seem to be sharing experiences and working together with peers …and surely develop a project together (which I feel fairly confident about)