Open, Distance & E-Learning
A degree that fits around the life you already have
Most people who come to ODEL are already working, already raising a family, already committed somewhere else. The University's Flexible Learning Policy was written for exactly that reader — and it sets out six different ways to study, so the question is not whether you can afford to stop your life, but which of the six fits it.
The Six Modes
Which of these is you?
Each mode is a different answer to the same question — how do I study without stopping everything else. Pick the one that sounds like your week.
Part-Time
You are already working, or carrying commitments that take most of your time.
One or two course units a semester, at a pace set by what the rest of your life allows.
How it worksDistance Learning
You cannot be on campus for regular classes — because of where you live, or what you do.
Also called external study or open learning. Teaching reaches you instead of you reaching it.
How it worksIntensive Mode
You can clear a block of time, but not a whole semester of weekly classes.
A unit taught over five or six weeks, several consecutive weekends, or intensively across a single week.
How it worksProject-Based Study
You are working towards a postgraduate degree and learn best by doing the work itself.
A research project, or a series of smaller ones, in place of taught contact.
How it worksIndividual Course Unit
You want one subject — for your job, for yourself, or to test the water before committing.
A single course unit, without enrolling on a full programme.
How it worksLearning through Employment
You are in work, and the work itself is where your learning already happens.
A qualification built around your job, agreed between you, the University and your employer.
How it worksThe System You Will Use
This is not a correspondence course
ODEL is a working platform, not a promise. Every course has an online space; material is organised into chapters and topics; assignments and quizzes are submitted and marked online; attendance can be taken by check-in; and you get your own timetable.
An online space for every course
Every course offering has its own space on the student portal — one per course, per year, per semester. It is where the...
Course material, organised
Teaching content is structured as chapters and topics rather than a pile of files, so you can see the shape of the cours...
Assignments submitted online
Upload a file, type your answer, or both. Your work saves as you go before you submit it. Deadlines, late windows, multi...
Marks and feedback in one place
Grading returns a score and written feedback against your submission, so the comment and the work it refers to stay toge...
What Flexible Learning Is For
Five things the policy commits the University to
Taken from section 4 of the Flexible Learning Policy, which the University Council approved in December 2019.
Earn credit for what you already know
You may draw on existing knowledge to complete assessments and make progress. Where it was gained — earlier courses, work experience, training — does not matter. "If the learner knows it and can show it, he/she can use it to earn credit."
Advance at your own pace
Progress is measured against assessments of key competencies. You take an assessment when you are ready: pass one level and move to the next.
Personalised support
A dedicated Academic Success Coach works with you to build a learning plan and a timeline fitted to your goals and knowledge, and points you to the resources you need.
Start when you want
Starting and progress are not bound to a traditional semester schedule. You can begin at any time of year, and take breaks between subscription periods.
Skills that improve employability
Passing assessments of critical competencies is how you prove mastery of the skills that matter for employment and for creating your own work.
Read the labels. Everything in this section is marked either In place — running today and demonstrable — or Established by policy, meaning the Council has approved and committed to it. We do not present the second as though it were the first. If a service matters to your decision, ask us before you pay anything, and we will tell you exactly where it stands.
Next Step
Talk to someone before you decide
The right mode depends on things a website cannot know — your hours, your employer, what you have already studied. That conversation is free, and it is the fastest way to an answer.