REDPEN ON WHAT SELF-PACED MEANS:
Instructor Redpen taught at Andrews for years and now serves as an adviser. I'm reposting a few of her lectures here because they have excellent ideas. Some of them are on the MT board already, but coders can benefit from them too. by the way, she was an MT for years, a CMT, and now is in a very impressive medical coding position. There is much to learn from Redpen, even when she is cranky. See her comment below. :)
Sometimes, students are confused about the meaning of "self-paced."
They think this means that you can do the course according to the PACE your SELF finds convenient or suitable. They think "I can work on this in my spare time" or "when I get around to it."
That's not what self-paced means, though.
Self-paced means you are responsible for pacing yourself so that you can complete the material in the required time-frame. It means that you have one year to complete the course from the date YOU began. YOU are responsible for figuring out how much time to allot to each module/section/assignment so that you complete everything in 365 days.
It's not so much different than a regular college course. There, though, everyone begins on the same day and has to complete assignments, tests, and everything in lockstep--everyone does everything at the same time. You probably even have to sit in classes at certain times, either in person or via the internet.
With a self-paced course, you begin on your enrollment date and finish on a date calculated from that enrollment date. You do not have to sit in classes or be on the internet at particular times. But, you have to submit assignments at prescribed intervals so that we, and you, can see that you'll be able to finish on time.
Sometimes, this is a problem for students who have never been "self-directing" in their lives. If you attended schools where the teachers handed you assignments daily for you to do right then, and if you have always had parents who got you out of bed and told you to do your homework, and if you've worked in jobs where your supervisors gave you work and you did it right then or customers phoned or came in and you dealt with them right then, or if you've never had a job at all, then you've never had experience directing yourself.
Under those circumstances, students often can't figure out how to get started! Or, they get started because it's interesting right out of the box, but they become distracted by "life" and they can't keep up a pace because . . . they have no skills in self-direction.
In order to succeed at this, you need particular skills. You have to be able to plan and schedule, and you have to be able to stick to it when you become bored. You have to be able to follow instructions. You have to be able to make lists of what you need to do and follow that list.
Most of all, you have to be able to motivate yourself. Figure out what you need to get going and do it.
An instructor's job here does not include "motivating students." You're supposed to do that on your own. It doesn't include handing out assignments daily. You're supposed to hand them to yourself. It doesn't include doling out lavish praise to enhance your feelings of self-worth. At this stage of the game, you're supposed to have an adequate self-image, which includes the ability to adjust your behavior in response to objective evidence of your performance.
And that's where MY job comes in. My job is to evaluate your performance and give you an assessment. I give you a grade, say "This is very good," and provide an explanation of errors and further assignments based on them. That's it. You're supposed to be able to take that and run with it. (And, frankly, I think I'm going overboard with the "This is very good" bit, but Linda insists it makes me sound more user-friendly, and I try to keep Linda happy, so I do it.)
Both subjects we teach here, MT and coding, require high levels of self-motivation, self-evaluation, self-teaching, and self-direction. That's just what kind of jobs they are. In those jobs, you'll be expected to get the job done with minimal or no supervision.