Distance Education coursework postgraduate orientation - online

Just because you’re not on campus doesn’t mean you have to miss out on orientation! Have a skim through our orientation page for distance education coursework postgraduates to find out what you need to know, with links to more information on each topic.

(Please note that the term ‘distance education’ is not used consistently throughout the university, so when searching for information, you also may find the terms ‘off-campus’ and ‘open and distance learning’ used on various websites.)

• Facilities and services

• The academic journey

Facilities and services

A good place to start is the Off-Campus Learning Centre (OCLC) which runs a liaison service for distance education students, and can be contacted by email or free call within Australia.

IT

It’s important to make sure you’re connected to the Monash IT network, so you’ll need to get your authcate and email account set up.

Once you have your authcate and username, you can log in to the university-wide intranet portal, called my.monash,
where you will be able to access all relevant information and resources.

Library

If you haven’t used a library for a while, you’ll definitely need some help familiarising yourself with the search systems, resources and library services available today. Subject librarians can help you to find and use discipline-specific information, and can be contacted by email or phone.

The library offers specialised services for distance education students including a postal loan service, online chats with a librarian, and an email helpline. Coursework postgraduates can borrow up to 30 items at a time, with some restrictions applying depending on your location, and can make use of the docdel service (document delivery service) which can locate and deliver material that is only available from external libraries.

Staying connected

If you’re feeling a little isolated and cut-off from the Monash community, you’ll need to debrief and share experiences with other postgraduates at our online postgrad forum, Postgrad to Postgrad. This is a great place for seeking information and advice from other postgraduates who have been there and done that, or just for having informal, online chats which have nothing to do with study whatsoever.

Read about other postgraduates’ experiences in our magazine for postgrads, Compass Online. Consider submitting to Compass and we'll send a 'first-time contributor' gift pack to your home address.

If you do come to one of the campuses for a residential you can use one of the postgraduate-only study spaces during your visit.

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The academic journey

There are a number of postgraduate-specific seminars run on the various campuses, and the MPA is encouraging seminar providers to record as many sessions as possible so that they can be accessed online. Podcasts on various topics are also produced by the MPA. Visit our Compass Online podcast collection for our complete list. Our podcasts are available in both RealPlayer and Quicktime formats.

The library also provides a large number of lectures online as audio recordings.

Blackboard

You can access lecture notes, assessment tasks, grades and unit outlines on Blackboard, a web-based course management system. You can access Blackboard through your portal.

Learning skills help

Stuck for words? Most faculties employ their own Language and Learning staff to work with postgraduates to improve academic writing skills. The library has some great online resources about language and learning, and you can email the library-based learning skills advisors .

The learning support page for distance education students is also worth a look.

Referencing

It’s important to properly reference and cite
other people’s work used in your assignments. Plagiarism, even when unintended, is taken very seriously and the consequences can be severe.

Advice & advocacy

Your experience at Monash should be academically challenging and stimulating. If you have any concerns or comments about your course you should speak to your course coordinator. Whatever you do, don’t let the situation deteriorate without acting. If you do find yourself in need of some independent, confidential advice contact the MPA Advocate.

You can also check out our advice & advocacy pages and our "Dear Abby" archive of frequently asked questions.

Finally, if you need some general advice or help with managing any of the university processes from a distance, email any one of the MPA staff for assistance. If you have any suggestions for improvements to services and support for DE postgraduates, please let us know, as we are currently researching this area.

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