Annie on Fiction Elements

Hi. Annie Taylor speaking. 

I started off this year doing Fiction Elements online thinking I was taking the easy option by being able to do it from home. I was enjoying the work but I found I was just managing to keep up with it all as I am doing two other subjects in the classroom. I also have two primary school aged children and a partner with his own business that I do the books for. I haven't studied for almost twenty years and when assignments were due as well my head started to spin badly. We were all feeling the squeeze. 

Maybe I'm too conscientious or my typing is too slow or I'm just too new to all this but I found having to read everyone's writing, on top of all the course work, incredibly time consuming and frustrating. I was determined not to drop out but there were no places left in Robert's Fiction Elements in the classroom in first term. Then, at the start of second term, my new friends at school told me students had dropped out of the class and (hallelujah) Susanna, Tracey and Robert let me transfer. Fortunately for me the two classes were almost perfectly synchronised and I am now taking great delight in participating directly with the class in real-time. 

Sorry for dipping out, gang, but I am so relieved. I know I'm lucky to be in a position to be able to attend classes on campus so I will take full advantage of that from now on. Farewell and good luck to my fellow onliners. 

Annie

Hello from Heidi

I hope this is going to end up in the right place. This is the first time I have blogged anything (seriously). 

I am thoroughly enjoying the fiction elements online course. I have studied online before, and really enjoy the flexibility. Study would not be an option for me, if I couldn't do it at my own pace and at home. The fiction elements course has a lot more interaction than any previous course that I have done online. I really enjoy the opportunity to read other people's writing, and the comments that people make about each other's writing. It has opened my eyes to a whole new writing world out there. The interaction does increase the workload, but I am happy for that pressure as I learn to make room for writing in my life. I will get help from Tracey or George on how to get a photo uploaded if you really need to see what I look like.

Cheers from Hong Kong.

Heidi

PWE online student musings

Well, I think I'm in the right place - I'll know I'm blagging instead of blogging when Tracey asks why I haven't done the blog, and being virtually confused is a better excuse than the dog ate my homework.  

Anyway, I'm Nikki, the Fiction Elements Online creator of dirty skateboarders, whinging trailer trash and Charlize Theron stalkers.   I'm what VU politely refers to as a mature-age student (how nice).   I have finally given in to the need to do something connected to my writing, even though it may not lead to the unimaginable riches and worldwide fame my ex-husband hoped for (I appreciate his belief in my talent tho'). I have not been in a classroom since the invention of the internet, mobile technology and when handing in your assignments actually required a hand.

I am loving the experience! I also do two actual classes as well as the one virtual class and find both are distinctly different but equally enjoyable. I realised that in order for this to work for me I had to submit to the process. This means that when I am asked to think, or write or discuss or read, then that's what I have to do.

I must say there is enough to complete online that sometimes I am tempted to take a day off work but I intend to finish the diploma without losing my job so my weekends now are all about keeping on top of my homework.

I like the opportunity to post my work without the face-to-face scrutiny of others regarding my work. There is such insecurity inherent in creating, in any artform, that I appreciate I can avoid any reactions that may be so-so or ho-hum and which would distract me from writing my words (although I must confess to reading my pieces out loud to my mum - nothing like a sympathetic audience!). 

This, however, is a double-edged sword. The thing that I do miss very much is the feedback about my work - and before I offend my teacher, Tracey, I mean the phatic communion that sometimes follows the sharing of a piece of writing: the smiles, nods and grimaces that immediately shows you others have the got the point you tried to make. I hadn't counted on missing that part of the classroom experience.

The other big upside for me studying online is the obvious - writing in my pyjamas (sorry about the mental picture folks). It's wonderful that I can pour the act of writing into the gaps and spaces in my day that used to be filled with TV, chatter and inconsequential stuff.

So it's a big YES from me for online fiction elements and I'm really looking forward to reading everyone else's posts. 

Please note that I have tried to post the classic middle-aged authoress photo with the hand on the chin to look studious and writerly and hide all the other chins. Honestly - check out lady authors, everyone does it except Jackie Collins! (long live plastic surgery)

Nikki

Fiction Elements Online comes online on the blog

Hi, students (and others!),

I'm teaching our Fiction Elements Online class this semester and have asked all the students to blog about how they're finding the experience of being an online student, but I thought I should lead off and say something about how I'm finding the experience of teaching online. I've also suggested they may all like to post a picture, because some of our students aren't on campus -- for example, we have offshore students, and sometimes others from remote corners of Australia.

This is my second year of teaching this subject, and I must say I'm really enjoying the online class. It's great to have a mix of both on-campus and off-campus students, and to see everyone's different perspectives.

I love logging in and seeing who has been active on the Discussion Board -- who has said what, and who's responding to whose post, the new directions a particular discussion is taking. Generally, I try to follow up everyone's response to a particular activity, whether it's a writing exercise or a story analysis or a general discussion about an aspect of fiction. When a discussion does take off with the students responding to each other, I'll read all the posts but won't necessarily respond. I will, however, if I feel I have something to add or a question to ask, or if I'm just busting to say something.

It's funny, because I don't get to have that personal contact I have in a face-to-face classroom where I see people each week, but sometimes people will write things that they might not say face to face, and so I still feel like I'm getting to know everyone quite well.

What I'm looking forward to at the moment is our first chat session. I know last year this was a lot of fun -- it's just coordinating it, and trying to get a time to suit everyone that's a problem, but it's well worth the effort as it gives us the chance to all be together at the same time.

Tracey Rolfe