Need ideas for studying during long commute

[dfrecore]

I have a friend whose husband desperately needs a degree to get out of his current job. His company just got bought, and he is now commuting 3 hours a day, and working evening shifts for about 10 hours. It's a killer. And it's in a dying industry (printing) so he can't find another job easily.

I'm not even certain he would be able to pull this off, but I want to try to help. Obviously SL is not an option for him. Study.com might be, if he could get the info onto his phone and listen in the car.

I know that there are also other options to listen to things like iTunesU while driving. I need to give him very specific ideas for how he can study while driving 90 minutes each way. Not, "well, he could try listening to some history lessons", but serious, specific courses that would be available on iTunesU or something else, and then could correlate to exams (I'm thinking CLEP/DSST but open to other suggestions).

Unfortunately, he does not speak a foreign language (bummer), and I got him to get his JST from 1987-1992, but he only has 9cr that will count as free electives at TESU. Nothing else very useful. He is good at math, so I'm going to have him do ALEKS, and as many math exams as we can cram into the degree plan. But that's not going to be a ton of help with the rest of the stuff he needs.

TIA!

[sanantone]

What does he plan on majoring in? How many days off does he get each week? How much time does he have to study on his days off? What kind of job does he have in printing? Does he do printer repairs?

[ndelco]

Study.com has an app and he can listen to the lessons through his phone. They claim to have a download feature but I've never been able to get it to work on my phone or tablet. The app definitely works for listening without downloading the lessons though. One downside would be that he would need to manually switch from lesson to lesson and could be distracted while driving. Another downside (for me) is that I haven't been able to find a way to speed up the lessons like I can on my laptop. They can get boring with how slow the lessons are spoken.

[dfrecore]

What does he plan on majoring in? How many days off does he get each week? How much time does he have to study on his days off? What kind of job does he have in printing? Does he do printer repairs?

1) Possibly a BSBA in Ops Management
2) 2-3 days off per week
3) all day to study, but he's trying to catch up on sleep, and has a baby, so it's hard
4) he's a floor manager of a company that actually PRINTS stuff (I know, right?). He does not work physically on the machines, but manages what's going on with everyone, manages the jobs, etc. Does some of the distribution stuff too, which is why I thought Ops Management.

He has no Gen Eds, so I thought that might be a good place to start with listening in the car.

[bluebooger]

http://www.degreeforum.net/saylor-org-st...post234892

[sanantone]

Someone mentioned here before that Hoopla has audiobooks for The Great Courses and some people can get free access through their city's public library. I just got my library card and now have free access to Hoopla, but these turned out to be videos rather than audiobooks. These are lectures, so he could just listen to the videos. Y'all should sign up if this option is available for you and pick out the series that could possibly apply to CBEs. If he's capable of streaming, he can stream the college-level series on Learner.org. It would be kind of pointless to list all of the useful ones out when it's easy to go to the website, click on a category, and then click on "College/Adult." Some IC flashcard sets are downloadable as mp3s.

For iTunesU, there may or may not be many courses specifically made for CLEP or DSST. You can just open up the iTunes app, search for the subject you want, and filter by "iTunes U." I quickly found an Introduction to Management course from a university. "The Saylor Foundation" also has some stuff on there, but I don't think they are full courses. If you search "CLEP," there is a microeconomics series. My suggestion is that, if he knows he needs credits for something, then he should just search for a course in that subject. Writing out a list would take hours and would be completely unnecessary.

[Ideas]

Some people like to make their own audio of themselves talking, and listen to it a few times, especially when they're trying to memorize dates, definitions, etc.

[icampy]

There are multiple apps that will audibly read a .pdf to you on your phone.

[clep3705]

If you can download a video (mp4) to a Mac or pc, you can use Audacity or VLC to convert it to mp3. That's what I do. You can save the mp3 to your phone or copy to a USB stick that play through the car's USB port.

[SolarKat]

I guess I'd go 2-pronged on this. First, by contacting any/all vets organizations in his area that offer career assistance, mentoring, etc. (eg Hire Our Heroes). I wouldn't give up on the new job, necessarily, as it seems that could go a ways towards opening up his schedule to study. The American Legion, VFW, and other service organizations may have opportunities - he really, REALLY needs to network. I can't stress that enough.

Second, study time. He's going to have to be disciplined, and his wife is going to have to accept that he's tied up even more hours than he is already...but it's for the long-term good of the family. Since this seems to be a new thing, he could ease into it - first, doing the free Sophia 1cr and the free 2cr ethics, by setting aside 1hr/workday and 3hrs/day off (or whatever is manageable. It's going to suck no matter how he does this. The point is, to build it into the routine so that he keeps making progress, even if it's baby steps every day).

Is he going to be able to schedule CLEPs? (And does he test well?) If so, pick an easy CLEP and have him listen to the flashcards (get his wife on board to convert them to PDFs that he can have read aloud via app in the car, or to read them into a voice file). Are the flashcards printable? If so, he can carry a deck with him - 5 minute review at lunch/break, 15 minutes in the morning when he has coffee...basically he has to develop the habit of making the minutes count, and of learning on the fly. Same for the ALEKS math - even 15 minutes *every* day can move things along. This should let him get a few early wins (the free classes, some ALEKS pie, and a CLEP) and see if he wants to make the sacrifices that this goal is going to require.

Does his wife have a degree? This may be something they can do together, to an extent. If she's helping him, she might as well take a CLEP, too.