Self-paced online that uses physical textbooks?

[pluggingalong]

I was curious, if you have more success studying from physical books instead of "ebooks", is there a self-paced online school that uses those?  Granted physical books can be amazingly expensive.

[rachel83az]

It depends on what you consider to be self-paced. IIRC, Davar and Coopersmith both have recommended physical textbooks. Straighterline gives you the ebook, but nothing's stopping a person from purchasing the physical version. Between those three and maybe some Sophia, one could get at least most of the way through a TESU degree.

For UMPI, everything is in Strut or Brightspace (depending on when they finally switch over), but I suppose one could purchase the textbooks that are recommended for the in-person classes?

[davewill]

Textbooks are only expensive if you have to buy the latest editions. Most of the textbooks for my TESU courses were cheap. One of them was $10 from a university library who was selling their old texts. The book looked like it had never been opened since the librarian stamped the school name inside the cover.

[ss20ts]

I haven't seen a CBE program that requires physical textbooks. These programs tend to be all inclusive which is part of the appeal. At UMPI all of the reading material is on the learning platform. WGU includes all of their material as well.

I haven't purchased physical textbooks in years. Amberton required textbooks (not a CBE program) and I used all digital textbooks I purchased or rented on Amazon for the Kindle app. I'm far more likely to read a book on my phone than a physical book. I can read books on my phone anywhere. I'm not carrying a textbook everywhere I go. I do bring my phone everywhere.

[pluggingalong]

I applied to WGU for their BSSD program, and will hear back soon. Having worked several decades as a software developer, I should be able to learn their material. I have been researching my own issues with online learning, and think I can workaround them. If I have trouble remembering what I read on a screen, I will print it out. I will print out everything if I have to. If I still have problems, I will work with the school on them. I will not have a time limit. My only rule is, I wont quit.

[bjcheung77]

I applied to WGU for their BSSD program, and will hear back soon. Having worked several decades as a software developer, I should be able to learn their material.  I have been researching my own issues with online learning, and think I can workaround them.  If I have trouble remembering what I read on a screen, I will print it out. I will print out everything if I have to.  If I still have problems, I will work with the school on them.  I will not have a time limit. My only rule is, I wont quit.

That's exactly what you should do and what I would recommend, contact the school to see what accommodations they have (if any) to help the student.  It's great you're going at your pace and putting in the effort or persistence in getting this done.  Do you use the 'read aloud or read out' feature on your browser or pdf reader?  One thing I do instead of printing things out is, I screenshot or snip things I want to review, other times I print to PDF and review those as I can highlight anything I want to stand out...

[pluggingalong]

I applied to WGU for their BSSD program, and will hear back soon. Having worked several decades as a software developer, I should be able to learn their material.  I have been researching my own issues with online learning, and think I can workaround them.  If I have trouble remembering what I read on a screen, I will print it out. I will print out everything if I have to.  If I still have problems, I will work with the school on them.  I will not have a time limit. My only rule is, I wont quit.

That's exactly what you should do and what I would recommend, contact the school to see what accommodations they have (if any) to help the student.  It's great you're going at your pace and putting in the effort or persistence in getting this done.  Do you use the 'read aloud or read out' feature on your browser or pdf reader?  One thing I do instead of printing things out is, I screenshot or snip things I want to review, other times I print to PDF and review those as I can highlight anything I want to stand out...

Historically, I read physical textbooks and highlighted things that I didn't already know, and that looked important. Facts and lists, I wrote them in a notebook multiple times. Often trying to make "words" out of the first letters of each word in a list.  I think I was trying to make a "structure" to memorize. I read that one of the reasons physical text books work better is because some people use the word's location on the page to help recall the word, and the brain is partially storing the page as an image.

I don't do well listening, so I don't know if a PDF "reader" would help. Speaking might help. Maybe there should be an app where it reads something to you, and listens as you repeat it back.  I had a friend when I was young who memorized everything he heard. He never did much homework because he could remember everything the teacher said. He go straight A's and went to the Naval Academy. I was quite jealous, lol. 

I saw some iOS programming tutorials called "Learning to Code with Enid", where he fits everything relevant about one concept, on to one page.  He markets it as "A new way to learn iOS development". I think he may have accidently tapped in to the market of people that learn by images.  I really like this presentation of information. Creating these images is also probably a great way to learn.

https://twitter.com/ios_dev_alb/status/1...94/photo/1

Screenshotting is a good idea. It would lock things in to one location on the screen, possibly making it easier to remember.  

Have you seen the "Bionic Font"? Supposedly it helps people read faster, but I don't know if it helps with retention.

https://lithub.com/will-this-bionic-font...ad-faster/