Heuristics for planning university study at a distance

Abstract
A model was developed at Murdoch University, Western Australia, to describe distance students’ perceptions of their aims and plans for studying a course. The model follows Polya's Heuristic and Newell & Simon's General Problem Solver of students’ plans and sub‐goals for achieving those plans. Verbal reports of four students were described using the model, and showed that students’ goals were different from those of the course academic, and that student goals influenced how they planned and organized their study. Implications for the formalization of the model for understanding student behaviour are discussed, as is educational relevance for design of external courses.

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