Selin Es Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Hey there I will start IB this september and I'm thinking about taking a course online. My school don't offers Economics, but I'd really love to take it as SL. I wasn't sure, whether I can do it just self-studied, so I surfed a bit and found the online courses of Panjoma Education, which also is mentioned at the IBO's website. It seems like a good option for me Anyone has experience with online courses? Maybe Economics too? Or even with Panjoma Education? Thank you for your answers! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiggsHunter Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) It's a similar situation at our school. Economics is offered at SL and HL in French, but at present students who want to study it in English have to take the Pamoja option, and our coordinator says it is going well with the May 2012 cohort. This means additional expense, of course.There is also one student piloting Spanish A1 by an option called "School Supported Self Taught", which he reports is also going well. Edited March 29, 2012 by HiggsHunter Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joachim T Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Woah! Wish I'd researched about this. Wanted to take psychology but my school didn't offer it... My coordinator didn't even tell me I could do it self study. Even though I have no knowledge regarding how this works, I'd say do it. You just have to be sure to work hard. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiggsHunter Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Woah! Wish I'd researched about this. Wanted to take psychology but my school didn't offer it... My coordinator didn't even tell me I could do it self study. Even though I have no knowledge regarding how this works, I'd say do it. You just have to be sure to work hard.There is a short two-part video that gives an idea of how Pamoja works here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BMWzfgNH5Y&feature=relmfuAlso see:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNO__IjR7fETo support online students, a site-based coordinator has to be designated at the participating IB school, and there is a fee for his training. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel16 Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Yeah. It's Pamoja*. That's how I do Math HL. the interface is different than in the videos though. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiggsHunter Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 Bravo for tackling 5 HLs!How has your experience with Pamoja been? Have you found that the system is as good as a conventional course, or possibly even more convenient than live teaching? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
timtamboy63 Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 I've been using Pamoja for Spanish Ab Initio, and I honestly would not recommend it. WIthout trying to brag, me and one other girl are the top students in the school, and are both taking a subject on Pamoja - that subject we are doing fairly horrible at. Maybe it's just because I'm doing a language, which is bound to be harder to learn on a computer, but I still definitely would not recommend Pamoja. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel16 Posted March 29, 2012 Report Share Posted March 29, 2012 I think that Pamoja is very good and organized. The main benefit according to me is that you set up your own time for when you want to do your work. You get weekly chances to speak with your instructor. In my course, every week, two sessions are set up in which you have a virtual class with your instructor. This is done using something called "Elluminate". It just creates a virtual classroom where you can talk to your instructor and your instructor speaks and uses a whiteboard to teach and answer any of your questions. The main disadvantage in my opinion is the fact that it takes a lot more self-discipline to do any course online. You really do have to push yourself to work enough hours in a week since there's not mandatory attendance of class or anything and your teacher is not physically there. That's it. However, that's also what your SBC is there for. From my experience with Mathematics, I see no negative aspects of the online school itself. I suppose it also depends on how good you are at the type of subject. I don't know much about ab initio languages. My school doesn't have any. For Economics, I saw some nice things about discussions that are had online. I think they might be mentioned in one of those videos that HiggsHunter posted. That's also something we do with Mathematics: blog posts and posts in a discussion forums. It's a nice variation to the regular tests and assignments and you get interaction that way with people from all over the world. On a final note, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't start your course late, but don't. I did, because my school failed to mention anything about online courses to me. I'm the first one and only one to do this in my school. I found out about it myself by the time it was already November. I personally experienced that it's pretty much impossible to catch up after missing that much. It's even hard to catch up if you are behind a week. Self-discipline comes in again there Anyway, so good luck! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babydolleyes Posted April 21, 2012 Report Share Posted April 21, 2012 Hey there I will start IB this september and I'm thinking about taking a course online. My school don't offers Economics, but I'd really love to take it as SL. I wasn't sure, whether I can do it just self-studied, so I surfed a bit and found the online courses of Panjoma Education, which also is mentioned at the IBO's website. It seems like a good option for me Anyone has experience with online courses? Maybe Economics too? Or even with Panjoma Education? Thank you for your answers! I'm actually taking Economics HL with Pamoja Education (graduating may 2013) and I looove it. It's so organized and it gives you so much freedom. If you are the type of person that prefers to study at home than at school, then I think you would really enjoy it. The activities are great, and you have to be very independent which is something I'm enjoying very much. If you have problems then there are so many videos you can watch that explain all of the concepts, and (at least in my case) the teachers are wonderful. I log on numerous times a week, if not everyday and I have never had a problem with handing in assignments on time. The class is very small now since many people have dropped the course, but of course if you are bad at working independently then you are probably going to do poorly in the end anyway. If you have any questions then you can ask me, I can't recommend it highly enough. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selin Es Posted April 22, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 Thank you all very much for your answers!! I think, that I am the right type of learner for this:) Just have to think a bit about the fee-thing, it's quiet expensive.. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.