M359 - Self-Help Session

We had our first 'self-help' session at Saturday. These sessions are rather like the chat you might have over a canteen table at a bricks and mortar university. We get the chance to meet up, talk about what we find difficult on the course, encourage each other and generally help each other out. I find these really useful, especially when I feel that I am stuck. It always useful to get someone else's take on something - perhaps they have a different point of view, perhaps they interpretted something differently. It all helps to widen out the way we think about problems and how we tackle them.

The only problem with these sessions is that so few fellow students turn up. On Saturday there were just three of us. Don't get me wrong, we covered a great deal of ground and it was very useful - but I am sure that other students would benefit too, and the more voices that chime in, the more we all learn.

But it is odd. When I did M206 a couple of years ago we held regular self-help sessions and only three or four people ever turned up for those too. And here's the really odd thing - on previous courses, the people that needed the help and advice the most where the ones who didn't turn up. Explain that!