Writing Effectively at The World Health Organization

Scheduling your study

As with any distance-learning course, you have considerable autonomy in the way you organize your method of study. You can study wherever and whenever you choose and at whatever pace suits you best within the four-month time frame of the course.

Inform your supervisor

You should inform your supervisor that you are taking this course and try to gain support for the duration of your studies. If possible, try to organize some regular time away from your work station to work on the course.

Work out a schedule

The entire course requires roughly 30-40 hours of study time. Completion times are bound to vary from learner to learner.

With distance learning, the onus is on you to organize yourself to complete the course in an appropriate time frame. You will need to schedule your study time carefully so that you can complete the activities, make your own notes, and complete the assignments, allowing for busy times at work, missions and other events that might interfere with your planned schedule. You should also allow time for possible resubmissions of your assignments.

Set your own assignment submission dates

There are no pre-set dates for submitting assignments. This arrangement is to enable you to work more easily around your various work commitments.

However, to maintain a steady schedule of study in the course and give yourself the best chance of finishing it, we strongly advise you to set your own target dates for submitting assignments. This arrangement is to enable you to work more easily around your various work commitments. Your tutor will ask you for your proposed dates for assignment submission early in the course.

Consider the time limit

There is a time limit of five months to complete this course. The course coordinator will provide a list of critical dates for assignment submissions. These are proposed critical dates for you to work around in setting your own work schedule for the course.

Create your own schedule

The link below will open up a Word document that you can use to create your own schedule for completing the course. Once you have filled in the schedule, save the document and print it out for easy reference. Try putting it up somewhere near your computer where you can easily check on your own progress. You are asked to send a copy of this schedule to your tutor early in the course.

My schedule of module progress and assignment completion

Here is an example of what a schedule might look like:

Sample schedule

1Try to allow a few days between completing one module and starting the next. You may need to revise and resubmit your assignment more than once requiring some extra time. The example schedule provided here allows for plenty of time at the end of the course period to be flexible in case of delays, emergencies, etc. in your work schedule.

© WHO 2011