The London School of Journalism

Open Learning Courses

Our open learning programme covers every area of News Journalism, Freelance and Feature Writing and Creative Writing - and with over 80 years of experience in teaching this way, we can offer you the benefit of our unrivalled experience.

Open learning courses can be either stand-alone diploma courses, which can take between six and fifteen months to complete, or be part of a two year, four module, structured postgraduate progamme, which results in a postgraduate diploma.

Open learning is a flexible alternative to attending college - students work at their own pace and submit all assignments via email. There is no need to give up a job in order to train for your new career - our courses are designed to be flexible - flexible enough for you to achieve your goals without having to disrupt your life, or having to travel away from friends and family.

Each student is allocated a personal tutor, who will advise and assist you as you work through your course - each assignment you return is marked and corrected, and your tutor's comments are emailed or posted to you.

We have an online lecture system, where students not only receive tution, but also meet and talk with tutors and other students, which has been specifically created by our own experts to meet the needs of our students.

The diploma courses are each designed to teach one specific area of the writing profession - news journalism, travel writing or media law, for example, are all separate courses, which would take between six and fifteen months to complete. A personal tutor marks your assignments, answers questions and, as your mentor, monitors your progress - all you have to do is the work and the set reading.

The online postgraduate course consists of group lectures given in our web-based lecture room, individual assignments and one-to-one tutorials. . Students have four modules to complete within five years - if the course is taken without a break it can be completed in as little as two years. The individual modules cover all aspects of journalism - by completion of all four, students should be capable of starting their career in any aspect of the profession, having covered all the topics dealt with by our seven individual journalism diploma courses. There is no need to take all four modules - students may commit to one module at a time, and base their study around the way their career develops.

Some postgraduate students find that they have become 'employable' after only one or two modules, and from then on are too busy to find the time to complete the course.

Each module has assignments which are assessed throughout the course, and finishes with an online exam which accounts for 50% of the grade marks. On completion of the fourth and final module, there is a synoptic exam paper which covers everything that you have learned previously - successful completion of which is crucial to the award of the final postgraduate diploma.

Open learning as a principle is well-established - and has been shown to be capable of teaching a wide range of subjects very successfully - and we know that our system, with the support offered by our tutors, and the availability of our group system of lectures and tutorials, helps off-set the loneliness of the long-distance learner.

Click below for full details of the cartooning course - or if you want to look at the other courses that we offer go to our journalism distance learning website.

Our students are successful in their careers, and a great addition to the profession. Come and join them.

Click on the options on the sidebar to find the information on the type of courses that interest you. If you require any further help, then please email us with your personal details and questions.