Returning to the classroom more than 20 years after finishing high school was a major and slightly daunting step for Olympic medallist and WNBL coach.
With laptops and logons having takenthe place of blackboards and roll calls, the learning zone was a much changed arenafor the mother of two.
Michelle enrolled in a Master of Sports Coaching at Griffith University, initially studying online through Open Universities Australia before transferring “smoothly” across to Griffith’s online delivery. Once she had established a routine that aligned study with part-time employment and ongoing sports commitments, she never looked back.
“It was a brilliant course. Studying online is so easy. I found it all very user-friendly for someone who is not very tech-savvy,”Michelle (left)said. “I knew what I had to read each week and I couldn’t let anything get too far away from me.”
Michellewas a fixture in the Australian Opals team that won basketball silver and bronze at the Sydney (2000) and Atlanta (1996) Olympics respectively. More recently she has coached and mentored a range of teams from senior players at national level to under 12s at local level.
“I found I was able to transfer what I had learned online to the court the next day. Other coaches were impressed with my knowledge, often asking me how I knew this or that. I told them I had learned it from my postgraduate course,” she said.
Michelle, who will graduate from Griffith University later this year, said she would have liked to take more advantage of the numeroussupport resources available online like the chat rooms which allowed students from many different walks of life to discuss how they made the course work for their particular situations.