Malaysia-based retiree John Verry said his distance learning course at the University of Otago's ''pressured'' pre-Christmas summer school was disrupted because he was unable to see the rest of the class, and unable to hear questions fellow students were asking.
''They may as well have sent out a CD Rom,'' he said.
One of his classes was delayed because a Campus Watch member had to unlock the room, and he ended up changing the level of the course he was doing because he was not confident of getting a good mark.
Since the end of 2015, 179 support services staff have taken redundancy in the review, 166 voluntarily.
The university has switched to a centralised support service, prompting some staff to complain about a loss of knowledge in individual departments.
Mr Verry, a retired contract law lecturer, said he enrolled in an Islamic studies course this year after also enrolling in summer school in previous years and being pleased with the experience.
However, one of the lectures he attended via distance learning was not Islamic Studies but Maori Studies, and when he asked staff at information hub AskOtago to contact IT, to put him through to the correct lecture, the staff member at AskOtago told him he would have to contact the lecturer directly.
On another occasion the lecturer told him the lecture was running late because someone at Campus Watch would have to unlock the room. For about a third of the course the lectures cut out at exactly 50 minutes, rather than allowing students to hear the very end of the lecture, before the issue was fixed by IT.
''I understand that these things happen, but not quite with the rapidity that they are happening now,'' Mr Verry said.
When asked about Mr Verry's problems a university spokeswoman said the university was ''unaware of any other concerns'' and would encourage people to write to the department or staff member running the paper if they were experiencing any issues.
''Such matters will be taken seriously and looked into,'' she said.
