How do you college people feel about online courses?

This is for a little report due in my journalism class.

So yeah, general feelings, and if you think you perform better, worse, or pretty much equally compared to traditional physical classrooms.

I'll give you fake names since nobody's gonna check :P

 

The freedom and flexibility is quite nice especially when you do not need to go to the classroom, but in my experience assignments given in a classroom tend to be easier.
Teachers in charge of online classes tend to want you to do more since you don't have to be in a classroom. They also love to abuse discussion boards like crazy to get you to interact with the others enrolled in that class. Kind of hard to care when 2/3 of the class is spread out across the state and the last third is across the country. I tend to avoid them as much as possible, but if it's easier for your schedule then I'd say go ahead.

 

Easy. Too easy to do the work load in a few minutes and to ace the class, look like a smartie in their dumb little forum, and to have not learned a gosh darn thing.

There's no learn context in those classes.

 

Any preferred fake names and ages?

 

Jay Bakyura. Age 23

 

I have tried a few online courses. And they're either too easy or insanely difficult. And I found I benefit more from being in a classroom. I don't know if it makes it easier to focus on the work or if it's just something about the structure and having the professor be physically present.

I'd say something about being able to wear your pajamas to class but I did that most of the time in college anyway so...

 

I'm currently taking an online course, and it... is not as good as being in a classroom, I admit. But it's also a course I don't really care about but I need for my major, so I don't mind.

I agree that teachers making you use the discussion boards is bs, though. A good chunck of people don't do anything in them until the day before it's due, and then you're stuck scrambling around trying to finish at the last minute, no matter how ahead you are.

 

I took an online class (EDU 201) last semester (maybe? not totally sure lol) not really knowing what to expect. I was hoping it meant that we'd just have the entire curriculum open to us and we simply had to complete everything by a certain date. I understand now why that wouldn't really work given the emphasis placed on replying to others' discussion responses -- if everyone procrastinated and didn't post until a few hours before the class ended, then you'd have nothing to reply to -- but it was honestly way more structured than I was anticipating. I'm sure it varies from professor to professor but we basically had something due every 2 or 3 days and then the topic would lock out, so if you were busy you were basically **** out of luck. My professor also didn't put up a proper syllabus nor was she easy to contact (or helpful when you did) which hurt the experience as well -- I usually didn't know we had several (long!) papers due until maybe a day or two before.

It was also very frustrating trying to reply to other people's discussion threads when they were basically just regurgitating the textbook, which again will vary from class to class. I ended up replying to the same two or three people every week.

If it's a throwaway class you're taking just to satisfy an open credit requirement it probably couldn't hurt, but I do somewhat regret taking a class that's so important to my major online.

Basically just know what you're getting into. It depends a lot on the professor and the people in the class, as all classes due, but be aware that they can be very structured and very time-consuming.

 

Yeah, it depends completely on the teacher and the class. I've had classes that were very rigid in structure, often the ones that were linked to outside web sites for coursework and tests, and then I had classes that were basically open field and depended on the pace of students.

 

Online classes are convenient methods to get certain credits out of the way, especially during the Winter and Summer sessions, so that you aren't bombarded with a lot of credits during the actual semester. It's also a great way to take them online if you are working full/part-time so that commuting and schedules aren't an issue. Hybrids also are beneficial in terms of scheduling and money.

I feel it also depends on the type of class. For instance, I found "easy-A" classes like Film Studies and whatnot to be a better way to lecture and learn about its respective topics than meeting in class with about half of the students merely there to fall in sleep in front of a projector, lol. But things like Math and Science are a no-go. It's kind of impossible to cram in the amount of information you would have to learn in a 3-4 month period within a 2-3 week time frame, so I don't really see the appeal in such. Unless that's your thing, it's exhaustive and mentally demanding during a time where you should be having a break. :x

I actually don't take that many online classes anymore due to the nature of my major, but glad that they are convenient and considerably cheaper.

Also I'd like my fake name to be Jim Henson, Age 22. Just 'cause.

 

I've taken dozens of online classes now and only had a problem with one of them so far (awful instructor). As someone who is always on their computer, online classes are preferable for me since:

-At my college, they are 6 weeks instead of 10 a course so I can take 2 and 2 in pretty much the same time I did 4 classes at once on campus.
-Assignments are typically easier, a lot of the course grades are forum posts and discussion questions which usually only take a few minutes a day.
-I don't ever have to study for tests unless they're timed (No one there to say no using the textbook or Google w).
-Saves me time and money by not having to drive to school.

If I had to list the downsides, it's simply:

-Not for everyone, especially people that can't stand technology or communicating online.
-Typically faster pace (hence why they're shorter classes)
-If your connection is unreliable, it could cost you. Most instructors make you upload your assignments on the due date by 11:59 with no exceptions.

As for the the people who say you don't learn anything from online classes, I don't find that to be particularly true. There are classes like that for sure, but typically they're the same courses you would consider a blowoff in the classroom as well. I just finished a PowerShell class last semester where the instructor did a really nice job showing us the commands through the virtual classroom and I learned quite a bit.

 

I've only ever taken one online course so I can't speak from much experience but I never even had to take exams, it was all papers. That might be because it was in the social sciences but still.

 

My class (Art History) is a combination of both. Every unit has one (short-ish) essay, one multiple choice quiz, and a discussion thing. We also have to read a chapter or two of the really boring textbook.

On the bright side, at the end of every unit, there's a suggestion for a movie to watch based on the unit we just finished. We've watched The Croods, Prince of Egypt, and Hercules thus far, among others.

 

I've taken a good number of classes, and I always end up regretting the decision. I’m the kind of person who needs to be in a classroom setting. It gives me a sense of accountability. I have an actual person teaching me stuff, and I have a physical place I have to go to every other weekday, so I won’t forget that I have a class I need to pay attention to. I get told I’m assigned homework, and it feels like it means something. When it comes to internet classes, I feel like I don’t get any of that, so it’s easy to just forget about it and fall behind.

The only time I do it now is for a credit that I really need, but my schedule won’t allow it. And one semester, my entire schedule was internet classes, which I have no idea how I passed. I can also guess that since most of my time in school was physically going class to class, I just got used to the lecture style.

 

I think that it would be kind of nice to study in the comfort of your own home. But yeah, one can get too easily distracted in online classes and that since internet speed and stability is terrible here in my country one might find it difficult to take online classes if one suddenly disconnects from the internet before or during an online class.

 

I'm not in college but I am taking an online course (which is what this class period is supposed to be used for but here I am on khv) and I just find it easy some weeks and harder for others. Like, this week all I have to do is write up vocabulary lists based on pictures the teacher gave me. It takes a while but it's not hard. But then there are weeks which require communication with classmates. I have no problem with talking, but everyone else in the class does. At least in a real classroom environment you can see these people and remind them, but online the only connection I have with them is the class. How am I supposed to communicate and get in contact with them if they choose to not log in for the day?

It helps teach time management though, since you have to post your assignments by said time, at the same time this can be a problem. Sure, you can talk with the online teacher, but they only accept late work if there was an emergency. From my experience with teachers being physically there, they can decide whether or not to give a longer deadline because kids do not seem to get the assignment. They can't do that in an online course.

I know college online courses vs high school online courses is considered here, but that's just my experiences with online courses. Now I need to run back and get some work done :/

 

I've never seen a mid term or a final exam on a online class yet, but I have seen quizzes and tests/timed tests quite a bit. A lot of my online courses just use final projects instead.

 

i took one last term. it was pretty cool. the good thing about it is not having to go to school early in the morning. and there is no time specific homework to turn in; you can turn it in on the last minute before it hits midnight.