Online college courses?

Question

I'm taking Intro to Psychology, Earth Science and English Comp I all online. In addition to these classes, I have a yoga class one night a week. Has anyone here had online classes? A show of hands, how many thought the experience was better/ worse than actually attending a classroom setting..

Answer 1

I have taken and taught online courses and generally found them to be more difficult and involved than meeting in a traditional classroom setting.

Many instructors feel the need to ensure that students "work" an appropriate amount, adding lots of so-called "busy" work to pad their syllabi. These exercises consume lots of time and, in my experience, don't always add value to the education experience. Nonetheless, for many students, including those with children, online classes are the only way to go.

I personally think there is no substitute for in-class interaction between an instructor and his or her students.

It seems like you're now taking the general curriculum requirements since those aren't core courses for a given major. I would suggest attempting to CLEP, or test, out of as many of the general classes as I could. It's inexpensive and you can prepare at your own pace. In fact, I tested out of 42 hours, saving myself about a year and a half in the program.

Answer 2

I took geography and allied health online cause i needed credit to graduate and i couldnt fit regular classes into my schedule. The allied health one was great. It was just like any other regular lecture i took but at my convenience. The geography one was frustrating and a lot of it seemed like busy work for no good reason and I know if i took the classroom one it wouldnt have been that time consuming. Also not all schools take CLEP so if you are curious about that make sure your school takes it.  

Answer 3

I've taken distance correspondence courses, not online, but the distance courses were good. They require more work, since you need to read more, but they also require a lot more writing than on campus classes require. Because of the internet, there was an opportunity to discuss with classmates or my professor, which I did take advantage of although, I usually don't find that classmates add very much to my learning. I often find that I'm arguing some point they never thought through whether on campus or in the classroom.

Even though distance classes are more expensive and require more time, I think because you're only taking three and not working, you should have nothing to worry about with the weekly yoga class.