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38 Comments
- gharding, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Most of my grad-student friends took online courses over the summer. A couple evenings a week out of your summer and have a lighter courseload during the school year (or get done quicker), so why not. If I ever decide to actually go to college, I'm quite certain online courses is the only way I'd go.
- awm4, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Of course, you don't have to stop drinking during class. What college student isn't up for this?
- kolobcreek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Online classes gain popularity because it sucks to spend 1.5hrs getting to a 45min class.
- Celeron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I can see why your Indian English instructor gave you such advice. Clearly, your sentence structure in your comment is horrendous.
- Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6In my experience the universities (or at least the teachers) seem to want to punish you for taking web courses, making the lessons harder, the deadlines shorter, and the examinations more stringent but all arbitrarily so it doesn't actually raise the bar. That's why I don't take them anymore, they seem punitively biased. But that is just what I have seen.
- wormhole, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I hold down a full time job while taking two classes a semester to finish my degree. There's no way I could do my 9-5 workday without the online option. Online classes are a godsend as far as I'm concerned. No need to block out chunks of my week to attend anywhere - I can do my work when I have the time to, and email the instructor at my leisure with questions. It's very nice.
- Lounger540, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5If you ever did study at a major research university and took classes in CS, math, or physics you would take his comments as more as statements of frustration of fact than racism. Universities are too quick to throw any one in the class room as long as they keep getting those research grants, and the students suffer. Sadly even more prevalent in the harder majors. Which in the future will only make us all suffer. I've had to switch and mangle so many schedules just because I had to spend more time translating than learning in half my classes. It's unfortunate.
Online classes do rock though, great GPA boosters. - mhockey14221, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Whats so wrong with his comment?
If you cant understand someone, you probably wont do well in their class. Accents are hard for most people to understand. I have alot of foreign professors, and while theyre no less smart than my American ones, theyre still hard to understand.
So screw you, you politically correct bastards. - Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7My finance professor is Indian and he makes the other teachers look like morons, I think you might just have a bias (just a hunch).
- spc2226, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I have been taking one online class / quarter. It helps to free up alot of time in my schedule and makes it easier to get through electives you don't really want to take but have to.
- growler1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I teach online. It can't replace the actual classroom experience, but it has its merits (as others in this thread have pointed out) in that you can study, work full time, and tend to your family all at once.
The downside for many traditional students (read: young) is that you have to be a self-motivator and highly disciplined for your experience to rival that of real-time classroom instruction.
I like it, but technical difficulties like server crashes, spam filters, and email flubs generally make it more challenging than classroom instruction. Just my perspective. - rnelsonee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4With grad school especially. I'm now taking grad classes online because I still need to work 40 hours a week, and I don't like having hard schedules like my other coworkers that take classes the traditional way. With traditional classes, it's typically 3 hours, plus the commute, for one night for each class. So that's pretty much two weeknights wasted, or a weeknight and most of Saturday, not to mention all the coursework, which is 5-10 hours per class. I work just as much with online courses, but I can switch which days are my 'work' days and which ones are for doing other things.
It's hard to judge how much I'm learning as compared to my undergrad though - they're two different programs at different schools. But I will say I'm glad I did my undergrad the traditional way. I mean, you're in college. It's not like you don't have time to go to class (unless you need to work 20+ hours a week, which is understandable - I'm mostly talking about people living on campus, and not having any sort of 'real' job). And you usually have to keep track of more courses and assignments in undergrad, so it's good to have a schedule going. - dtemp, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Agreed. I take online courses, and I find it to give me more time to do other things. Plus, it is easier to get ahead in the class in case you have plans.
- tkwill, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@itguru624
I'm sure you'll do well with your degree - since you are so open minded and well spoken.
(Your English ain't so great either.) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Maybe you might want to read the article, or even the title, before you comment; it states "_More_ College Students Taking Web Courses."
- Rachmaninoff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I wish my college had more online or hybrid classes. I'm taking a Marketing class that meets once a week for an hour and 15 minutes. Then later in the week we have online work that allows me to finish it when I'm able to find the time.
It would be especially nice to get the general education classes out of the way during the summer, online. I realize the importance of a well-rounded education, but some of the required courses (Intro. to University) are "no-duh." - Homunculiheaded, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I just finished up going taking 2 grad class a semester while working full time at a regular brick and morter institution. I'd have to say that, while I do feel that for certain classes online would be fine, for the most part the thing that made my graduate work the most valuable was talking to other students that were interested in similar things to me. I've met a lot of professional contacts through school that I feel I'll keep in touch with for the rest of my career. In addition many of my professors where adjuncts working for reputable institutions in the area, talking, in-person, with them had helped me to make a lot of valuable connections.
I have taken online courses in the past and they were okay, but you're just not as committed to the work and there isn't same sense of community. - kelway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah - I always thought that was hilarious: the idea that you could approximate a public speaking course online. A local college in my area requires "3 speeches in a public setting to be recorded and submitted".
I can see taking the time stretching a step further by panning to an imported studio audience and then back to me alone in my living room. - WhiskerTheMad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The reason for this is that online universities have outrageously high academic/reporting requirements. There's a perception in govt. and accrediting bodies that online = slackass (in comparison to a brick-and-mortar), so they have to crank up the difficulty accordingly. Some of the screwball professors i had in college and the stupid ***** they pulled in their courses would *never* fly at an online university.
- Merkidemis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I dunno, I took 3 online classes at my local tech school and the experience was the worst in my learning career.
First, the online classes cost more then the traditional ones. Not a lot, but still. Shouldn't they have cost less?
Secondly, all the classes seemed like an afterthought, not a serious class. Everything was pretty much just "read the book we had you buy, then take this test." No supplemental materials, no additional content.
Third, the teachers were awful. I got the impression that they either had no training on how to run an online class, or simply didn't care. Professors would vanish for WEEKS at a time. No responses to emails, no replies on the message boards, etc. Apparently with one this wasn't the first time this had happened, so we actually filed a complaint with the school. It was always excuses, and all hard to believe. Voice mail, the message boards, the school email, and even her own Yahoo email account were all inaccessible at the same time? Come on! (This, apparently after talking to other students, happened EVERY SEMESTER!) Non of the students had a single problem, nor did my other profs. Most of the time, she'd be gone and unresponsive when the due dates for project drew near. An example: We were to turn in a rough draft of a project a week before the actual project due date. Once submitted, we didn't hear anything back from her for 11 days. I didn't pay $300 to read a book and be ignored.
Lastly, the school had no guidelines on the formatting of online content, so at the start of every class, you had to spend at least an hour just learning where everything was at on their crappy ass site.
I'd hope that other online classes are better, but this was absolutely terrible. I'll never take another online class from that school again. - WhiskerTheMad, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Full-length movies? Are you serious? In all my years of college, I saw a full-length movie in class only once, and all I learned from it was that I hate Tennessee Williams, even on film.
And don't fool yourself into thinking that online makes cheating any easier. If you think that more than half the essays you're getting back in the classrom were actually written by the students turning them in, you're probably fooling yourself.
Are there downsides to being online? Yes, but not as many as you'd think *if it's done right.* With the right tools/people (ie. not indoctrinated by traditional classroom learning), the benefits of distance learning vastly outweigh the minimal compromises. - DonCarcharo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've got about a hundred credits under my belt but no degree. This hasn't mattered much to me since I started my own business before I finished college and never really needed the degree. However the older I get the more I wish I had a degree - if for nothing else the personal satisfaction of having one.
With that in mind I applied to a few colleges and weighed my options. In the end I went with an online school, ironically just today actually. I picked The New York Institute of Technology (Ellis).
Although I've only worked through the demo courses I have to say that for people in my position, an online school just seems to make sense. At this stage I don't require as much hands-on, in the classroom experience as I would have 10 years ago when I first started. Online classes are convenient, they fit my schedule and I get to work at my own pace (which, with 10 years under my belt, could vary widely). Best of all I don't have to feel like the old guy in class.
So while the structure of online might not work for everyone, it certainly has its place. And I can see why it's becoming more popular. - kanukii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I took on-line courses four years ago as part of a project at college as an experiment in on line courses. The project was a complete flop because the on line course was not so much a course, but an on line book, and when a student would run into problems, there were no instructors at all for support.
From what I have seen now on line courses are more interactive and support in the course is easily accessible. The whole experience has been refined to benefit the student more, instead of just cutting costs. - s3an86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ive taken several classes online, but not by choice. Virginia Tech apparently doesn't like paying for math professors, so they make us teach ourselves. I'm all for taking random electives online, but Id like a teacher to actually teach me the material when its something I'm going to need to know in the future.
- Callaway7, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Having taught both traditional and web classes at a 4yr State University, I can safely say in my experience, web classes deprive students of the educational value they're paying for. Even with streaming video, Blackboard/WebCT, podcasts, etc there's a lot a student misses out on.
-In class discussions
-Full length movies to enhance the topics
-Follow-up help with the Instructor
As per being an Instructor, it takes a tremendous amount of work to put transform a traditional class to a complete online course. And very rarely, does the finished product come close to the classroom product. Granted the subject / instructor does play a major role, but I would be very surprised if the majority of students who took a class in their field of study over the web vs in a classroom would find themselves more enriched thanks to the web course.
Another issue is cheating. Even with essay format exams, cheating is going to occur much much more and the urge to do so will be much greater. The means to cheat will be much easier.
And in the end, it hurts the student, which hurts the University, which hurts societ. - geezusfreeek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Good news for me. I work for my university's distance learning department (redesigning the web site with all the course materials, videos, etc.), and the more money we rake in, the more my wages will go up!
- biometricks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1When I was back in college some of my friends took online public speaking classes. The class was pretty much a joke, they had to record their speeches and then email them to the professor... so they would just would tinker with the audio and slow it down a bit to add 20 or 30 seconds to the speech.
- kelway, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I speak from experience with online courses (3 years worth) and I wholly agree. They have to tailor the tests in a way that always allows for open book -- because they know even the honest will be tempted to cheat from the comfort of their living room. At my University (UMass Lowell) at least, proctored exams are the exception.
So, long story short, I believe the exams you receive in online courses require you to go to greater lengths to prove your knowledge of a subject. No multiple choice to be had. - Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3No clothes either
- ETurner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0It is much easier to play World of Warcraft when you don't have to leave your dorm room.
- Aero1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1hey *****, more college students have been taking online courses since 1997. its like saying more 17 year olds are beginning to drive! your an idiot.
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Wait... you DIDN'T drink during class??
You must not have been in engineering. - Aero1, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4this is new? i took online courses in 1998 in college.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Your comment makes baby Jesus cry :'o(
- EmmSee, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4This is about as predictable a trend as the decline in CRT monitor use.
- crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -10/+5***** you itguru624. Racist *****.
- itguru624, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2@ artifez Yeah, Some of the Indian teachers were ok. The Calculus teacher was brilliant, but no one could understand him. I had a few teachers at peirce that were foreign, but I can understand clear text. Just a preference.
@ crawlfish boo hoo! :''-( - itguru624, on 10/12/2007, -25/+5I did my BS in BS at Peirce college in Philadelphia. I did that this way i didn't need to speak another language to understand my ***** teachers. Every teacher I had at temple were in this country for twenty minutes before they started teaching. They wondered why everyone drops the class in favor of a regular teacher. I don't know what was worse advanced calculus at temple with dr himiabalba kimanbobnee (actual name) or trying to get something at 711. There isn't an accent in clear text. My English teacher was from India. He had the ***** balls to tell me that my paper lacked structure. I told him to go ***** himself and speak English before you even dare teach me. ***** dot-heads
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