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Honestly I have had some online classes that I really should have complained about, but I ended up with an A and moved on. However, I really didn't learn any more than I could have learned from just reading the textbook. If I were looking for an easy job I'd try and become an online instructor, if my experiences are any indication of how much "work" must be done.
I am currently taking 2 classes online; one is an upper level sociology course and the other a psychology course. What a crazy difference in the two!
Sociology course has a "lecture" posted for each section, and a total of five exams/quizzes to make up the entire grade. The "lecture" just seems to be a document with some photos and is a basically a summary/ re-hash of the text material. The quizzes; first one was 10 questions, short answer, sent via email to the professor. The next 2 are multiple guess. Third is short answer, just TWO questions long. The final is a mix of multiple guess and some short answer.
I took the first quiz and got the following feedback from the professor via email: "Good. 40 points." (out of 40).
I have no reason not to expect an A in this course but there are no other assignments, no discussions, nada and I have not received an email from this professor yet that had more than five words in it. Unfortunately there were complications around registration time, I needed another sociology credit for my minor, and this was the only class left that didn't conflict with my in-person class schedule.
The psych class is a lower level course. There are five exams, a paper, a discussion question for each chapter (and you must also respond to classmates posts, two at minimum), a movie to watch, videos to be posted that are relevant to the course (shared with classmates but for a grade), a brochure to create, a flyer to create, and I have had several discussions back and forth with the professor both privately and on the public discussion board.
Incidentally I am taking the psych class via my community college and the sociology class through my four year university and paying about 4x as much for it. Oh, and my four year university charges an extra $150 "technology fee" for each online class.
For whatever reason, my university doesn't offer as many online classes as my community college did.. but even if I could take 90% of what I need online, I would not, because I wouldn't feel I was getting my money's worth!
I took a math class online once though and it was not as bad as I expected. Tests were taken in person, three or four total, and we had a window of three days to get to campus to do it. That was the hard part for me; remembering to go down there and I actually flunked it for that reason only. Awful. I have found I cannot do any sort of "hybrid". The class must be either 100% F2F or 100% online or I am certain to "forget" the online portion! I am taking one right now that is 95% face to face stuff but there are occasional online assignments and even though class meets 2x a week for an hour and 20 minutes each class, and all our exams are done in class, the professor never mentions/reminds anyone about the online stuff that is due. It's tough to remember and I don't see the point in having any internet "portion" in this case at all!
So, to anyone on City-Data, which do you prefer and why?
Online is better if you're busy and can't relocate to where the university is and live there on-campus and do the basic "undergrad dorm" life anymore. But for a first time undergrad straight out of high school, they NEED the on-campus experience. Grad school, not so much, but sometimes yes. Post-doctoral research in any of the sciences, yes definitely on-campus.
I've done classwork in absentia, but never online. I would miss the interaction with the instructor and classmates. Even in absentia, I would meet occasionally with the professor to show progress. (This was in graduate art school painting classes.)
I am completing my undergrad degree online from a real mortar/brick university in MA. Because I am an adult student with two kids and run a medical billing business from home it was more feasible for me to study online, each class is 6 weeks. Its my first class after being away from school for past 6-8 years and I want to dive in slowly. It will take me roughly 22 months to complete my degree in Healthcare Admin.
I have only needed classes for continued education in order to renew my teaching certificate.
For that, I likewise LOVE LOVE LOVE online classes: stay at home, complete the work in PJs, do easy work in that one can write the papers while skimming the material.
I love online!! I can do it whenever I want, no waste of time driving somewhere. No teachers babbling forever about their hobbies and other stuff I don't give a crap about.
Less group work. I can take a nap before I start an assignment and just the whole "I can do whenever I want" is super awesome. When I took evening class room classes before, I was either super tired from work or could hardly get up from my nap ...
I can finish my assignments early and then have the rest of the week "off".
LOVE IT!!
First I went to the community college for my AS. That sucked.
Then I went to Tiffin University for my bachelors in Legal Studies (it is a brick & mortar college with an online program) and will start my Masters at Penn State next week for my Human Resource and Employment Relations program.
My master's degree program is all online and I hate it, but it is free through my employer and is through a prestigious, nationally known university so I can't complain. I don't really feel like I learn any more than I would just reading a book.
The format of all the courses is one final paper, one final exam, and weekly readings where we need to answer two sets of questions, and also respond to at least 2 other posts in lieu of classroom discussion. Most classes also have a varying number of assignments to complete. It's really hard when many of my classmates (especially those taking the course as an elective who do not work in the industry) only answer the question based on the books and add no outside research or personal experience to the mix. The program is very career focused, so I might be more pleased by a more academic program with others with a similar mindset.
I much prefer face-to-face, on-campus, brick and mortar coursework at my level, which is graduate study. My program is nearly exclusively in-person coursework at an established, accredited brick-and-mortar university. They do not emphasize online/distance learning, and none of their graduate programs are designed as online programs.
I did have one totally online, essentially independent study, course in my first semester that was a prerequisite to being accepted to the program, and was only required of those of us coming in with a different undergraduate degree than the one we are seeking at the master's level. It was fine, but I prefer the in-person interaction with the instructor and classmates. I was less impressed by the quality of the course than with my other classes, which have all been in person, on campus (though many/nearly all do have online participation components as well, in addition to regular classroom time).
For that once class, one reason I found it to be of unimpressive quality was because it was essentially reading a comprehensive text and various selected case studies/peer-reviewed journal articles on my own and being tested on it/writing a series of short papers about the articles, involving some independent research...all things that really required no professional instruction. Yet, I obviously paid as much in tuition without reaping the benefits of any actual instructional time. I can read, and can synthesize the information I've read just fine on my own, but I don't really need to pay costly tuition for the privilege.
Instructor feedback was fairly minimal (mostly just the assigning of points), and so was "class discussion." There were only two other students in my section, taking the same online course at the same time, so class discussion consisted of reading each assigned unit of text, coming up with an original discussion question based on it (essay-exam quality question requiring critical thought and comprehension, not just basic recall of information in the text). You got a certain number of points for your question, and then a certain number of points for your responses to others' questions. Well, by midterm, one of the other two students had dropped, and by the end of the term, so had the other, so at the end, it was just the professor and I. So I had no discussion questions to answer, and no classmates with which to discuss anything. And "discussion" was kind of a misnomer. There was no back and forth, it was just "answer the person's question, get the points." No deeper conversations were spurred, like they would be in an in-person class. Everyone just did the bare minimum participation to get the points.
I get that all online-only classes are not necessarily like this, but as the one totally online class I've taken, I have to say that it was not that impressive. The content of the course was great and very comprehensive. The presentation method, not so much. I don't like the idea of being charged a not-insignificant amount of tuition for such a self-directed class, where the professor basically had to do nothing but choose a few assignments and grade my work. Give me something for the money you are charging me, if I'm to feel I'm actually getting my money's worth. Not a course that I could do on my own time for free if I borrowed the textbooks. I'm paying for your expertise, not self-guided independent study. This is not a problem in classes that meet in person regularly.
That said, I DO very much enjoy the parts of the program that incorporate effective use of technology/online components. Putting videos of lectures online when campus was closed due to weather conditions was nice, having supplemental information and materials available online versus having to go to the library/media center, being able to watch video segments at home versus in class for assignments, etc. are all useful. I also find that the online forum discussion method works well for me, for the classes where it's actually used well. I like being able to complete quizzes, tests, and exams online, and having a window for submission, so I can take them when I'm ready. But for the actual instructional, vs. assessment component, I much prefer in-person to online.
I would not do a completely online master's program. My program is very human-centered, to begin with, and meeting in person really supports that well, also (especially since many of the instructors are practitioners in the field, and their professional experience and the networking element are quite important). My program is geared for working adults (heavily geared for adults already working in the field), though there are a number of people just out of undergrad in it...many of them are working FT, too. So all classes meet in the evening, with the occasional Saturday courses being offered at the grad level. But it's not a "distance learning" school, by design.
I think that online classes make you figure out things yourself better. In a conventional class room, you just ask the professor if you have a question. online ... you think twice before you send an email, you try to figure things out yourself first.
You develop better problem solving skills, you learn to research, you learn to be more independent and you learn to manage your time better and to keep deadlines.
There is no just sitting in and dozing off while the teacher talks away. Every single minute you spend on online classes, are productive.
One thing I've noticed, being able to actually see and read my fellow students' assignments on discussion forums (whereas I wouldn't be privy to a response paper they handed in or similar), is the absolute bare minimum the majority of my classmates do. It's shocking, actually (as is their writing ability).
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and I'd always suspected, but seeing it in person really made it hit home. No wonder I've always done so well, if that's where the bar is.
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Awful. I have found I cannot do any sort of "hybrid". The class must be either 100% F2F or 100% online or I am certain to "forget" the online portion! I am taking one right now that is 95% face to face stuff but there are occasional online assignments and even though class meets 2x a week for an hour and 20 minutes each class, and all our exams are done in class, the professor never mentions/reminds anyone about the online stuff that is due. It's tough to remember and I don't see the point in having any internet "portion" in this case at all!
