Did you like taking on line classes?

[redguard57]

We did a survey of the students at my college asking them this question. The results were:

50% prefer in-person classes
10% prefer all-online classes
40% prefer a mix of in-person and online*

*We're not exactly sure how the students interpreted "mix," but based on what most instructors were doing - this meant live instruction and online assignments.

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

After a 30 year layoff from High School, I'm currently in my 3rd semester working on an AAT to eventually transfer to acquire a Bachelor's in History for teaching. I've done both in-person and online classes and I can honestly say I prefer the traditional classroom version.

The Spring semester was split between in-person classes until Spring Break and then everything went online because of The Black Death. None of my professors were versed in online classes so they were learning on-the-job and redesigning their classes on the fly, so yes, there were many hiccups, link-up issues, bad links for research and honestly it was a complete waste of time. If you barely showed up and put forth the minimum effort, your grade at the midterm was the grade you got for the class. You could improve, but not fall down into failureland. The one class that converted into a twice-weekly Zoom class was embarrassing...1/4 of the class would show up, 90% of them wouldn't even turn on cameras or participate for anything in the class. Papers submitted were rubber-stamped 100% so you don't really know if you did a good job or not. Honestly, the same things were done with tests...I know I missed some questions for my math class exams yet every one came back with perfect scores.

Currently the 2 classes I'm taking this Summer are designed to be online by instructors versed in virtual classes. One of them is even a mandatory Educational Technology class I need for my specific degree (irony rating 100)...and yet these classes have the same issues that the others did; Bad Prep, reference links go nowhere, no way to submit what the professor wants the way that they ask for it, etc. Taking quizzes and chapter tests are nothing more than using the internet to find your answer via the quizlet website since 95% of the questions are taken DIRECTLY from those pages.

Although you can't see other student's scores for assignments, quizzes and tests, you can see the class average, high and low scores along where you placed in the mix. Even assignments and video quizzes with unlimited attempts, you have a majority of the class not acing these assignments, with some even getting 7%s out of 100%...yes that's right, a 7% on an assignment that you could easily retake with unlimited attempts without any penalty.

Do you learn taking online classes? Only if you are VERY serious. There are PLENTY of students in both graduate and post-graduate work that do actually learn from online classes because they know what they want and are focused. We've seen a good sample of those in this thread. Besides that, it is VERY EASY to go through the motions, and never learn a thing while acquiring a degree, even by participating in traditional brick & mortar classes. Ever asked yourself how a college graduate could not know basic general knowledge like who we fought in WWII, the difference between they're, there and their, or how to make change for a dollar? Now, you have your answer. Yes, you do need to be somewhat serious for in-person classes, but usually for those every test isn't an open-book one with the availability of the resources of the Internet at your beck and call when final time rolls around.