This semester is the first time I have ever taken an online class. To be completely honest I don’t know how much I like it compared to being in the classroom. This got me thinking: What do other student’s think about taking online classes? And how do the teachers feel about them as well?
After talking to a few student’s and professor’s at Montana Tech I came to the conclusion that most of the opinions were the same with a few exceptions.
For students the overall thought of online classes is that they suck, to put it bluntly.
“My opinion of online classes is that they are a lot harder than a regular class. You don’t have a teacher right there to explain their lectures. If you have a question, you have to email your professor and it could sometimes take a few days for them to respond. It is up to you to check all the assignments and updates online and i feel like if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. I took online statistics and failed it... now I’m in the real class and i have an "A",” Said Cody Doyle, a student at Montana Tech in the Biology department. He is not the only one that thinks that way about these classes. Jessica Stratton thinks “We pay money for them to teach us and with online classes we have to teach ourselves and therefore don’t learn anything from it.”
On the other hand there are students that really like having the availability to take these classes. Ginger Singer, a senior in PTC says “I like online classes. This semester I had a hard time scheduling my classes because most of my classes conflicted. I was able to take Human Resource Management online which saves me the hassle of coming up to tech and I am able to take more credits because it doesn't conflict. If it weren't for this class being offered online I would have troubles fitting in all my credit before I graduate.” This also seems to be the only reason that students like online classes, because of the convenience.
One of the professors that I asked said that he has never taught an online class before but has had the discussion with his students got a mixed in return. Like mentioned above he found that the students like the convenience of being able to do it on their own time. Yet the students missed the face-to-face interactions with the teachers. Henry Gonshak puts it, “Basically, on-line classes seem to work best when the student is already pretty well-versed in the subject. If, on the other hand, the student is a beginner, and pretty baffled by the material, then traditional classes work better.”
Pat Monday, an instructor in the PTC department gave a very insightful opinion from a professor’s point of view.
“A good web-based course requires an enormous amount of “front-loading” ... Course documents, readings, lecture notes, assignments, grading sheets, and other course materials need to be assembled, converted to a good usable format, and organized into a file structure easy for students to navigate. All this needs to be done before the course even begins.
Once the course begins, the day-to-day maintenance of a web-based course is also more labor intensive than a traditional course. Student communications need to be answered , updated course materials need to be posted (often involving deleting, renaming, and re-ordering old files), and glitches with external links and navigation problems need to be dealt with— all in a timely manner (ideally within 24 hours; two days at most).
Once the course begins, the day-to-day maintenance of a web-based course is also more labor intensive than a traditional course. Student communications need to be answered , updated course materials need to be posted (often involving deleting, renaming, and re-ordering old files), and glitches with external links and navigation problems need to be dealt with— all in a timely manner (ideally within 24 hours; two days at most).
For several semesters, I compared outcomes from two sections of Professional Ethics—one web-based and one traditional. The course materials, assignments, goals, etc for the two sections were identical. On the midterm exam and course papers, grades were significantly higher for the web-based course. This was, I believe, in part due to self-selection: students who choose a web-based course tend to be more highly motivated & more engaged students—what we call “active learners.” “
So there is no real answer to whether it is better to take an online class just by asking around. You should judge this for yourself, who know maybe taking an online class would be easier for you rather than sitting there listening to a lecture.
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