Have you taken any online courses?

Can we define online courses a bit more.

I have done ones at a community college and at a university. Both were accredited and counted just as much as normal classes.

Then you have the online crap like the University of Phoenix which pretty much means your resume goes right in the bin.

Oh man. The net has been a godsend for this. I did most of my annual CEU courses online as a nurse for 23 years—those subjects that were purely academic. I did a couple of CEUs meant for cops and teachers using friends’ accounts. Some schools give promotional freebies so professionals will use them. I’m curious about what they are taught. Took a tutorial in photoshop. Am doing piano now. It’s quite rigorous and it is timed and graded. Did an architectural drawing course a few years ago to train in perspective.

I’ve taken history courses from both Harvard and Yale. They have been allowing the public to audit some of their courses for free for some time now—So, I can say that I’ve studied at Harvard and Yale! LOL. Johns Hopkins as well. I’ve attended a couple of online writer’s conferences over the years. I’ve done a few others that I can’t recall at the moment.

Oh, and I learn magic tricks from YouTube all the time, if that counts. I volunteer at a local clinic here, giving inoculations to children from time to time. They love my magic tricks. LOL. Then ZING! Painless intramuscular. They always have such a shocked look on their faces. Just call me painless.

I don’t think the writer’s conferences were all that useful, but they were interesting and I did learn a bit about the marketing game. But it was mostly for wannabees who want to talk about writing more than they want to write. The courses I’ve actually paid for were well worth it. But I don’t do these things to enhance my resume anymore. Those days are over, thank god. I do these things for me now.

^^Good to know that it really helped you..) @johnpowell – Any kind of courses be it for academic purposes / learning new languages / musical instrument etc.

I just finished an online continuing studies course from Stanford university. It was pretty cool.

I took one distance learning course for university credit. I’m pretty sure I’d know a lot more about the subject had it been in the classrom. I see online classes as supplementing real courses. I have to get continuing education credits periodically and I do most of them online. If you are talking about “online degrees” like university of phoenix it’s a waste of time and money. Honestly no degree is more marketable than one from an online degree mill.

Yes, most of my courses have been online including two degrees. I am currently still studying (I never give up) online once again. I have no issue with it and would probably have had no education apart from high school if I hadn’t! (Although I guess the degrees would be classified as distance learning, can’t remember, I’m getting old!)

Two.

One was extremely well done, contact with the instructor, relevant exercises – you could see that he had taken the time to think out the educational process and have everything fit together. (Economics class)

The other was barely acceptable. The lectures were good enough, but the assignments/exercises were poor, not really relevant. And it was like pulling teeth to get contact with the instructor with questions and clarifications. (This was an advanced history / area studies course).

So… mixed experiences. If put together well, then the online and distance learning can be successful and worthwhile. If not put together well, it’s frustrating and disappointing.

@imrainmaker I did all of my CEU courses online as a CPhT certified pharmacy technician. It was really great.

I have. However I really missed the give and take of a classroom. I also realized that on tests you can get the answer from the internet just by typing in the question.:( from that aspect I don’t think the students who do that learn nearly as much.