Have you ever taken an online college course?

From my experience that is just about what online classes have been like. There are video lectures to watch and reading to do. Then you do your assignments and submit them online. If you’re lucky, you’ll have an instructor that’s good about getting back to you in a decent amount of time when you have a question. We also had online discussions, but they were hit or miss.

I’ve been taking online classes for almost 2 years now and I have no intention to do it again after I’m finished this summer. I miss being in a classroom and interacting with everyone else. I’m grateful that this program exists and that I’m getting my BSN. The rest of my education will be in a classroom though.

I’ve never taken one and wouldn’t. For me, interaction with others is a very important element of learning… being able to express myself to the teacher and to my classmates and get their feedback… listening to their ideas and giving THEM feedback. BTW, the best class I ever took was as an adult… a short story writing course. I was considerably older than the teacher and actually was earning my living as a writer. I was the star of the class! Can’t get that on no sinkin’ Website. (I got an A+, plus got one of my stories published.)

Five years ago I took a “distance learning” course called Arts, Ideas, and Values in the Humanities department of a local community college. It was interactive in a number of ways, although nothing like a course taught in a classroom with a live instructor.

Yes, there were workbook-type assignments based on the reading. There were also regularly scheduled live “chat” sessions with the instructor present online, going over the material and engaging students in back-and-forth discussions. There was a bulletin-board feature in which students could start discussion threads on any course-related topic, and everyone was required to post so many times per week. This counted as class participation. And we could also post questions to the instructor for answering to the group as a whole.

There were several open-book quizzes before the final, an active assignment (something we had to go out and do and then report on), and a term paper.

Even though I’d rather have real lectures and discussion in a classroom, this course worked very well for me at a time when I couldn’t travel to campus. And I did get an A+ in it.

I go to school online. We have “facilitators” not teachers, which is appropriate because what they do is facilitate. You have access to all the materials you could want or need (at least with my school). But the vast majority of it is teaching yourself and writing papers.

Ah! That’s what I was afraid of…..well, the class room is only 20 minutes away, but I’d have to work in the evenings after work. So, I probably won’t have much choice. I’m going to double check to see if they have evening courses, but I doubt it…..

I am teaching my first on-line course and it is different. I recorded a video lecture for the students to watch even though it’s not required, but only one of the student watched it. I prefer to teach in the class room but I am surprised at the motivation of the students, they are getting the material fairly well.