online classes vs. actual class

cwsoxfan

cwsoxfan

Cathlete
I've finally decided to take the plunge and go back for my MA in Education. I have an undergraduate degree in mathematics with a secondary education certification. I've been doing some research and have discovered some programs which are all online. I never have to leave my house! That sounds like a good idea, especially since I have three young ones. However, I think that could also make it difficult to concentrate, study, etc. Can anyone offer pros and cons for online vs an actual class?

What worked for you and why? I'm really quite nervous about this, but excited at the same time. Maybe you can help ease my anxiety too. :)

TIA!

Dallas
http://www.picturetrail.com/chisoxfan
 
To me this would be a great option - I got the bulk of my BA credits not online, but from correspondence courses in the early '90's. I lived in the country where there were no schools within easy driving distance, so this was a wonderful option for me. I then finished at a local college that took the credits, and I went to school once a week for 14 months to finish up.

Needless to say, you have to be able to budget your time, but if you have time constraints to finish the classes, this should not be hard to do. I work very well on my own, so this worked out just fine for me. I say go for it!

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/musik/music-smiley-004.gif[/img]
 
For my undergrad, I took about all of my final 10 classes or so, online. It was a great option for me because I moved about an hour and a half drive from my school, plus my work hours were getting crazy. Here are my pros and cons. You will see that I have listed more cons than pros; however, in my opinion, the pros BY FAR outweigh the cons. I hate sitting in class and driving to/from class. I am one of those people with the mindset of "just give me the assignment, let me go home, and I'll pass the test with no problem!" Not everyone feels that way, so this is a very individual thing depending on your learning style and what motivates you.

PROS
-Save gas money.

-Save time...less driving time and no sitting in class time.

-No need to memorize material, as tests are all open-book (at least mine were). Just make sure you know how to quickly reference the material as most online exams are timed. Of course, you will still have a final exam that is taken onsite, most likely.

-No wasting time listening to instructors lecture - you cut to the chase and learn what you need to learn and then take the test (some may consider this a con).


CONS
-Lost networking opportunities with faculty and fellow students.

-If you sit at a computer all day at work, the last thing many of us want to do is sit at a computer some more.

-Assignments can sometimes be confusing, if the instructor isn't really good at giving you examples and coaching. I've had very good and just "OK" - never anyone terrible (thank goodness). But I have heard the horror stories.

-Frustration with computer crashing and/or internet service not working when you must download/upload an assignment. This is THE worst.

-More overall "work" to do (lots of writing but again, it's a trade off, since you don't really have to do much "memorizing").

-Must still do team assignments (at my college we did). So...it was hard to coordinate meeting times/locations with fellow students since the reason most of us were taking online courses in the first place was due to scheduling/location! This was VERY frustrating and I ended up doing assignments on my own with no help from my "team" a couple of times.

-Must be highly self directed and self motivated.



Dianna

http://www.picturetrail.com/Luv2WorkHard
 
Thanks Honeybunches for the vote of confidence. :)

Dianna, thanks for listing what the pros and cons were for you. I didn't think of some of those cons. Currently, I'm a SAHM. However, I thought this would be a good year to get started on my MA because two will be in school all day. My ds3 starts preschool, but just 2 days a week. For the one online program I looked into there are no tests. You do have to do group projects, however it's all done via the internet, e-mail, etc. There's an online classroom I would have to log into 4 times a day to "talk" about the topic of the day. There's an intro 3 week class. I can try that and if I really hate this "new" way I can go the "old" way. Thanks again.

I better decide soon...classes start in a month. ***biting my nails***;-)

Dallas
 
Online classes are often quite convenient and some are really academically rigorous. I personally like being in the classroom but I've done online when it made sense for me. My only real caution would be to make sure the institution is an accredited college/university. That means the courses meet accepted academic standards AND you can transfer those credits elsewhere. I'd be really wary of any "university" that is a solely online venture.

Good luck!
Marie
 
I have taken a few graduate courses that were a "hybrid" - that is we were required to meet 3 times in person in the classroom - the first class, a mid-term and a final- while all other work was done online.

The thing I disliked most about it was the discussion - I always want to just pipe up and talk in class while posting on a bulletin board (like this one) is much more tedious to me. However, I had never visited an online bulletin board before taking these classes. Since you are used to this format, it really shouldn't be a problem.

Dianna covered a lot of excellent points. My advice would be that you write your responses or anything you plan to post online in Word first and SAVE it, then copy and paste it into your message box. That way if there are technical problems with the Internet, you won't have to do everything over again.

Good Luck!
 
Thanks Marie and Lori Ann!

Good idea Lora Ann about saving my responses in Word. I'm so glad I posted this here. You all have come up with some great points to consider. :)

Marie, that was one of the first things I checked out - the accreditation. It does seem legit. My dh even double checked. The university does have actual locations. I just wouldn't need to travel to any of them! :) I'm waiting for the counselor to call from my undergrad university. I want to see what he has to say before I make a decision.

One more thing, holy smokes on the cost per credit hour now!!!! I **better** go back to school so we can afford to send our children to college!! Yikes!! :eek: I've also realized something (work outs, kids, school, running a household, etc.) will have to give when I start back to school. I guess my kids will have to go.....just kidding! :+ I sure hope I don't have to slack too much on my workouts!

Thanks again everyone!

Dallas
 
Yes, it works great and I have four kids. I absolutely love online classes because I can download the class session's and read them when it's convienent for me and do the homework when it's convienent for me. I wish I could take all of my courses online but some of them I have to be on campus for.

Also, the online courses I have taken so far I have had no complaints as far as the instructor answering posted question's or answering private email. My instructor's have always provided a phone number also but I've never needed to actually call because my question's were answered thoroughly on the classroom forum.

Goodluck to you and have fun!!
 
Sometimes it depends. Some school districts will not allow on line credits to accrediation. Some universities will give no or partial credits if you want to transfer. You might want to check the credit situation as well.
 
I completed my bachelors in class and my masters online. Even though there were definitely things I liked about being in class, if I had to do it again I would go the online route. It allowed me the flexibility I needed since I was working full-time. I felt like I got a lot out of it because you learn so much on your own. There were times I found it hard to concentrate, but I would have the same problems doing homework when I actually had to go to class. I had some medical issues come up that required two seperate surgeries and a lot of down time and if I had been in class it would have definitely interferred with my schedule, but since I was attending online I had no problem continuing my education. I was hesitant at first, but it was one of the best decisions I made regarding continuting my education.:D :D
 
Hey Dallas!

I got my master's degree before the days of online anything, but a gal I work with got hers online a couple of years ago and so I asked her for her input:

I received (what I considered) a better education than in the traditional classroom for my undergraduate. This was because I was “forced” to do the work. You couldn’t sit back listening to lectures and receiving a grade on attendance and writing a paper based on what I heard in a lecture and skimming through a book. I HAD to do the research, read the book, work with a team to submit a project. Honestly, it was A LOT of work but VERY worthwhile.

Here are the pros:

I feel I learned more
I was able to immediately apply what I learned
Learning times were flexible
I could choose how much I wanted to get out of the class
Resources were more readily available

Here are the cons:

Scheduling my studies around my husband and daughters schedules … honestly, I got up at 4:00am or would stay up late doing the work

Disciplining myself to get the work done

Anyway, I would recommend this to anyone as long as they knew the cons. I really liked the on-line option.

Dallas - hope that helps and good luck!

Suz

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

http://www.picturetrail.com/dogs2birds
 
Thank you ladies!!! Online is looking like it's the way to go. I just need to look into a few more things. A teacher friend said I should contact our local district office to get some input about the online program. Another great idea!

Suz, thanks for asking your friend. How's the cycling going? Still putting in all those crazy miles. ;-) I'm loving the spin classes I've been taking.

Thanks for all your help and good luck wishes! :)

Dallas
 
I have found that some instructors tend be lazy in online instruction whereas in person they may be less inclined to take such shortcuts. I recall one instructor who would often take weeks before logging in to work with students, post assignments, etc. Another always wanted students to post questions to the message board rather than answer them himself whether or not the question was appropriate for class discussion or not. I also had an online instructor who was fabulous and who I still keep in touch with on occasion.
I would recommend you find out what student resources are available to you as on online student, particularly library resources (electronic reference tools, databases, etc) if you plan on doing research or need to write papers. Not everything is available via the Internet. All the best! :)
 
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