How're online classes? Should I take one?

Organichu

I'm registered to start my freshman year at a CC in a couple of weeks. I'm majoring in CS and planning to transfer to a four year school after my sophomore year.

I just received this email from my programming professor:

Hello everyone,

I'm sending this message to all students registered for CSCI 111, section 001 for the Fall.

We are opeing a new 10-week online section of the course because the current sections are full. The new section will be available for registration in a few days. I am looking for a few students willing to switch to the new section. If you would like to do so, then please let me know.

The current sections meets for 5 hours per week for 14 weeks (plus the final exam). The new section is online, The sections cover exactly the same material. I am the instructor for both sections.

This would certainly make it easier for me to work more hours while in school. Is this a bad idea? I've always mentally associated online classwork with either working professionals doing their MBA or with kind of crummy for-profit schools.

Is the online class experience an ok one?

noir_blood

I did an online class last semester as part of my teaching degree. Now, this particular class was focused on technology in the classroom(using forums, web pages, etc), so I imagine it was a better fit than other classes are going to be, but here's my take away;

Only do it if you feel comfortable with the subject and are motivated to work. Since you don't have to go to class, it's up to you when you want to read the lessons and do the work- the way mine was set up was that every Thursday a lesson plan would show up, which was usually some required reading, followed by a quiz over the reading, and maybe a writing assignment or blog post. Everything was due by next Thursday. So in a way, it was nice to be able to dictate my own schedule on when to do stuff, but there was once or twice when I got everything done on a Thursday night.

While the teacher certainly made herself open to any questions, I saw a lot of people that were constantly confused by the lesson or instructions. I can imagine taking another online class for say, English or History, subjects I'm normally good at, but I would never take a math class online, as I generally need help and tutoring on that subject.

Melinoe

Yeah, it really depends on you. I took some theater play analysis class online and like noir_blood it was "do this reading, take quiz by x date, turn in essay by x date" etc. there was also mandatory participation in forum discussion but it wasn't all that much and I doubt that you'd have to do that in a CS class, but obviously I don't know for sure.

I also took a C++ class during my first CC semester and it ended up being almost like an online class; the teacher was terrible and listening to him was not at all helpful, and he said that we only HAD to show up to class to turn in homework and do tests, so I did that and basically taught myself, and it turned out alright. If this is a beginner class then you would probably be alright, and even if it isn't you'd still probably be alright.

If you're interested I'd say email the professor to see if you can get them to tell you how the class is gonna work. Then you have a better idea of what to expect instead of just jumping in blind.

Thundyrkatz

in my experience, on line classes are a lot more work. Because there is no classroom component, the professors often require you to do a lot more busy work. In my case, there were on line discussion components, where every week you had to sing in x number of times over separate days and contribute to the conversation. Often times, this was difficult to do as many people waited to the last possible moment to post, or did not post very much making adding to the discussion difficult.

Also, there was a group project that we had to do, which was extra awful because we never met face to face.

Lastly, there is very little interaction from the professor in my experience. So, if this is a topic that you don't know much about. or if you are uncomfortable with the idea of basically teaching yourself the material, then on line may nit be you best option.

Essee

Thundyrkatz wrote: »

In my case, there were on line discussion components, where every week you had to sing in x number of times over separate days and contribute to the conversation. Often times, this was difficult to do as many people waited to the last possible moment to post, or did not post very much making adding to the discussion difficult.

Usually what I've seen in my classes that have an online discussion component like this is a lot of people not responding to other people so much as just posting their own personal opinion (in their own words) as if the other posts don't exist. Occasionally there's a good opportunity to respond directly to other people's posts as well because they posted something interesting, but usually not. We all still got credit because we were discussing the topic. Your mileage may vary I guess?

Thundyrkatz wrote: »

Also, there was a group project that we had to do, which was extra awful because we never met face to face.

That's hilariously stupid. I don't think any of my classes that were strictly online had any group projects (unless you consider online discussion to be one). It's just common sense that something like that wouldn't work well when you probably won't even meet anyone to influence your decision on who to group with.

Anyway, online classes aren't for everyone, but they can certainly work fine. As previously stated, you need to be diligent about doing the work because it's very easy to slack off and have to rush to finish at the last minute. Also, if there's any optional stuff that the instructor puts up that isn't part of your grade, I highly recommend you do it anyway in order to reinforce your knowledge of the subject, because it's harder to keep everything in your head when you're not attending lectures. You might also find it a little harder to remember the material without hearing/seeing a lecture and taking notes (because those things majorly help with retention of the material). At any rate, it seems like you'll be getting pretty much the same material from the instructor online as you would from his/her lectures, so just make sure you ALWAYS ask questions if you have any. Not asking enough questions is already a problem for face-to-face classes, and it's only compounded when you're taking the class online. Since you're obviously still physically close to the school, try to attend office hours and/or any free tutoring locations on campus (assuming there's someplace on campus that helps out CS students) when you can, for the same reason.

I've taken online classes and done fine, but it kind of depends on the subject and how you handle the class, I'd say. I wouldn't necessarily say online classes are more work, but they do sometimes require different work (like the discussion stuff, but I doubt that would happen in a CS class).

Effef

Depends on the class. I wouldn't recommend you do a very difficult class online, as you mostly have to teach yourself and if you don't have the motivation it can go very wrong very quickly. For instance, I am taking a Comp. Tech A+ class right now online but I know that shit like the back of my hand so I don't really even need to try. Something like Biology online? Hell to the fuck no. I need a classroom for that.

As a freshman, I would recommend you not do them. You need to get out and get a feel for being in college and all that entails and you might not have the motivation to do everything you need too to pass an online class.

japan

Depends on the class, and the programme.

I'm finishing my degree entirely with online classes (Physics and Maths through The Open University), and the experience has been pretty good.

Most OU classes follow a pattern of having a textbook or two, a recommended schedule for reading, a few computer-marked assignments and a few tutor marked assignments, plus a final exam. They also run tutorial sessions via video/audioconferencing software, you have an assigned tutor you can contact via email or IM (mine is based at CERN!), and there's a web forum for the people in the class to talk about assignments and such.

Basically what I'm getting at is that the classes will be as good as the institution running them and the resources they make available. It sounds like in this case there will be a single instructor tackling a full class and an additional online component, which (depending on what the rest of their workload is like) may mean they're a little stretched. You also may not be able to access them if you want to speak to them one-on-one as easily as you would if you were in a physical class and can catch them at the end for two minutes to arrange to meet. You probably want to find out a bit more about how the course is structured and what the support structure is like.

With regard to studying online in general, beware of long courses where new material builds on material from earlier in the course. It is really, really, easy to let yourself fall behind, and the last thing you want is to leave yourself trying to take in a large amount of material in a short space of time. Also, because you noted that it would leave you able to work more hours. That's fine, but you do need to schedule in the time to do this stuff somewhere, you can't simply have it occupy whatever "free time" you have on an ad hoc basis. Trying to do nothing but work and study is not sustainable for any length of time.

DemonStacey

Thundyrkatz wrote: »

in my experience, on line classes are a lot more work. Because there is no classroom component, the professors often require you to do a lot more busy work. In my case, there were on line discussion components, where every week you had to sing in x number of times over separate days and contribute to the conversation. Often times, this was difficult to do as many people waited to the last possible moment to post, or did not post very much making adding to the discussion difficult.

Also, there was a group project that we had to do, which was extra awful because we never met face to face.

Lastly, there is very little interaction from the professor in my experience. So, if this is a topic that you don't know much about. or if you are uncomfortable with the idea of basically teaching yourself the material, then on line may nit be you best option.

This here is an interesting point and where it really depends on you. If you're the kind of person who doesn't glean a lot from the class work and/or feel like you know everything they are teaching you, online classes are usually awesome becasue you can skip out on the whole book reading and boring/annoying classrom discussions. Just take the tests as they pop up and move on with your life.

If this doesn't sound like you... then I cannot help!

Darkewolfe

This also hugely depends on the professor. A friend of mine doing some graduate work online had a professor who simply didn't understand anything about the internet, at all. A submission form for their class assignments went down one night, but the professor didn't understand what this meant and handed out failing grades for the assignment to most of the class.

Jimmy King

Yeah, as others say, it really depends on you, the school, and the teacher. I take as many of my Gen Ed classes online as possible - I've done Music Appreciation, Art History, and Intro To Sociology online. These are classes that in class would have had a lot of dull (to me) lecture, written assignments, and possibly a presentation or two. By taking them online I read the book when I feel like it (but you DO have to MAKE yourself do it and say "I will do this at X" and hold yourself to it), had no presentations to give in front of a class, and written assignments were probably a bit simpler because they were handled as forum posts. With working full time as well, having one less place I have to be at a certain time is also almost always easier. The downside in my experience is that you can't immediately ask a teacher a question and get a response, sometimes this slows things up quite a bit. My teachers all also taught in person classes where, based on test questions, they clearly talked about things that were not covered as well in the book and gave their own viewpoints on the subjects and included that stuff on the test. That made some of the tests harder than they really should have been.

Problems like Darkewolfe mentioned are common as well. I have had tests which counted correct answers as incorrect, links to other websites for more information given with bad urls, etc. because even though the teacher taught online classes they really were not comfortable or familiar with the internet or the software the school uses for managing online classes.

lessthanpi

Having taught a few online math classes it appears to me the format only works for things like writing classes and history classes.

The overall experience is so diminished with technical fields that its nearly worthless. I think there's potential in this kind of format, but we're just not there yet.

You also have the potential to run into trouble in terms of transfer credits. I've heard of several colleges that simply don't accept online classes for transfer and won't accept any subsequent traditionally formatted classes that have the online course as a prerequisite. Granted these were mostly private engineering schools, but its still something to consider.

Organichu

hmmm, thanks for the feedback y'all

i think i've decided to stick with the traditional course format

appreciated!

Rikushix

This has been more or less said already, but depending on the content taking an online course may be detrimental if you really rely on extrinsic motivation to work. Sometimes, without the physical act of going into a lecture, you can start to slack. It's quite easy to do so.

That being said, I took a few years of computer engineering and a CS course is the kind of thing that is more suited to online teaching rather than some other subjects. If you feel it suits your personality, why not give it a try?

edit: Sorry, didn't see your last response! Good luck

The Walrus

Good call on the traditional format, I tried both and just could not get into the message board format of the internet courses (which I am stating on a message board of course). Getting there wasn't a problem though!

Mr.Ritz

They can be ultra easy or ultra hard depending on college and professor. Some professors really feel the need to assign busy BS work which feels like to punish you for not going to class. This seems to happen in classes that are ultra easy where you would otherwise hardly need to open the book. For ultra easy classes like Intro classes etc I like to take them in a compressed format such as 6 weeks.

Honestly I feel ripped off taking online classes. I am paying for the college experience and interaction which you just dont get online. My college even charges 100 more per class for server upkeep lol