Online classes - pros and cons

I am currently attending Athabasca University, which is a primarily online University located in Canada. I am obtaining my Bachelors of Science degree, with a Major in Biology. I absolutely love the aspect of online classes. My favorite part is that because you are not on the semester schedule, so you have the ability to complete your degree much faster than most students. Self paced work has always been best for me, as I like to get the work done, and then quickly move on to the next assignment. If I finish something early, and then have to wait two weeks for the next class to start, as you sometimes do on a regular school schedule, I become distracted, and lose my motivation. I am lucky that this school gives you a choice of working in groups, or remaining on an individualized study course. I decided not to participate in group studies, as I also become terribly frustrated in this environment. The only part of my degree that is not online, is the Lab work. Because of the nature of my degree, and the fact that I plan to carry through into Medical School, I have certain Lab assignments that will need to be completed at the University, in a classroom. However, these Labs occur only a couple of times a year, and for only a few weeks at a time. Another major advantage to online schooling is the ability to work full time, and access your classes whenever you wish. I do a lot of travelling for my job, so being stuck on an airplane for 9 hours is a good opportunity to get some school work done, haha! All in all I think this is a method of education that has many, many advantages (including cheaper tuition), and I hope that sometime in the future, more schools incorporate an online/distance learning division in their curriculum.

I think the reason for people pay less attention and effort on the online course because they usually think it is a easy and only goal for them is the diploma, except you, I think you really want to learn, since you took a lot of responsibilities in your story. Another reason could be low threshold for people who want to join the online course. The levels of students are not as competent as others who take the real tertiary education. We cannot expect all of them are capable of good quality work. This is just my opinion. No offense to those who take online course.

Firstly! Congratulations! I am currently attending online classes for my Associate's Degree in Accounting and will go on to receive an Associate's in Business, Business Administration, Business Management, and Entrepenureship. This will give me a Bachelor's Degree as well because all of the classes I have taken are for the Bachelor's Degree Program. So I will have two Associate's Degrees and one Bachelor's Degree. For me online classes is the most awesome thing in the world. Without online classes for college, I would not have been able to go back to school (I have five kids to take care of). The major advantages for me are: 1. No daycare bill 2. Not spending money on gas to go to a campus 3. No classroom distractions 4. I can do my homework anytime I want as long as my assignments are turned in on the days that they are due. 5. I feel like I am in a secure enviroment while I am working on homework. 6. I can be cooking dinner for my family and doing homework at the same time. 7. There is no one there to tell me what to do, but I am building my self motivation skills as I am working through my classes. 8. When I actually go out to look for a job, my online experience will show employers that I can do things on my own and not have to have someone there to hold my hand through my work assignments on the job. Disadvantages for me would be: 1. Meeting people online is so much different than meeting people face to face and that the online language that you use will not guarntee that the other person will understand the tone, expressions, words, or feelings that you use and might take offense to your posts. 2. If I have issues that are not answered right away when posting in my Individual Student/Teacher Forum, I have to call an 800 number for a counselor at the college and get the information that I need. Same with other students and the teacher, calling long distance. As far as joint projects I have not done this yet. Not sure if I will. I prefer to work on my own. That way I know that I got the right information and not get messed over by another student that is lazy. Good luck in the future! And Great post!

I haven't attended any online course yet, and I think I won't do it, because I can imagine what difficulties I would face when cannot meet people and talk about a group project. Plus, there is no bonding between "Classmate". People learn in a flexible manner, the same time, they treat the classes easy as well. I don't have horror stories from online class, but I do have one similar story. In one of competitions I joined when I was in university. The final report was gathered from other group members by the leader, but she didn't read it. We already agreed that group memebers will be in charge of their own part, the leader combined all the parts into a report, which should be with smoothness and make sense. Of course, we lost, although the rest of members did pay a lot of efforts and time on this competition. The careless and selfishness are horrible, only one or two such kind of person are in a group, they can totally drag the whole project down.