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I'm Your Teacher. Nice to Meet You.
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As I stood in line for my theater ticket, a young woman struck up a conversation with me. Approximately 10 minutes into the conversation, she mentioned she was attending the play for extra credit in her English class. She was about two months into an introductory literature course at a local community college.
“Oh,” I said as I extended my hand, “I’m your teacher. Nice to meet you.”
The shift that made this introduction possible is a shift that moves the college experience from on-campus involvement to off-campus convenience. Many higher education institutions are offering online courses. The shift means less interaction with other students and the professor, but it means more independence and the ability to fit college into a life rather than the necessity of making life fit around college.
As with most things in life, online courses come with pros and cons.
Some pros:
1. Live in
2. No school closings. OK, students (and faculty) might not think this is a bonus, but online courses mean that even in a blizzard, school isn’t closed. No one needs to risk life and limb to drive to class in bad weather.
3. Save on gas and parking. I saved countless gallons of gasoline, wear on my car, and never had to pay for parking in the four years I taught online. I also saved on work clothes.
4. Log in at any time, from anywhere. Take a trip and not be marked down for absences.
5. Work full-time, have a family, earn a degree. Traditionally, students had to register for courses based on days/times in order to fit in work and family obligations. Online courses offer students the ability to sign up for courses and then schedule course work around their obligations.
6. Build writing skills: Since students must post discussion responses in addition to traditional essays and exams, they become increasingly able to delve into material. Since every student is required to post a response, every student is practicing good writing skills.
Some cons:
1. Lack of interaction with other students feels isolating to some students.
2. Lack of access to the professor means less opportunity to discuss difficult material and the lack of immediate response to questions.
3. Some courses are less suited to the online structure. For example, literature is difficult to discuss online. The professor creates discussion threads and the students respond, but some students take longer than others to respond (usually because they want to see what everyone else says before they risk their own views in writing). The rapid-fire discussion that makes literature courses engaging is replaced with the necessity to read very long or very short responses by classmates.
4. Self-policing is difficult for some students. They plan to log in and participate regularly, but without the negative consequence absences have on final grades, it’s easy to postpone participation. This ends up hurting the student’s experience and final grade.
The students who are the most successful in online courses are self-motivated and accustomed to working on computers for long periods of time. Students with heavy time commitments enjoy the flexibility of choosing when to participate in the course.
Just be sure to speak highly of your online courses. That stranger you’re talking to might already know you.
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