Austin Robert
Professor McKinnon
English 1001
18 November 2013
Online Courses

With such a high demand for a college degree to secure a profession in modern society many people have turned to online courses to acquire a degree and secure a future. There are both pros and cons to online educations some pros being “flexibility, accessibility” and some cons being “relative isolation”(Poisso 1). A key question is how these pros and cons affect the difficulty of online courses. Convenience is a key factor when talking about online classes, “But do online students trade quality for convenience?” (Poisso 1). Many fear that because it is so different from traditional classes, that it must not be anywhere near the same quality of education as traditional classes. Although online classes are often stereotyped as a “blow off “or an “easy A” they are found to be more difficult by some then by others. Some think that the difficulty of online classes only depends on the individual and the amount of effort he or she is willing to put forth. Others believe that it relies solely on the professor and their level of commitment. As with many things, nobody can seem to agree on the difficulty level of online courses and what makes them difficult or easy. “Online classes can be a cakewalk — usually the biggest stress involved is remembering when assignments are due. And adding more busywork to the syllabus doesn’t improve the course — it just forces students to improve the way they get around that work.”(“Online Class Easy Pass “ 1). According to this editorial, while it is a disadvantage that you do not have face-to-face contact with a professor to teach the material, this disadvantage actually becomes an advantage. It does so because no one to teach you also means that there is no one to know if you are actually learning the material. Their argument is that “Are you actually learning if you’re assigned to read three chapters on the Westphalia Treaty and then take a quiz on it?”(“Online class, easy pass” 1) there is no discussion on your reading so the online class just becomes useless regurgitation. It is a very common practice to just cram the night before a test instead of actually learning the material and always has been but at least some information is absorbed in lecture. In the cast of an online class you are not even getting that aspect, which almost makes the class pointless. This is the best case according to this source, “And how hard is it to forego the reading and look everything up on Wikipedia? “(“Online class, easy pass” 1) because of the fact that your tests are not proctored it makes it very easy to cheat. So in reality you do not actually have to ever learn the subject at all. Which leads to the question “Do we just pay for online classes to get an easy “A” and to get credit for our major, and if so, why even bother with an institution of higher learning?” (“Online class, easy pass” 1) this editorial argues that classes are so easy that there isn’t even a point in taking them. An opposing argument would be that “the structure of these classes can deprive them of a far superior learning experience that can only be obtained in a classroom”(“Online doubts”) this editorial clearly states that online classes, though they may seem easy, become much more difficult because of lack to interaction. It states “Statistics show that 75.4 percent of students earn a C or better in traditional classes compared to the 67.3 percent success rate of students in online classes. It may be the same information being taught, but traditional classes seem to allow students to learn more effectively” (“Online doubts”). Often the curriculum itself is not the same as in a traditional class either, “The format for online classes is a very basic version of what students get in the classroom” (“Online doubts”). So the stuff you are learning is actually a condensed version of what you learn in the class but people still struggle with learning it. Many