Online learning! There is so much to say about it, some good some bad. Personally I believe it is all on the person taking the class. To some students it might be the best thing in the world and to others they just might not get it as well. It is no lie that falling behind and getting lost could happen to you so easy and so fast if you are not on top of yourself. I asked multiple students multiple questions and most of them had the same answers and common life styles. Upon my research of online learning and the questions I have ask students, I have found what students thought the differences were between online learning vs. a traditional class, why they decided to take online courses and problems they ran into while taking online courses.
Now a day’s online classes are being treated similar to traditional classes. In all reality they are much different. Being taught in a class room I believe can be more beneficial to ones education because there is someone right there in front of you to any questions you ask. Given you can email your teacher any questions you may have, but your teacher may not get back to you for a few days. In a classroom when you ask questions you get an instant answer. Another difference between traditional classes and online classes is the lack of communication between classmates. I always felt like interaction between students helped me learn and at times was pretty fun. It’s harder to communicate to other students over email then it is to ask someone sitting right next to you a question. That’s one of the biggest differences between the two. Technology such as online learning is killing social life and relationships, I once sat in a café not to far from my house. During my visit I just drank my coffee in peace in quite as I sat there watching. At almost every table that was occupied were or more friends sitting at it, but rarely did they say a word to one another, all they were doing were different activities on their phone or computers. Where is the communication between them? What happen to the study groups I know of from when I was a kid? This is also how it is going to be as far as online class, no one is going to speak to each other because they are sitting at home in their bed doing online classes as opposed to conversing among other students in a class room. Going to school and making friends was one of the perks when I was going to school but online school is turning people into unsociable couch potatoes.
When asking class mates why they were taking online classes the majority said they worked a full time job or had kids to care for. When someone has a hectic life style such as myself, online learning is ideal. As a full time wife, mother and full time employee, I would never have had the chance to better myself. I would have been stuck in a dead end job, making next to nothing, struggling for the rest of my life. That’s something that I’m not willing settling with. Online learning gives me the chance to go to school full time on top of being a mom and full time employees. It’s a lot to juggle, that’s why I say that it really depends on the persons will. Students agree with me when I say that online learning is seriously a life saver. It gives us options that were never offered before. Mothers or becoming mothers also benefit from online classes. It gives them the ability to do what they need to as a mother and still be able to take classes to benefit themselves for the future of them and their children. When becoming mothers might be stressed out due to having to take days out for child birth, they could take online classes where attendance isn’t that important because you are on your own pace. Online learning leaves room in your life for all sorts of possibilities.
What makes online learning hard is that it’s so easy to get side tracked when you have a hundred other things going on. When I asked students what was the biggest problem they faced? The majority of them told me