Should students take online courses?
By: Sarah Alegre
I say yes. As a matter of fact for some people this may be the only way they are able to obtain an education.
Benefits of Convenience
Most people today have very hectic lives. Between their jobs and their families, sometimes there is enough time in the day to attend a normal college class in a classroom. Online courses are available anytime and anywhere. This gives people the flexibility to squeeze a course or two into their busy lives. If a person doesn’t live near a college campus, no problem, they can still get a degree online (Hentea & Pennington).
There are also some pluses to the style of learning that online courses offer. There is the benefit of working at your own pace. Although “own pace” doesn’t necessarily mean a slower pace, it still might give some people more time to absorb the same material. “Moreover, the ability of personal identities to remain concealed means that all students, regardless of race, sex, disability, or appearance are on equal ground.” (Richardson & Swan) As much as we don’t like to admit this, some of us still have tendency to judge a book by its cover. Online course give at least a little bit of anonymity and may give shyer students a better opportunity to participate (Richardson & Swan).
For some students in-classroom learning may be more appropriate and more effective, but for those who don’t have the time online courses are definitely the way to go.
References:
Hentea, M., Shea, M. J., & Pennington, L. (2003). A perspective on fulfilling the expectations of distance education. In Proceedings of the 4th Conference on information Technology Curriculum (Lafayette, Indiana, USA, October 16 - 18, 2003). CITC4 '03. ACM, New York, NY, 160-167. DOI= http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/947121.947158
1 comment:
Online courses can be extremely valuable. Especially if you are working and have a family. However, the material is as challengling a traditional college. If you work hard and keep pace, especially the eight week format, you can recieve the benifits of an online course.
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