https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xOA7dKSThWY Hey! Welcome to my fourth entry at MC Voices, today I will be showing…
Want to know what the actual experience of a full online semester is like?
Prepare to read. Prepare to read a lot.
Online semesters can be incredibly freeing if you get on top of you assignments and have a good work ethic. They are usually a higher workload to make up for the fact that you wont be attending classes, instead you will be reading. In my experience a professor tries to keep the students concurrently engaged throughout the semester by implementing discussion boards and weekly assignments. This is to discourage students from procrastinating and waiting till a week before the semester ends to turn in all the assignments. In my poetry and world literature class, it is not uncommon for me to write 2-3 papers a week on top of the discussion boards and tests.
Online classes can be a blessing and a curse. I find that if I diligently work in the beginning of the week that I have Wed-Fri pretty much cleared up. There is a caveat to this however, most assignments aren’t available for the whole week. For example, my world literature professor will unlock the test and the second portion of the discussion board on Thursday. These will all be due Sunday, so what an online class does in freeing your week, it can do just the opposite by locking up your weekend. That is to say, If you have other friends in college, you’ve just reversed your schedule from yours.
I’m considerably hermit-like. That is, I am alone most of the time and self-sufficient. Online classes remove the need to travel back and forth from campus, except for midterms and finals. Although, they also remove you from that social circle as well. So if you’re like me and are naturally introverted, then a full online semester is your friend. If you are an extrovert, however, then you’ll probably go stir-crazy. That being said, I don’t see why you couldn’t just do your work with a group of friends if you wanted to. I mean, why not? With laptops and mobile phones, you can pretty much take your office or class virtually anywhere.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)
Pros:
- Flexible Schedule
- No need to travel to campus
- You can fairly easily set your own pace
Cons:
- Higher overall workload, in my experience at least.
- Weekend Deadlines
- Can be lonely
If you think I missed any aspect of an online semester that you want my opinion on. Please just comment below and I’ll do my best to get back to you in a timely manner.
Till next time, Auf Wiedersehen
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Jake, I like this post. I tend to learn better overall if I see and hear, and I find online courses take an incredible amount of self discipline and as you mention, can be isolating. I agree that the social aspect is very important but perhaps less so as one gets older and has work and family responsibility. In that case, it is a life saver to getting a degree if you don’t have to actually spend travel time or work it into a schedule. You mentioned something very important, however. Just because we don’t enter a classroom with online does not mean one cannot still connect with the class and see if anyone wants to join a study group or do online conferences or Skype with them. They would probably be just as glad to. I am presuming the weekend deadlines are quite intentional since most online students likely work jobs during the week.