Many students wish there were a way to minimize class time. With the busy lives most college students lead it is hard to find time to go to class, commit to out-of-class activities and meet with professors during office hours.
At times it can be very overwhelming, and many often wonder how they are going to get anything done in the small amount of time given each day.
Online courses could be the solution. They can potentially save the time of coming to class, and would provide the freedom to do other activities while doing work for the course.
Michelle Dorwart, a junior communications major, doesn’t think so. “If I am paying a lot of money, I want the actual class experience,” said Dorwart, who found taking an online small group discussion communications class to be quite challenging. She was assigned to a group that was required to meet online.
Problems arose, such as one of the group members forgetting to show up at the required time and another losing an Internet connection throughout numerous sessions. In this sense, Dorwart’s online course ended up being more time-consuming than she had imagined.
“I feel I learn more in actual classes,” said Erin Wooley, a junior psychology major, who took Psychology 301 online. Not only did she feel there was more work involved in her online class, but she also said it was tedious and time-consuming as well.
“I didn’t even see my teacher until my final [exam],” said Wooley who disliked the lack of student-teacher communication. She didn’t feel there was any motivation to learn the material, and in turn Wooley didn’t get as much out of her online class as she did in her actual classes that semester.
Wooley said she felt it was a lot of work that didn’t pay off in the long run. Economics professor Lisa Grobar said, “Students who have taken my hybrid class report that the class is more work than a traditional section.” She said her online Economics 100 course requires work to be done weekly, while students in her traditional class only have one or two midterms and do not have to worry about completing various assignments throughout the semester.
Jorell Esteban, a senior kinesiology major, found his online philosophy class to be easy and preferable. However, he agreed that it was “frustrating not being able to speak to [the] teacher in class.” He missed getting his classmates’ opinions during in-class discussions and felt that some material was unclear.
Tony Sinay, a health care administration professor at CSULB, said online classes are “harder for teachers.” He finds that student e-mails increase because questions are not answered in class. However, he feels that BeachBoard’s “Help Your Neighbor” feature helps students contact and help one another.
But he said this form of communication is not always reliable because people don’t consistently go online and check their e-mails.
Sinay said that when it comes to education, online courses are equivalent to regular classes. However, he realizes that “some are suitable and some are not,” making it a challenge for the institution to make this decision.