Traditional Students Complain About Online Class Requirements
Oct 22nd, 2008
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Demid Borodin
Online learning is known for offering students flexibility and independence. However, not all traditional students are pleased with the integration of online classes into their everyday schedules.
A recent article in the student newspaper of Perdue University Calumet explains:
"One of the biggest complaints students have about e-courses is how the professors seem ill-prepared to teach an online course. Kevin Horn, a senior majoring in history, recently dropped out of an online literature course due to such circumstances."This was the first online course I ever took and I really wasn't used to how e-courses work," Horn said. "The calendar in my class would be blank for days, and then suddenly a whole week's worth of work would pop up after the week was already half gone."
I can identify two major problems here: First, requiring traditional students to take too many online classes limits their options rather than expanding them. As is explained elsewhere in the article, a growing number of classes are only available online. I'm alright with asking traditional students to take a class or two through the internet, in order to help them master online research skills and training that they may encounter in their future professions. However, traditional students should be able to learn in the way that suits them best (often face-to-face).
Second, online teaching usually requires special training. If traditional teachers are pushed into virtual classrooms without any preparation, the results can be disastrous. Teachers new to online learning should always be given assistance and oversight.
Hopefully, a few bad experiences with distance learning will not sour these traditional students to the idea of studying online in the future.
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