Courtney Chihil (FGCU): Online Classes

In most every college online classes are available to the students.  Me personally, I have taken two online classes in my first year of college and I have one class where the tests are all online.  From talking to other students in my classes, I have come to believe that online classes are a disadvantage to students.  With online classes there is no teacher actually teaching the class.  There are only readings that are assigned and deadlines that need to be met.  Students may not completely benefit from online classes.  There is no one making sure the homework is getting down and there is no one monitoring whether or not the student is cheating on tests. 

For example, in one of my classes our tests are online.  The tests consist of sixty questions and students are given one hour to complete their test.  Our tests always take place on Monday and then our class meets Tuesday and Wednesday.  When I was sitting in class one day after a test I overheard people discussing the test.  I had studied for a week before the test and I really tried to learn and understand the material that I was going to be tested on.  After taking the test I was upset, because I had not done as well as I had hoped and I became even more frustrated when I heard what the students behind me were talking about.  The students behind me were discussing how they take their tests in a group of five.  No one in the group had studied, they just relied on looking up all the answers and hoping for the best.  By the time the last couple tests came around, they knew all the answers and were getting amazing grades.  If students are to do this in all their online classes, then they are getting nothing out of the class.  I know this only hinders the student, but I think it is also the teachers fault.  The teacher can easily give the test in class and all of the students will learn more in the class and carry the knowledge they gain in that class forever.  I believe this is especially important if it is a class that is important in students majors.  For example if these classes were biology, anatomy physiology, or some other science that would be necessary for a nursing major and the students were cheating, then those students would not do well in the nursing program and it could look bad for the school.

I do understand there are certain advantages to taking online classes.  For people who are trying to go back to school and who have a family to support, online classes are huge positive.  Even though online classes may be convenient, overall I believe they can have a negative effect on the student.  For students who are in their first four years of college, I believe it would be greatly beneficial for their future if all classes were in a classroom and tests were taking in front of teachers.     

http://students.kennesaw.edu/~jbt8070/Disadvantages%20of%20Online%20Classes.htm

This entry was posted on 13. April 2009 at 23:55 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.