By Andy McDowell
Online Education has been around for a several years and hasbeen the target of many skeptics. Many skeptics feel that thereis not enough interaction with the teachers and other studentsto make a virtual campus as educational as a traditional campus.They also feel that the material is not as educational. Whilethis is dying out as a topic on the critics list, because theyare being proven wrong, I felt this was pretty interesting. Ihave attended both types of universities, online andtraditional. I have to disagree with all of the skepticsstatements.
I personally attended a traditional campus throughout myfreshman year. During this time, I don’t think I spoke to tenstudents and I was never able to contact my teachers. Aftersitting through a two hours lecture that they called class, Iusually was so brain dead from trying to soak up all of theinformation or too tired to think of questions that I had. So, Iwould go home ponder on the lecture and come up with questions.At this point it was too late to ask them. How does this benefitanyone? I don’t think it does.
However, when I began to obtaining my online education as asophomore, I found there was so much more interaction. I coulde-mail my teachers and get a response from them usually withintwenty four hours. I also found that I was not embarrassed toask any questions. As a student, I often wondered if myquestions were stupid or ridiculous. I was always afraid to ask,for fear that I would get laughed at by other students or thatthe teacher would look at me and say, “Duh.” Which neverhappened, but it was always in the back of my mind. I have haddiscussion through chat sessions, e-mails, and phoneconversation with hundreds of other students throughout mysophomore year. I personally have enjoyed the experience so muchthat I have decided to continue my online education and obtain afour-year degree.
The material that has been covered in my online educationinstitute has been as challenging, if not more so, than when Iattended a traditional university. I have had a large increasein my GPA as an online student. This is mostly due to the factthat I can review the material as many times as I want and addto the material whenever I want. In my freshman year at atraditional university, I spent many hours sitting in aclassroom listening to lectures. After I left the lecture, I hadseveral questions, as I stated above, which never got answered.The other problem was that the teachers speak very quickly andit is almost impossible to catch every point that they make. Thenext time I would go to the class, the teacher would have a popquiz or a test on the lecture. I did not score very high onthese.
After I thought about my personal experiences with onlineversus traditional education experiences, I began to wonder howothers felt that had been in both atmospheres. I began lookingat forums and talking with other students at my onlineuniversity. There are hundreds of students that feel they aregetting a better education at an online university than theywere at a traditional university. But I guess the critics haveto have something to talk about.
Online education is not easy. It takes a lot of self-disciplineand responsibility, but it does work. My personal experiencesare proof that you can get a decent online education. Is it foreveryone? No, there are many people out there that need to havethe classroom atmosphere for different reasons. Traditionalclassrooms offer a motivated work environment instructed by aneducator. Some people need that in order to complete theirdegree program. They need to have someone motivate them. Theyneed to have a teacher tell them that there assignment is due ona daily basis or weekly basis. That is not a bad thing. But,that doesn’t mean that online education is any worse or betterthan a traditional classroom either.
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