Ann's Blog On Online Classes

Ann's Second Quarter Blog #2:

"Report: Number of students taking online courses rises" (cnn.com, November 10, 2006 and November 18, 2006)

The busy lifestyles that we, as Americans, are living can sometimes leave little room even for education. The development of online classes helps people to work it into their schedules. The amount of people taking classes online has been increasing from day one. In 2005 the number was up forty percent from the previous year and the growth didn't slow any this fall. Currently one in every six students past high school are enrolled in an online course. Roughly eighty percent of these students are undergraduate students who are older and have families and things to work their education around. Besides these people, fifty percent of students who will be enrolling in an education beyond high school would get some of their education online as opposed to all of their courses being held in the classroom. A very good point that the article brings up is its proposal at why there is such a desire and demand for online classes. It's logical statement is that todays traditional classes are becoming very much like online classes. Teachers will post assignments online and the students will be able to see the syliabi. There is a thing called the Sloan Survey that examined online courses and things in relation to them. It found that even academic officials are warming up to the idea of online classes. They found that 62% of the academic officials believed that students were able to learn just as well or better in an online setting. The other 38% argued that the online classes took quite a bit extra effort, time and self-disclipine.

That 38% speaks the truth; I know from experience. When you don't have a block of 55 minutes of your day set aside for a class, it gets easy to procrastinate. Self-disclipine is the key to sucess in online schooling. I could also fit myself into the group of 62% that say that students are able to learn just as well in an online class. Like they say, teachers are creating their classes more and more like online classes. Lots of times, espically in high school, classroom teachers don't make themselves approachable anyway and there are the types who don't really do too much to make their class worthwhile. Those are the times when I find online classes expremely convienent. On the other hand, there are the teachers who pour their heart and soul into teaching and want so much for their students sucess. Classes with good teachers like these are impossible to try to reproduce in an online setting. But when I have that third-hour-do-nothing teacher, the one I know I would do a better job teaching than they, is when i know that online classes are a good thing. Online classes are espically helpful at Jefferson with our 6 period day. 6 periods doesn't leave much room for extra classes. My online experience has been sucessful so far, I have learned alot and have developed skills that would otherwise not be developed as well. My self-disclipine has become better and I have become the type of person who tries to work ahead. In my opinion, online classes are a great option for students who wish to get a jump start on classes.

Article From:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/11/09/colleges.online.ap/index.html
Picture From:
http://wwwcomm.murdoch.edu.au/synergy/0504/images/computerstudents.jpg