Online classes have been a hot topic since the turn of the decade, with COVID popularizing them to the point where they have become integrated into high school and even college. These online classes are rarely offered in specific classes, instead being an alternative to an in-person course.
This, however, begs the question: are online classes really as good as in-person ones, for both learning and enjoyment? I personally think that they are and would even go a step further to say that they may be even better in some case scenarios.
I currently take six college-level courses, five AP classes, and one dual enrollment class through Broward College (BC). One thing is undeniable: my dual enrollment class is leagues easier than all of my other classes, and my previous dual enrollment course was equally as simple.
Although they’re easy to do, I feel as if I learn so much more in a condensed time frame than I do with my other classes, despite the daily in-person lectures in each one. My dual enrollment class isn’t a freebie either; it’s business law, and while that class may not be differential equations, it’s certainly not an easy ride.
On the other hand, however, I am also enrolled in Edgenuity. Now, here’s where my problems with the effectiveness of online classes take hold: when teachers or professors make any of the aspects in person. This is not only inconvenient, as my online courses are specifically taken because I don’t have extra time to go to in-person ones, but also puts time constraints on when I can and cannot take exams or tests for the class.
That is one of my main problems with Edgenuity, but there’s definitely more than one. Another prominent gripe is that there are tons of unskippable, five-minute videos that more or less either tell me something I could have picked up on in 30 seconds or something I’m already familiar with.
It leaves no room for people who already know some of the material to skip ahead to the actual hard part, so it becomes tedious. Not to mention that the beauty of an online course is that everything, while still having due dates and such, can be done at different paces; with structures like Edgenuity, it forces me to conform to a style of learning that is completely alien, not to mention how ineffective it is.
That’s what each online class boils down to: how it’s structured. If it’s made with the student in mind, it can be so much simpler to manage and actually interesting. However, if it’s standardized to only one type of teaching, then that severely limits how many students would actually benefit from doing the class.
Online courses, at their core, are all about convenience. I love my online classes, as they help me increase the rigor of my academic resume while also allowing me to do things like work in my spare time. If someone takes a class they hate, they’re likely not going to learn much about whatever subject it’s on. However, if they like how the class works, then it’s very rare to catch them saying that they didn’t learn anything from it.
