can anyone explain what an online course is actually like?

megan_EMT · Feb 2, 2011

Every school is a little different. But, this has been my overall experience across 3 different schools. Generally, you don't need to be online at any specific time. We dont have the prof giving a live lecture. 2 classes had almost a morificecript of the lecture (without the "good morning" or other pleasantries, it was only the information), one had powerpoint with typed comments in the bottom section, one just gave us a bullet point list of the important concepts that we filled in the details. However, I know that Duke uses a simulated classroom online (with avatars of the students and prof), this makes it feel like you're actually in the classroom. While I like that format for the intimacy of the classroom experience, I love the fact that my online classes are when it's a good time for me.

Many of them have had online discussion forums, optional for the sciences, mandatory for the social sciences. Through the discussion forums I really got to know my class. I actually prefer the use of online discussions to real time discussions. People don't seem to get as worked up about proving who is right (although people are still insistent). Furthermore, people can put time, taught, and research into their answers, and everyone participates - even those people who would usually be quiet in a normal class. I didn't feel connected to my chem class or my bio of aging class the way I felt to my history, pysch and soc classes. We even had group projects in history.

Office hours vary by professor. My chem prof had us send questions through a forum, which he then answered on camera once a week. This was recorded for those of us who couldn't be there. You could watch it as much as you wanted - he even had visual aids to help explain everything. My psych prof wanted to deal with things on the phone or email. Phone for concepts and email for easy things (deadlines, outline approval). Most of the others were mostly email.

Exams - depends on the class. Some like English, history, and soc, have no exams, just papers. Psych had un-proctored, but timed exams. Chem and bio had proctored, timed exams. I went to a testing center, but you had a bunch of options about who could proctor it - I lived close to the campus, so it was easiest for me to just go take it there. Almost everything had weekly reading quiz's.

Let me know if you have any more questions. PM me or ask here.

RLtinker, LPN · Feb 2, 2011

I guess it depends on your school and even the class to some extent. At my school it works like this: There are not set times you have to sign in, but...for participation points you must post and reply on the discussion board by certain times of the week. The post is usually due sometime in the middle of the week and the response(s) at the end. Assignments and quizzes also have deadlines. Learning is basically self directed, there are power points but honestly they never cover the chapters fully...so you have to read the book or at lest skim it well enough to know where to look for answers LOL. :lol2: Other then proctored exams, all test are open book, open note and open internet if your classes doesn't require browser lock down. Some quizzes and test are timed. Certain classes require you to take proctored exams, so you kind of have to had read the chapters anyway since study materials are prohibited in these test rooms. These exams are also timed and have due dates. The main advantage of these classes is flexibility, you can work far in advance if you want and do your course work when you have time [as long as you don't forget and wait until the last moment]. And you can take a class that is available hours away without actually having to drive there. The down side is that these classes are completely self directed so trying to figure out what is important for exams can be difficult. In this way they can take up more time then normal classes. There is very little in the way of communication, basically e-mail and IM.

Saysfaa · Feb 2, 2011

I've had two. Neither were skype or skype like.

The first was an English class that had no book required. The prof taught via a series of lessons he posted on the website... it was sort of, a little bit like a powerpoint. Periodically, we were instructed (by the webpage) to stop and respond. The website handled the responses much like a message board. The responses could be see by everyone in the class, we were supposed to read them. One assignment was to respond to at least two other responses. Everyone saw those also.

We did not have everyone's email address, but could email them privately through the website.

We had a dozen or so short answer or short essay type submissions, one 500 word paper and one 2000 word paper. The longest paper were attached to an email and was not seen by any other student.

It was not an independent study course. That meant you could not finish earlier than about a week (the lessons became available periodically) and you had periodic assignment deadlines so you couldn't submit everything at the end either.

The other was a speech class (hybrid in that we met four times to give speeches). The online part consisted of getting the text book reading assignments from the website, taking chapter tests (timed and open book) on line and submitting some of the work (like topics, outlines, and self critiques) through the website.

I thoroughly detest them mostly because neither prof was prompt in giving feedback. I can live with slow feed back in a face-to-face class because I can gauge what the prof wants anyway.

I'm also planning to take at least one more online class because it will save so much travel time and/or because it conflicts another class I want and/or because I can add it late if my current classes end up lighter than I expect.

Sand_Dollar, BSN · Feb 2, 2011

I did my entire A.S. online. None of my classes had a skype-type set up - interaction is very similar to what you would find on this allnurses board, posts and replies (plus exams and assignments). The way I see it, since online classes are meant for people with busy schedules, I think a set time to skype would defeat the purpose. When you begin a class you are given everything you need. Due dates, assignment expectations and grading rubrics, readings, lectures as well as total points required in the class.

Online classes fit best to people who can self-teach and are organized. To tell you the truth, I don't think I ever really used the 'lecture notes' any of my teachers posted. I got everything I needed from the textbooks - I would read everything. The publisher has supplementation material I would always do, and sometimes they would have a nice little video showing a coccept. Interaction is done through discussion posts, always with a topic that has been posted by the teacher. I find the discussions to be the most tedious thing about online classes but I have had a few great discussions with people on the boards.

My exams were all online and open book, no proctoring required. But, just because they are online does not mean they are easy. Often it would requiring an understanding of the information as opposed to plain memorization. And, to make up for this most of my classes, especially the sciences (A&P, patho), would require weekly research assignments. Oh, my labs which were done at home could take a lot of time. I took AP2 during the summer and my weekly lab reports ended up being as long as 19 pages and took me on average about 22 hours to type up....don't put things off to the last minute!

I am taking 3 classes on campus now (plus one online) and to tell you the truth, my previous online classes had WAY more work than these campus ones do, I was very surprised. And about talking to other students, I have a friend I met in my chem class who I talk to on the phone all the time. We were in a bunch of classes together over a year and so we would whine or complain or help each other out if we needed it. She's in a nursing program now and we chat about it all the time. I also have a girl in one of my campus classes who introduced herself to me last week, she asked me if I was 'so and so' from online biochem. Sure enough, a group of us online were all going to be applying to the same nursing program and now we're starting to find each other on campus.

You will get out of what you put into your classes. If you give the teachers what they want (pay attention to the assignment rubric and expectations) you should do well. I had a few fantastic teachers (got assignments back in hours), most were good and only one was horrible (2 months to return assignments!). But, I loved my online classes and would do them again in an instant.

If you have any concerns or want some help, feel free to PM or email me once you get 15 posts. I will keep an eye on here until then.

Good luck, I hope you find you like online classes as much as I do!

~SD

SC APRN, DNP, APRN, NP · Feb 2, 2011

My Online Class Experience

Pros:

The commute is really easy

Saved on gas and car maintenance

I am taking two online classes right now, the time saved from driving and sitting in a class is more than the time I have spent on the class

You don’t have to listen to stupid questions or annoying interruptions - texting in the background

Class is at your pace, not a scheduled block if time

Some professors are very organized and respond often and quickly to questions, etc

Most exams are online/open book although some are proctored

I am actually getting to know more people in my classes than a traditional class because you can have a conversation without interrupting the class.

I can recover from foot surgery and not miss a semester.

Some classes you can do assignments ahead of time and finish the course early. I did my computer applications class in two weekends

Cons:

If discussion grades depend on others posting in a timely manner, your grade is in the hands of other students. I have lost points from my grade because other students were slow to post.

Can be difficult to get feedback from professor

Some professors are unorganized, syllabus that isn’t up to date I have an assignment right now that is due July 2009??, or the way the set up their files, etc I don’t want to hunt for hidden assignments with a treasure map.

You have to be very good at time management and a self teaching

You can schedule yourself around your job, etc making your life easier.

Some exams I’ve taken I was not able to find out which questions I got wrong after.

You can’t ask last minute questions about a test before class, because everyone is taking in at a different time.

I am on module 3 for one of my classes but some students are just finishing module 1 (late) so I don’t know who else is working on the same module.

I have two more pre-requisites this summer. I will be taking them online if I can. The time saved, and working at my own pace, when I am more alert not when I am scheduled to attend class has been worth it. It has made me a little more focused on time management and keeping up with my reading.

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Feb 2, 2011

I despise online classes. I dont like them. I will never enroll in another ever in my lifetime.

LGD2011 · Feb 2, 2011

I took one course that was partially online and recently dropped another online course. The course I took partially online, I think would have been fine taking completely online. The teacher posted her lectures which we could print out or read on the computer. There was a website with the textbook where we could do practice exams and watch videos explaining concepts. Similar to this site, we had to post answers to discussion questions. Our online exams were open book, but were timed.

The class I dropped, I had a bad feeling about. The professor did not post a syllabus and then it did not include any relevant information. We weren't told how many essays or tests there were going to be. He didn't respond to my posts or emails. As far as I could tell there was no lecture component. We were supposed to read the book and write essays. I didn't feel I would get my money's worth that way or get to know my classmates. I'm planning to take the course on campus next semester.

I'd find out, if you can, from other students at your school how the online courses are setup and which are well organized.

SC APRN, DNP, APRN, NP · Feb 2, 2011

I just tried to log on, the system is down. There are no snow days online, but professors don't care about system maintenance or crashes.

FLhusker · Feb 2, 2011

I am taking Nutrition on-line right now. It is a complete joke. I'm not learning anything. Over the past 5 weeks we've had 2 assignments that took about 15 minutes to complete and the test was pathetic....multiple choice that followed the book so well that if you didn't read one word you could get an A. The prof never required any discussions and quite frankly I don't think he puts in more than a few minutes a week towards this class. I mean, I'm glad it will be an easy A....but really, I would like to learn something!!

I won't ever take another on-line class.

caliotter3 · Feb 2, 2011

For each of your examples, it can go either way, depending upon the requirements of the individual course. I found an online course to be at least twice the work of regular courses. You do not have the option of just sitting back in class and letting everyone else do all of the contributing to class discussion. Our input had to be accompanied with citations from reputable online sources. Twice, if not three times, the work of a regular course. It might just be worth more to get in the car and drive to school for a face to face course.

cdrcan · Feb 3, 2011

wow~ Everyone went above and beyond what I expected with this! Thank you so much for the extremely informative replies! It seems like online could go either way, huh? But, I guess it would be the same with an on-campus situation too. Outcomes are all very circumstantial and a lot of the time, it seems to boil down to the teacher and just how much we are willing to put into the experience.

Having all this info though, really helps me to at least know what to expect and puts me more at ease. Im definitely looking forward to giving it a try now.

I only have a few more posts until Ive earned my keep on this site, ha, so dont be surprised if you hear from me very soon...I may have more questions or comments! Thanks for making yourselves available, and the same goes in return. PM me~ I plan on being around for a few years!