My experience with Anatomy/Physiology 1&2 online

[Sundance71]

Hi everyone! I've seen this question come up a number of times on the boards, so I thought I would write a little about my online experience. It seems like the majority of people believe you should take anatomy/physiology in a classroom setting and that you are missing things by taking the class(es) online. Since I have experience taking both anatomy/physiology 1 and 2 online and experience taking college classes in a classroom, I wanted to share my thoughts.

There was 3 parts to the classes I took:Labs, Discussions, and Tests.

The labs:

There is 1 and sometimes 2 labs due every week. The labs usually consist of sketches of tissues that you view under your microscope, dissection of your cat, some simple questions and a few more difficult "thought" questions. The labs could be very time consuming depending on the material we were covering. You really had to rely on yourself during the dissection. You have your lab manual and textbook, but there is no lab partner to help you out. That is not a bad thing though. Yes I made mistakes, and there were a few times I cut something I shouldn't have, but it wasn't the end of the world, and I learned a ton. The professor required pictures of you doing all labs for proof that you were doing the work.

Discussion boards:

We were required to post an initial response to the professor's topic and respond to 3 classmate's posts. All discussions had to include references. It is not as easy as it sounds. It would take me an average of 3-4 hours just to get the discussion question researched and my response written.

Tests:

If you think that it would be easy to cheat on a test for this online class, think again. The questions are not straightforward. You have to know something about each possible answer in order to narrow it down. You can't just look the answer up. So you say well you could look all of the possible answers up....wrong. 50 minutes/50 questions. You don't have time to look anything up. Maybe you think that it sounds like the sort of test you get in a classroom. Trust me, it is not. Studying became more than just reading and taking notes. I read, took note and then expanded on those notes. I had to ask myself all sorts of questions about the hormone/gland/organ etc and how does it relate to things we had previously studied. What did it not do? They were, by far, the most difficult tests I have ever taken, and I've taken plenty of college classes. That being said, the professor I had was very fair. He didn't curve grades, but he looked at how the class did overall and adjusted your grade. He didn't adjust from a C to an A but he added a few points here and there.

There were things that made the online class more difficult. For instance there were no videotaped lectures. That was fine for a lot of the material, but there were certain concepts that were difficult to understand just through reading. For me, the chapter on acid base balance was hard to get. Thank goodness for the internet! There are plenty of lectures on YouTube and the Khan Academy helped too with things like cellular respiration and meiosis. So there are ways of getting around not having lectures. Another thing that was difficult was, as I said above, the tests. In other face-to-face classes you got a sense of what the professor felt was most important and what you would probably be tested on. In the online class you never really knew what was important. You had to be prepared for anything. The only thing I ever figured out, with regards to the tests, was that the first couple of pages in the chapter (where the author gives you a general outline) would never show up on the test, it was just too general.

So that was my experience with anatomy/physiology online. Loved my professor. He was very approachable and easy to communicate with. I don't think I received any less of an education than someone in a classroom setting, and since everyone is entitled to an opinion, that's mine.

As a side note.....I took the TEAS V a few weeks ago and the questions (with regards to anatomy) seemed so simple I thought they might be a trick questions.

[brenay]

From reading this, I'm definitely taking it in a classroom. I took A&P 1 this past semester in a classroom setting & it was hard enough. Online seems impossible. Keep in mind that I'm taking my other pre reqs as well such as college algebra, human growth & development, world civilization, & others. So I think I'll take A&P 2 in the classroom.

[leenak]

I've taken online classes but I prefer classroom classes for the sciences at least. I've also been explicitly told by a couple schools that they don't accept online classes for their science pre-reqs. I would rather not limit myself in which schools would accept me and which ones wouldn't. If you live near the school, they may not know it is online if it is a local school but I'm sure they could find out and they may even know which teachers are online teachers.

I'd also personally rather leave the bacterias and the body parts at school than keep them at home in my fridge :)

[IndyElmer]

I've taken online classes where it's possible to take the exams and get an A without doing any reading or any learning, which is why for those particular classes, I always recommend the in person class if you can. I would be more than willing to recommend those online classes if the exams had been written in the way that Sundance71 describes -- where you have to really KNOW the material because the question are written such that it's impossible to look up all the answer options in the time given for each question.

When talking with people who took the online course (before me, with me and after me), everyone thinks that they are going to study so hard and really learn the material (pharmacology and pathophysiology in these two examples) because it's so important for their future school & career. However, when they discover that the exams are NOT written in a way that requires you to truly learn/know the material and you can in fact look up EVERY answer if you are a faster reader / good "troubleshooter" their ability to self regulate seems to wane. Either they are working full time and taking a couple pre-reqs or are taking a full courseload and working part time, and suddenly, when there's a time crunch, their class with the moderately easy open book exams is the one that they let slide each day or each week until suddenly their next exam is upon them and they are taking the test just by being a fast reader. When they get a high B or even an A without having read anything, it makes it even harder to want to push themselves to learn the material, even knowing the material will be important to their future. They end up having to play catch up later in the program -- when they have even LESS time than they had during their pre-req terms.

Neither of these courses had to be that way. Exams could easily have been tailored to be too difficult to look up all anwers in the alotted time. I didn't listen to the people before me who said I shouldn't take the online course and most people who have asked me which to take end up choosing the online option (and have expressed buyer's remorse, despite their best intentions).

I think whether or not to take an online course depends very much on two factors: you and the specific course/instructor you are considering. Is the online course done in a way that makes it near impossible to do well without truly learning the material? If so, I'd recommend online. Is the online course structured with audio lectures to accompany PowerPoint presentations or will you be responsible for reading pretty much your entire text? Most people that I know preferred the former over the latter because the reading was so much more time consuming than attending (or listening to) lectures.

As Sundance71 shows, you really can learn a lot from an online class if it's structured properly. However, if the exams are written so that you can do well with very little effort, is that what you really want/need? Do you think you would benefit from a challenging course that will "make" you learn the material, even if it's dry/boring?

There seems to be a lot more variability in the quality of online instruction, particularly the testing methods, so I always recommend getting some reviews from students who have recently completed the online course with the specific instructor you would be taking. I look forward to the day when all online courses are of the caliber that Sundance71 described!

[Autymn]

Sundance - thanks so much for sharing all this; really helps:).

I think I've decided only to take any of the non-science pre reqs online. I was interested to see you write that the anatomy part of the TEAS V didn't seem super difficult. I guess obviously it depends on 'which' TEAS V I get to take lol! I am studying math and science stuff and have pretty much only heard that the TEAS V we have to take to get into our program is very hard.

Keeping on, keeping on!

[TaraAnn91]

Thank you for writing this, its very informative. Im just starting school and I was curious about online Science classes.Im a mom of two and need to take classes online. It confused me really. It doesnt seem to hard, But I think Id rather do labs in a science lab & with a partner. but if i absolutely have to take it online I think Id be able to handle it which makes me feel better! Thank youu so muchhh!

[PoweRNursing]

Hello Guys! I totally agree that online classes are harder. I took both A&P1 and 2 online through Georgia Military College, and it was not easy. The fact that there were not any lectures made it harder than anything. Reading through the material and teaching yourself is what caused troubles. Cheating? IMPOSSIBLE! There is no time to look in your book or notes, so you REALLY have to know your stuff! The fact that people think that you ca cheat and make good grades in an online A&P course is absurd! Why would any college just give away free A's? They wouldn't! I would say that online is harder because you have to teach yourself everything!

[sunshineee]

I would never take a&P online... it was hard enough taking it in class. It was a struggle but I still got an A. I couldn't see myself taking it online.