Online A&P I

hospitalstaph · May 24, 2006

I'm taking A&P online this summer. At my college (and at many I suspect) the online classes cover the curriculum more in-depth. Two of my instructors confirmed this when I asked them. There's no instructor to dumb down the subject matter like in class. There's also less busy work in the online courses. Think of all the things we do in traditional classes that are busy work. With the online biology courses at my school, the exams come from the textbook company. So the instructors can't dumb it down. I chose the more challenging online A&P because I think anatomy and physiology are the foundation of nursing. I don't want to not know what I don't know as a result of taking a dumbed down A&P class. If that makes any sense. Perhaps my school has a dumbing down problem with the instructors.

Maybe your school does have a problem with instructors that "dumb things down". I don't understand the idea that because something is online, it is more challenging? I have taken quite a few online classes and found all of them to be easier than on campus classes. (I mean, gee the tests were open book). You may have some problems with instructors at your school but I certainly don't think that means that those of us that took A&P on campus with a lab are taking a less challenging class.

T

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 24, 2006

This is so interesting. None of our online courses allow open book exams. If you don't live near a campus testing center then you are required to arrange proctored exams near where you live.

What I meant by the dumbing down thing was that in traditional courses instructors can make up the exams as they wish and test in a more elementary manner if they so choose. With our online courses, the exams come from the test-banks from the textbook publishers so they actually cover *everything* that the book does and they ask a bunch of demanding critical thinking questions that I find is much more demanding than the exams that the instructors themselves make up. Just talking about my school.

sddlnscp · May 24, 2006

Hmm. Well, if the OP or anybody has further questions about the CCConline programs, feel free to ask here or pm me and I will be happy to give my experiences. So far I have taken 4 courses this way and have really enjoyed them.

Multi - our quizzes/tests are computer generated and sound like they are quite similar to yours - very thorough regarding the text information and very tough! There typically are no 'what muscle goes where' questions - they are more detailed than that, so simple memorization would not help in these type of classes. :)

I believe the website for basic information on the system is http://www.ccconline.org if anybody is interested.

hospitalstaph · May 24, 2006

This is so interesting. None of our online courses allow open book exams. If you don't live near a campus testing center then you are required to arrange proctored exams near where you live.
What I meant by the dumbing down thing was that in traditional courses instructors can make up the exams as they wish and test in a more elementary manner if they so choose. With our online courses, the exams come from the test-banks from the textbook publishers so they actually cover *everything* that the book does and they ask a bunch of demanding critical thinking questions that I find is much more demanding than the exams that the instructors themselves make up. Just talking about my school.

I took Nutrition and Am Hist online and both were open book. I also took Human Lifespan but the test questions were more of an essay format so the book was not much use. My school and none of the others around here allow online science courses for their nursing programs. One of them does offer online A&P but I am not sure what degree that is for? All of my science instructors so far have used tests from the textboodk publisher, wish they would write their own:)

Good luck to you,

T