Online classes hard?

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I just graduated from high school and will be starting college in the fall for nursing. I know during my freshman year I will mainly be taking pre-req courses before I actually start my nursing major. I am wanting to take a couple of classes online such as English and Psychology. However, I have heard from some people that online classes are much more difficult than regular classes. Any of you students that are already in school or have graduated, do you think this is a bad idea?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

Not at all, as long as you can discipline yourself to do the work. They are somewhat self paced with deadlines for assignments, papers and exams. I didn't find them any harder than a classroom and in some ways they were easier, but by no means a blow off.

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Thanks. :) I was also considering online classes because I've missed quite a bit of school in the past due to health issues I have. I thought if I took some classes online then I can do them on my own time and not have to worry about my health issues keeping me from earning credits.

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No, not those classes. I took all of my English classes online. I also took Nutrition and Psych 1 online. The only reason I'm taking Psych 2 on campus this quarter is because the online Psych 2 teacher has a bad reputation on ratemyprofessors.com.

The only classes I would never take completely online are science and math classes. I am taking Micro online, however the labs are on campus. They call it a hybrid.

Also, it depends on the professor you have.

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Not really.

I absolutely hate online classes though, definitely not my thing. It's funny cause I have more than enough discipline to study straight for 8 hours but not enough to get up and log onto the silly website.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

Online classes are great! I just finished my entire A.S. online and my daughter, who is a HS Jr, took her first online college classes this spring (Sociology and Western Civ) . She initially struggled with her first couple of essays (I sent her first essay back to her a dozen times for a rewrite) but in the end, she didn't need any more help and was getting high grades. She hated the discussions but held her own. She got A's in both classes and will be taking English, Bio and Algebra this fall.

Online classes tend to involve a lot of writing as opposed to memorization because tests are open book...at least they are with my school (ccconline). It is definitely nice having to take the classes at home; I wouldn't have the time in my schedule to get my daughter to campus every day (she doesn't drive yet), let alone my own.

Good luck!!

~SD

BTW - Psych and English are easy online classes.

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Most of the classes I've taken that are online have been super easy. However, I don't think I learn as much in online classes. In fact, I took first semester gen chem online and got a good grade. When I took second semester gen chem on campus, I failed because I hadn't retained what little I had learned from the first semester online course!

Oh, and sometimes general education credits are the worst classes to take online when you don't have a base knowledge to go off of or anyone to sit down and talk with you in person about a completely new subject. I took art history online and I couldn't figure anything out! We had to write essays about paintings and I BSed my way through it and made a B. :( I thought it would be really easy, but I couldn't make an A for the life of me.

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Thank you. :) I feel a lot better about taking online classes now.

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I've taken online classes for 4.5 years and earned 2 degrees completely online. I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. An online English class is easy since there are typically no exams. Your grade is based on discussion board postings (a DB is no different than this forum) and your essays. The main thing that is hard about online education are doing group projects since everyone is not all in the same place. But I don't think you should run into any group projects.

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I think taking the "smaller" classes, such as english and whatever is fine online. But the bigger ones like A&P or micro, I would suggest going to the campus. I'm taking math now online and it's working out fine. I kind of like that interaction with the prof. if I have a problem, doing it online you don't have that. There's e-mail but they don't always get back right away. Then again, online is great because you don't have to drive and sit in a classroom with a bunch of whiney classmates with their noses in their cellphones, lol. Anyway....good luck!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I took about 1/3 of my classes for my AA online and I think they are definitely a bit easier than in person classes. There were a couple I think I could have benefited from in class lectures but for the most part.. online classes were guaranteed A's and B's.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Online classes will work for you only if you are disciplined enough to log on daily (or near daily) to do work. It's very easy to fall into the "oh, I'll get some work done tomorrow" trap when you're not going into a classroom.

As far as whether they are easier or harder than their "in person" counterparts...that's really subjective based on the person. If you're a self-starter who can learn well independently and who prefers flexible conditions, then you'd probably find the online version easier. If you need the structure of a classroom and more face-to-face interaction, then you'd probably find the traditional class easier.

But as others have said (and despite what others have said), don't think that online = easy A. You do a lot more writing in online classes than you do in traditional classes...you might not need to know the material off the top of your head for a pop quiz, but you definitely need to be able to understand it for those discussion questions!

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