Pros and Cons of Online Courses vs. a Traditional Classroom

Well I have had my share of both online courses and traditional courses. I have also taken classes that do both functions. I had one class where 33% of it was online. We would meet in the classroom once a week, and on the third week it would be an online assignment or discussion instead. I have also taken classes with absolutely no online function, and others with absolutely no class room meetings.

What do I prefer? Well I will show you the pros and cons I have seen with both first.

Traditional Classes

Pros

Traditional classrooms give you the type of responsibility to showing up at a regular date and time. You know that in order to take that test, hand in that assignment, or to meet with the group you have to be there during the scheduled time. This works really well for some people. Some people just may not be responsible enough to take the tests, hand in assignments, or participate in online discussion if there is not a specific "date".

You can meet a lot of people in the classroom. It's kind of hard to make "classmate friends" just from an online course.

Traditional classrooms give you easier access to the professor. What if you are having a hard time contacting him via e-mail or he always seems to be gone during his officer hours? Well, having him in the classroom with you gives easy access to ask your questions and get the help you need.

Cons

Traditional Classrooms are not very flexible. Sure sometimes teachers give you "free skip days" but if you use them, you get really far behind the class. And what if your skip day happens to have a "pop quiz" then you are out of luck!

You may need to take a certain class for your degree, but it doesn't fit into your schedule. You know how many times I'd have to drop one class to fit in another class? It can be very frustrating.

If you live off of campus, you are spending more money on travel and also could be having to pay a nice price for a parking pass. For my college it is $90 per semester. Parking tickets are $15 if you happen to be on the wrong street on the wrong days. I use to park on the side street and then walk 3 blocks to school every day, sometimes after a nice fresh layer of snow fell and would have to walk through it. Not fun!

Online Courses

Pros

Simply put, freedom. You are not tied down to when you have to go to bed or wake up for class. You don't have to (in my case) travel through a blizzard to get to class. And sadly, my school will hardly ever cancel classes even in the worse snow falls. You can get a job and work at any hours you want, and then during your free time work on your school work. In addition to this, you can pace yourself...and learn at your own rate.

Many times students are more vocal and involved in the discussion because it is online and they feel more comfortable stating their opinion than they normally would if it was face to face.

No more spending money on gas to get to class or getting parking tickets. In addition to this, you probably could get a better job because of being more flexible with your hours.

You can spend more time with your family and friends. If you are a mother or father trying to take care of your kids, it is so much easier to be able to stay at home and take a class than have to leave them with someone else if your spouse is at work or you have no one else to watch them.

Cons

You will have a hard time (if any chance at all) to make friends in an online class. You are basically just a name to everyone since you never meet each other.

You may never even meet the professor in real life. Now some may think this is not a big deal, but over time I think having a few professors you know well and can trust is essential to a college career. It will be the person you know where to turn to when looking for ideas of a new career or someone to help you choose another class. It took me 3 years of being in college and meeting all kinds of teachers to find a few that I really could look up to. In an online course I could never find this. I don't even know what mine look like!

It may be very hard to be disciplined enough to take an online class. Since you are never really meeting up on a regular basis, you could forget you're taking one completely. My first online class I didn't check the site the first two weeks and when I finally logged in, there was like 60 discussions I had to catch up on from other classmates. It taught me to check daily or even every other day to make sure I was up to date. (I had a dream once I forgot I was taking a class until the last day of class and failed it. That was scary)

Some people learn differently. Some people have to "hear" it to remember it. Other people have to take notes as the professor is talking to remember it. In an online course, many times you won't hear a professor talk. A few courses may have like a video learning experience, but the ones I took had nothing of the sort. If you are not part of any classroom lectures, there will be no notes to take. The only notes you could take are perhaps ones you find reading discussions or textbook.

Finally after reading all the pros and cons, my personal opinion on the matter...

The verdict? Online courses are for me. Reason being is because I have a lot of family, friends, and even a boyfriend that don't even live in my college town with me. When I am taking an online course, the only thing I have to worry about is my job tying me down. Otherwise I can leave town for a while and not have to worry. In addition to this, I love the internet and I learn well using it.

I have been through my first 4 years of college doing classes in the classroom, and it wasn't until this past semester I started taking online courses. I love them, and I wish they were offered to me sooner.

My advice is to spend your first year in or two in college taking regular classroom courses to get into the groove of how college works. Make new friends, get to know a few teachers face to face, and then venture out into the online degree. If this is not an option for you, and you need to go straight into online courses, don't feel guilty. They are great, and you can still learn just as much!